Stimulating Public Trust in Government Key to National Development – PM

Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, has said that stimulating public trust and confidence in government is an essential part of the process to achieve sustained national development.
“No focus on investment, no focus on growth, is going to be successful unless it all takes place within a framework in which people have reason to have faith and confidence in the systems of government and in the institutions of authority,” he stated.
The Prime Minister was delivering the opening address on day one of the National Planning Summit at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay.
The two-day event will bring together a broad coalition of senior government ministers under the leadership of the Prime Minister; local and international private sector leaders, leading public sector representatives and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), to look at the critical initiatives that will drive economic growth and sustainable development for Jamaica.
According to the Prime Minister, developing the human capital through education, and creating jobs, will provide the answer to many of the country’s problems.
“Creating jobs is the fastest way of increasing your revenues, which is the fastest way to reduce your deficit, which is the fastest way to pay down your debt, which is the fastest way of allocating more resources to critical areas such as education and health,” he pointed out.
Stating that the two-day Summit is aimed at developing a strategy that will move the country forward, the Prime Minister said: “If we are at that bridge that we have approached so many times in the past, we have to determine that if we are to cross that bridge instead of staring at it, then we need more than an agreement about the desirability of getting on the other side.”
“The structure of the conference has been designed to facilitate the kind of discussion, the kind of results that we need if we are not to just move away from the bridge once again only to return in another three or four years to face the same challenge again,” he stated.
The summit is being staged by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) in collaboration with the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.