Chinese businesses not helping Sav - stakeholders

Mark Titus, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:Custos Rotulorum of Westmoreland, the Reverend Hartley Perrin, says the town of Savanna-la-Mar is not seeing much benefit from the influx of Chinese businessmen and is concerned that this could result in a further decline of the local economy.

"What we have seen in recent times that would serve to suggest some buoyancy and growth is the proliferation of Chinese and Indians in the town who have literally displaced all the locals who normally would have been doing business," said Perrin, while speaking at the Gleaner's 'State of the Capital' Editors' Forum in Savanna-la Mar.

"There is tremendous cause for concern because whereas if it was owned by Jamaicans, we would expect the monies to remain in Jamaica so that there is further growth. We are seeing monies moving from Jamaica rather than coming into Jamaica," said Perrin. "So we are going to be impoverished as a result of that."

Unlike other investors, Perrin says the Chinese are very clannish and not integrating fully into the communities or becoming involved with social or business groups.

Educator Barbara Dandy, dean of discipline at the Godfrey Stewart High School, says failure on the part of the Chinese to contribute to the development of Savanna-la-Mar is having a negative impact. Such a contribution, she said, could make a difference in the lives of some of the less fortunate students in the town.

"One of the realities is poverty. Savanna-la Mar is poor," the educator said. "Eighty per cent of the students at my school come out of Savanna-la Mar and it is dismal. The way they dress tells a whole lot, and they are in need of food.

"They (Chinese) have not volunteered, and if you ask, you are going to meet up on roadblocks," continued Dandy. "And some of the parents of our students are employed by the Chinese, yet they do nothing."

The Government of Jamaica has identified investors from China as key to the revitalisation of the local economy, and there appears to be a concerted effort to attract additional investment from China amid constant criticism from local interest groups.

However, while pointing out that he was not one to resist the intervention of investors, Perrin said he remained worried by the present situation in which locals are seemingly being sidelined.

"We are paying dearly because our own people have been sidelined or have sidelined themselves," Perrin said. "Buying and selling, by its very nature, does not help the economy, it only fuels the kind of inflation and devaluation that we are facing at this time," he continued.

"The key is production, to get ourselves into productive enterprises that would seek to bring in foreign exchange into Savanna-la-Mar where it is most needed."