Give local printers a chance

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I CAME home from work at 8 p.m. after a day where I spent almost every minute wondering where the money will come from to meet the month-end bills.

As I walked into my house, I was met by a mountain of books that was collected from the secondary schools my two daughters attend. I was impressed with the pile, until I took a closer look at the books.

My heart sank as I realised that not one of the books was produced by a Jamaican printer. As someone who operates a small struggling printery, this was a painful blow.

For some time now, every day I go into my office, I feel the pressure of not having enough work to pay my unavoidable bills and keep my printery open. The debt is piling up and knowing that I, like several other Jamaica operations, could print any one of the books being used in the secondary schools is painful.

How can a government know that several printers in Jamaica are suffering and yet spend millions of dollars in other countries to provide employment for persons in those countries while we suffer?

It is full time that we give local businesses a chance and put Jamaicans to work. It cannot be right that we are looking overseas for printers while printing presses locally are idle.

Mrs Prime Minister, you need to sit with the education minister and address this injustice.

Concerned Printer

Kingston

expediteprinters@yahoo.com