Disappearing businesses

Delroy Chuck

THE CLOSURE of Times Store, a shining monument on King Street, Kingston, for over a century, exemplifies once again the madness and disaster of government's economic policies.

Businesses are rapidly downsizing and capsizing, whilst very few are opening. Jobs and opportunities are disappearing and it is probably easier to find snow in hell than to find a job. For the unemployed and the thousands of young school graduates about to join them, it is the worst of times. We are certainly not in the classical capitalist mode in which old, inefficient and non-competitive businesses are replaced by new, service-oriented, customer-friendly businesses ­ they are simply disappearing.

Jamaica is suffering immeasurably from business failures, wrong monetary choices and a visionless government. Once vibrant enterprises, financial institutions and manufacturing entities are being taken over or bought at bargain prices and, regrettably, Jamaica has not gained significantly from these investments. No new jobs and opportunities are being created; only old ones are being saved. Worst, the commanding heights of our economy are no longer controlled locally, imperialism has yielded to regionalism, and once proud Jamaican entrepreneurs must now take orders from Port-of-Spain and Bridgetown.

Our professional bodies have felt the downturn in business activity, as their members are short of work. Architects, engineers, contractors, lawyers, dentists, doctors, and any skilled professional, are working less than half-time and are struggling to keep their doors open and their businesses afloat. Even our teachers are leaving, desperately seeking better jobs and opportunities abroad. Jamaica has clearly failed to create an attractive, friendly and vibrant business environment and, consequently, the economy is in a vortex of decline.

Our government does not seem to care that businesses are disappearing, especially downtown and even moreso in rural life. Downtown is fast becoming a ghost town. Merchants complain bitterly about the hard times and slow business turnover. Many have closed their doors and others are thinking seriously of moving or closing. Times Store suffered significantly, as many government offices, law firms and major corporations have either closed or moved their headquarters uptown. Driving or doing business downtown is an adventure, a chore and a nerve-racking experience even for ordinary Jamaicans. It is really sad that a once proud city, a shopping mecca, a favoured port of call, the darling of the Caribbean, has been reduced to a decrepit, decaying and dying metropolis.

In our rural parishes, our young people sit around in a daze, waiting perhaps for a farm work ticket or remittances from abroad. There is simply nothing to do, no businesses to join or to get employment, no money to make life even bearable and for most people the future is simply bleak. Agriculture is no longer a viable business, as imports have knocked the sector into oblivion. People are in shock and asking just how much longer can we go on like this?

In truth, the business of Jamaica has got to be business ­ the promotion, enhancement and success of business enterprises. Without a vibrant business sector, we are doomed. Virtually all our problems, of whatever kind, can easily be traced to the failure of businesses to generate and create surplus, otherwise called wealth. When business fails, Jamaica fails ­ that is the reality whether we like it or not.

The control of communities by dons, the emergence of gangs, the escalating criminality, the deteriorating infrastructure, the declining educational achievements, the indiscipline and corruption, the bank failures, mortgage crisis, the hardships and hopelessness are merely symptoms of an embattled economy, a hostile business climate and a country in deep crisis.

Our economy, nay our country, is being held together by the generosity of our families and friends abroad who have sent remittances, loans and handouts.

Our government actually considers its most solid achievement the fantastic NIR that sits in Bank of Jamaica without understanding that it was not earned through exports or investments, jobs and production, but simply through loans or monetary arbitrage. When our national debt has increased by over US$5 billion in the past five years, it is not a proud achievement to say we have US$1.5 billion of it saved. In fact, does the country have anything to show for this massive increase in our national debt? Still, we continue to borrow to give the false sense of security and mistaken feeling that we are on the right track. Our imports constantly exceed our exports and our monthly trade balances are always in the negative. It means, I repeat, that we are exporting our jobs when we import more than we export, as we are employing people overseas to produce the imports we consume.

Yet, Jamaicans are being denied the jobs, opportunities and prosperity through business enterprises, export promotion and service development. Our people are crying out in the ghettos for work, for something worthwhile to occupy their time, for a hopeful future and for civilised living. When I walk the inner-city communities and observe the misery and despair of our less fortunate citizens, of the filth and dirt in which they live and barely survive, of the shaky roofs and decaying walls that surround them, of the congested shacks they call home, I feel depressed and wonder why Jamaicans suffer so much when leadership and vision can lead to prosperity and the Jamaica of which we can be proud.

Yet, the day of reckoning cannot be far away. A country cannot long survive on loans, grants and with our begging bowls.

Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at delchuck@hotmail.com.

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