By Andrew Green, Staff ReporterJAMAICA'S ECONOMIC decline over the past generation is also having a disastrous impact on the national spirit, says Michael Fairbanks, chairman of ontheFRONTIER.
Older Jamaicans know that the society is less healthy now than when they were children, he said at the launch of Jamaica's Cluster Competitiveness Project at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston on Friday. He said the country's social decline needs to be addressed by an economic revival.
"When your economy goes down, your imagination changes," Mr. Fairbanks said. "You become more fatalistic. You become more mistrustful. You revere the past and you don't look forward to the future. Jamaica needs to get its economy right as this is having, a material impact on how you all think about yourselves," Mr. Fairbanks said.
His United States-based company is managing the Cluster Competitiveness Project which is aimed at selecting and assisting clusters of firms operating in similar industries to achieve a globally competitive status.
To achieve prosperity, Jamaica needs to change its investment strategy, he said. The focus now is on the country's natural endowments such as its bauxite, its beauty and its location. But there are other countries with similar resources forcing Jamaica to compete mainly on price.
To be competitive, Jamaica devalues its currency in a race, "to see which country can stay the poorest the longest before it disintegrates socially," he said. "That is the competition we are in right now."
The country needs to invest in its human capital if it wants to get high returns, he said. "In a country blessed with natural resources, sunshine, location and subsoil assets, we don't believe in our hearts and our minds that the only investment with the possibility for infinite return is the investment in our babies."
One cheap investment that would bring quick returns would be to ensure the rule of law, he said. Building this form of institutional capital, "is the single most important thing you can do."
Establishing the rule of law would help people sleep safely in their beds at night and give firms the basis on which to innovate and expand, he said.
One of the country's richest forms of capital is its cultural capital, he continued. With its music, fashion, language and food, "the Jamaican culture is as rich as any the world has ever known."
Changing the old focus from that on natural endowments, the development project aims to help companies create prosperity by producing great products and build clusters of these companies to compete in the global marketplace, he said. The ultimate objective is to create a high and rising standard of living for all Jamaicans.
The two-year project is aimed at mobilising eight clusters of firms. It is sponsored by Department For International Development (DFID), the United States Agency for International Development, the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology and the Jamaica Exporters Association.
