Gov’t and Private Sector Reaffirm Commitment to Competitiveness Council
By: July 26, 2019 ,The Key Point:
The Facts
- Formal statements of support for the public-private sector partnership were made during the opening session of the NCC meeting on Thursday (July 25) at the Office of the Prime Minister.
- Voicing their commitment were Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and NCC Chairman, Hon. Daryl Vaz; President of JAMPRO, Diane Edwards; President, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), Howard Mitchell; and Executive Director, Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (JMEA), Imega Breese McNab.
The Full Story
The Government and members of the private sector have reaffirmed their commitment to the initiatives of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).
Formal statements of support for the public-private sector partnership were made during the opening session of the NCC meeting on Thursday (July 25) at the Office of the Prime Minister.
Voicing their commitment were Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and NCC Chairman, Hon. Daryl Vaz; President of JAMPRO, Diane Edwards; President, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), Howard Mitchell; and Executive Director, Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (JMEA), Imega Breese McNab.
Housed at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO), NCC is geared towards undertaking measures to improve Jamaica’s global competitiveness and doing business rankings, and is driven by a robust Business Environment Reform Agenda (BERA).
Among its targets is to have the country ranked among the 10 top countries in the Doing Business Report by 2020.
Mr. Vaz, in his remarks, said that the NCC has served as a platform for the Government to remove bottlenecks in order to ensure the full realisation of an improved business environment.
He noted that one area to be addressed is the need for an agreed set of success indicators for the BERA and selection of targeted reforms.
He said that while the Doing Business Report serves as a useful measure of a country’s competitiveness, a number of critical improvements being undertaken are not captured in the World Bank publication.
As such, the Council is encouraged and challenged to develop a system to prioritise the targeted reforms that will have a tangible impact on Jamaica’s business climate.
Minister Vaz further pointed to the need for increased partnerships between the Government, which designs and implements reforms, and the private sector, which is the intended beneficiary of these measures.
He welcomed the recent collaboration of the PSOJ, Jamaica Bankers’ Association and the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Alliance, to assist the MSME sector to better secure credit from commercial banks.