MR. KEITH DUNCAN'S concerns about the silence on the proposed Partnership for Progress talks should not be ignored.
Addressing the audience at the launch of the Jamaica Computer Society's Showcase 2004 on Tuesday, Mr. Duncan, the deputy managing director of Jamaica Money Market Brokers, warned that the country was still vulnerable to the economic shocks that gave rise to proposals for the partnership talks in the first place.
Clearly, the sense of urgency that propelled the proposal has waned, and notwithstanding the assurances from Beverley Lopez, head of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), it seems to have fallen off the radar.
We need an explanation why this should be so.
Coming as it did in the wake of the Memorandum of Understanding with trade unions representing employees in the public sector, there was some hope that a similar pact could be worked out among the private sector, unions and the State. But there was one clear difference between the MoU and the Partnership. The MoU, which came about against the background of a major crisis in Government finances, is a pact between the Government and its employees, enabling the it's to carry out its economic programme while minimising staff dislocation.
Piloted by the PSOJ, the Partnership is a bold plan to put Jamaica on the road to prosperity. Rather than the successful labour agreements between the bauxite companies and their workers or the Government and its employees, it envisaged a wider national pact.
Given the success such agreements have had in the Caribbean and the wider world, private sector participants in the talks were enthusiastic in their support. But extending the labour/management agreements to the creation of a wider social pact has failed to gain traction in the society or even sections of the private sector. Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica managing director William Clarke, for example, has publicly questioned its value.
Both the Prime Minister and Mrs. Lopez have said they are awaiting the return of the Minister of Finance from an overseas trip to begin a review of the draft policy document.
In principle, the proposal is one that should be supported. However, the terms of the agreement are being discussed privately.
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