WHENEVER THE Jamaican economy finds itself spluttering in the wrong direction, politicians, anticipating the need for a smoke screen, start bemoaning the death of the entrepreneurial spirit.This is the current buzz on some talk shows and one argument suggests that if the private sector is to be the engine of growth in the economy it needs entrepreneurs. But entrepreneurship is dying on the vine so the private sector is to blame for the poor performance of the economy. This is defective logic.
The fact is that in our Westminster form of Government, power is so concentrated in the political directorate that the private sector ultimately is very limited in the ways it can drive the economy. There are far too many roadblocks, bureaucratic and ideological. Laws give too much discretion to the Ministers who administer them. One example is typical and illustrative: A Jamaican manufacturing company which needs to upgrade its machinery, can only get a waiver of duty if it applies to JAMPRO under the Factories Modernisation Programme. In fact, such duty waivers are usually granted but the very idea of the means of production in a factory being subject to duty in the first place is repugnant and demonstrates how prone the Government is to legislate by exception. Machinery should be automatically duty-free to avoid the psychological fear of drowning in a sea of red tape.
There are some who argue, and we tend to agree with them, that there is no such thing as an entrepreneur in the abstract. Business is people and personalities tend to fall into one of two categories those who like a steady job and are risk averse and those who are turned on by risk, prepared to take their lumps if the venture fails and to start over again.
Business decisions of these entrepreneurs are not influenced by every shift in the economic wind. Investments are made on a collegiate basis by the directors of a company who take the long view of things, many of them having previously been through equally trying times in their careers.
The simple truth seems to be that if the private sector is to be the engine of growth, the Government must take its hands off the steering wheel and its foot off the brakes. Otherwise, if there is a crash, we should not be too quick to blame the entrepreneurs.
