THE EDITOR, SIR:
AFTER READING the Gleaner editorial of Saturday, January 24, 2004, I felt compelled to write this letter.
The title for the editorial "Missing the IT Boat" is putting it mildly. The fact of the matter is that Jamaica has lost a lucrative opportunity to be in the forefront of the Information Technology industry. Apart from the loss of nearly one billion dollars from the public purse, due primarily to bad decision-making and poor public policy management by the Government, the opportunity to increase foreign exchange earnings and create much needed jobs has been wasted.
How anyone could expect to create an industry and much needed jobs without first having a trained workforce is beyond imagination. It speaks to the core of making decisions for the sake of political expediency at the expense of providing good governance.
Due to a political timetable and to satisfy a "feel good" flowery statement of providing 'forty thousand jobs' we lost opportunity after opportunity. How ridiculous to assume that 40,000 jobs could be created in three years when all you have is the ability to train three to four thousand persons per annum.
If the policy and management of the Intec fund were properly administered we could have today a revolving faculty that could be growing this very valuable industry. Instead of rushing to set up call centres in the first instance, the fund should have been primarily reserved to establish IT institutes and facilitate expansion of existing educational facilities to allow them to emphasise computer technology.
The fact that we speak English is an advantage; however we still need speech-training and communication skills as part of the curriculum. Once the country had the pool of trained workers the way would be cleared to invest in operating facilities and, in fact, we would have been far more attractive to large international companies that are looking for reliable IT services.
There would have been a greater interest by companies that were willing to invest more of their own money and not expect Government to provide the majority investment in loan financing.
Too many mistakes, too much incompetence. Have we reached the point where the burden becomes too much?
I am, etc.,
RUSSELL HADEED
Opposition Spokesman on
Energy & Telecommunications
