Budget Will Facilitate Investment & Growth – PM

Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding says this year’s budget is consistent with a clearly defined, coherent strategy that will facilitate investment and stimulate economic growth.

Making his contribution to the 2011/12 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives, Mr. Golding said that the core elements of this strategy includes providing a framework of transparency and accountability so that people will have confidence in what the Government is doing and how it is managing their money.

Other key features of the strategy include:

• Reducing government borrowing so that more resources are available for those who want to invest, do business and create jobs;
• Eliminating the fiscal deficit and building up surpluses to cushion the country from external shocks and natural disasters;
• Reforming the tax structure and spreading the tax burden more equitably to encourage people to invest, do business and create jobs;
• Reducing the country’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio and the cost of servicing that debt in order that more of the taxes collected can be spent in critical areas such as education, security and justice, health and infrastructure;
• Enabling Jamaica to be globally competitive in areas that will attract investment, create jobs and provide prosperity for Jamaicans; and
• Transform bureaucracy into an efficient, service-delivery-oriented institution that encourages and facilitates doing business and creating jobs.

“All of these core elements are aligned to the overarching goal of Vision 2030 of making Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business,” the Prime Minister said.

“We cannot achieve this by following the pathways of the past. We need to change the game. We have started that game change and this budget and the results we have seen so far reflect this,” he added.