Information Minister, Ambrose George, has challenged the private sector and civil society to search for areas of economic growth since the government of Dominica is itself undertaking various initiatives to achieve such.
Speaking at the launching of the Caribbean Growth Forum on Friday morning, George pointed out that the search for growth is elusive but necessary. “The search for growth is as elusive as ever and has been the cause of rise and fall of many administrations. It is necessary that the economy grows at a pace that citizens can continue to be gainfully employed,” he said.
He continued, “There have been questions about the possibility of a country growing in the midst of structural adjustment, there have been concerns raised about the debt overhang and what that means for economic growth … for now it is clear that there are no definite answers or solutions but we cannot wait to perish and not attempt this matter.”
George added the Government’s pursuit for economic growth has been multi pronged. “We have pursued an ambitious capital program which focuses on improving physical infrastructure and providing investments in critical sectors such as agriculture and tourism,” he said. “In addition we have invested heavily in activities intended to reduce the cost of doing business … here I refer to customs, the magistracy and the registry.”
George argued that the production of geothermal energy is a significant turning point in economic activity in Dominica that requires the support of the citizens and development partners.
Senior Energy Specialist at the World Bank, Miagara Jaywardena, who was also addressed the launch, pointed out that Dominica is well poised to take advantage of some initiatives meant for economic growth.
Jaywardena, who did a power point presentation, said Dominica’s debt has been holding steady and the deficit has been going down. “Initially you had your public debt go up, but what it also shows is that it is holding steady at about 70 percent GDP and in your case you have a deficit that is coming down,” he remarked. “These are good signs because it shows stability going forward but it also means that there is limited fiscal space to do a lot more government spending.”
The forum was launched at the Fort Young Hotel.
It is an initiative supported by the Compete Caribbean /Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in collaboration with the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (DFID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Dear Mr. George,
Where were you when several people asked to meet with you and invest over___ six hundred million dollars ___ in Dominica?
Why was their request to sit and discuss ideas with the PM NEVER GRANTED ?
Why was their plan to employ over two hundred people in Dominica never ever considered.
Why was their recent letters to Government never answered ?
I find it strange that Major Corporation seeks to invest in Dominica and they are snub by our Leaders.
money launder is minister..ya’ll lost in this sad country..vote labour we shall go far..smh
Praise GOD for V.A.T’ my pocket have a BIG’ HOLE and i cant get a job
Mr Ambrose George, we didn’t need these institutions to come and tell us that there is no growth and high unemployment in Dominica; it is evident and vivid to see. Some of us Dominicans have been saving so for a very long time but I guess we are not white or foreigners so our suggestions and advice are not taken.
What did you say, ‘the search for growth is as elusive as ever and has been the cause of rise and fall of many administrations….’ This is your only concern, as you don’t really care about us (Dominicans) nor it’s not your main priority to put Dominicans back at work.
Here are my reasons for saying so:-
1. The majority of capital works you talk about are being done by Chinese and non-Dominicans. Some effects: Little or none of these monies are circulating in the local economy, little of no local employment and reduced income tax and social security payments.
2. Your government have neglected the Agriculture industry and no serious investments have been made in this industry by your government. Some effects: High food import bills, dependence on government for hand-outs, no work and no money for local farmers to spend.
3. The tourist industry is at its worse and has been steadily declining for year now. You have no clue where it’s going with tourism. Some effects: Low tourist visits, low hotel occupancy, low seasonal jobs and little or no money for local investors in the tourism industry to spend in the economy.
4. Your government have been competing with the same private sector you are now calling to grow the economy, now ironic. Some effects: no investor confidence to expand and invest in the local economy, reduced workforce and little or no disposable income for locals to spend.
5. This government is more concern with private gains than working in the best interest of Dominica and seeking Bona fide Foreign Direct Investment which does not destroy of environment and our ‘Nature Island’ image. Some effects: High levels of corruption, little or no monies circulating in the local economy, little or lack of Bona Fide investors’ confidence to invest and non-conducive environment for investment.
Now that the PM have said that elections is close, i guess it time to campaign to get votes but your government does not take what it need to grow the Dominican economy. If after 15 yrs., you have not done it, not now you will.
What we need now are new people in government with new ideas, new direction and new energy. You and your government are tired and have run out of ideas for a very long time. For the sake of Dominica, if you say you love her, take a break and a very long rest.
‘WE WILL DELIVER AND HAVE DELIVERED IN THE PAST’
Mr. Information Minister, I ask you to please address the corruption factor first. That will help increase investor confidence which is necessary for economic growth. But I know I ask in vain. So…carry on!
It is often said here in Dominica that we are the poorest in the eastern Caribbean. Is it really true? Porverty can be looked at as a state of mind in that a so called rich man could be ill or unhappy and nor can his money cure him or make him happy, whereas a poor man may have very good health and happy. Now then if Dominica is truly the poorest in the eastern Caribbean what are we the citizens doing about it , hoping for a politician to fix it? In my view once you have health and strength you can make anything possible. We must accept the reality that as a black people we tend to let another race create a place for us then we come later seeking just a job and then we critisize the same poor country we came from, what a shame. Funny though that all blacks together won’t do any work and if we do work is certainly not with good intentions. One would say it is because of slavery , that we in the western world are so but that is a big no. Africans in Africa were not enslaved yet still they have the same mentality therefore it must be who we are as a people, which is pull each other down. We are a people that cry a lot, we cry down everything but mostly when it’s another brother or sister that does it but once any other race does it to us it’s done the best. Why compare the USA with Dominica and why can’t we just see it as different and not mean better? Why can’t anyother island in the Caribbean just be different and not better? You would think different means better. I love Dominica as is and see nothing wrong with it just different but my problem is with some of the people and their mentality towards Dominica and each other. Being “so called poor” don’t mean you must think or act poor it’s when we should think positive always looking on the brighter side. You hear that people? Please stop coming here and spew your negativity it is very hurtful. Go tell Paul to tell Saul to tell all, STOP IT!
I think MR ambrose and his people are blind and dumb instead of trying to bring the people together and work for a better D0minica they keep acting like spoil kids my dear fellow members of the D w u if you continue acting this way you guys will be a thing of the past people will get fed up with you all.go a head and keep being are pain in every body’s you know what. and things will work out all right for the labour party.
I challenge the government to:
Get out of the private sector’s business and stop undermining private sector development by building hotels and the like.
Provide customs tax decreases for young businesses trying to make it. Remove persons who clearly have conflicts of interest between their own private interest and government business from its party. Remove or lower the VAT so people can SPEND MORE. Put laws in place to protect propriety information so people who have skills and special talents can get what is theirs. Stop selling our country to overseas interest while real Dominicans find it to hard to open a snackette. STOP MICRO-MANAGING THE ECONOMY. GET OUT OF IT. BUILD AN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – FIX THE ROADS – DEVELOP THE ENERGY – AND THEN GET OUT!!
Based on comments here,on the radio and on the streets all over the island it is clear that the Dominican people have a very negative energy and with such energy is causing serious harm to the country. Many people have made politics their life and so they just there waiting for a politician to open their mouth so they can change it to a negative, regardless of the point the politician make, that’s sad. This government one day will be gone and you can bet the negative talk will still continue, mark my words. Who then will say that it was this government or the next that is the problem?
SORRY SIR
ROAD PROJECTS IN WALL HOUSE CASTLE COMFORT AND LOUBIERE JUST WONT FOOL US.
We as labourites are sick tired and fed up with your poor representation. Absolutely nothing has happened progressively in Newtown under your watch. What do we have in return is drugs drugs and high levels of unemployment and violence plus prostitution and human trafficking.We don’t blame you for being involved in any of these activities…definitely not. However we think that your did not offer the youths the alternative so that they will have the tools and opportunities to improve themselves.
So your call challenging the strangulated private sector makes no sense. The Newtown people can look at SUKIE, MC MILAN , E H CHARLES, and ANNETTE ST HILAIRE etc for inspiration ALL BEING FROM NEWTOWN. As a Labourite I believe that its time for you to make room for fresh blood. You are tired and we are tired of you.
you gust heating on the head
OK Mr. Minister do you not think that it is high time that you and your party poopers open the door way for us private sector folks to bring in and enhance our business ventures…with this ridiculous high import charges and preferential measures you have in place do you see us in any way being able to make an impact on the lives of our prospective customers? DO You not think that there are many of us young people out there with ideas and projects we want to pursue and even when we have started we can’t continue because every day we are faced with hindrances at the banks and continued increase prices at the port. COME BETTER You want our vote stop belching out such crap.
To a very large degree,most of the Dominican public is not sophisticated enough to understand public Debt & deficits and how it affects their lives.Some years ago,I remember hearing local “talk” about how high our debt was possibly in the 400M range…That number I’m not sure off since I had no way to confirm it..I don’t know how close it was then….Today,the above article mentions Mr.Jaywardera as saying our debt is about 70% of GDP.Bearing in mind that we in DA(government)operate with the support of various assistance mechanisms be it from the EU/Canadian/British/Venezuelan/Chinese,CDB and others, our public debt(what the country owes others/entities todate)is basically an accumulation of years of having deficits(borrowing the diff.between what the Govt.collects annually in Revenue versus what it spends annually).These extra borrowed funds that it has to get annually (because it can’t operate within its budget)it then has to borrow to meet its obligations….that’s what we call a deficit or deficit funding/borrowing…and we have been doing alot of that stuff (PetroCarib/Chinese/ECDB/Others..So my question Mr Jaywardera is what is our GDP.(A country’s total goods & services produced annually)??? and by extension, what is now our nation’s public debt???For your 70% number to be acccurate as a percentage of GDP,my rough calculation tells me that our GDP would probably have to be in the neighbour of about 700M-850M…
‘He knew he knew he knew he knew.’
Why do they keep pulling wool over the Citizens of Dominica..wonder why..
Well i guess it’s because many Dominicans have buried their heads in the sand!
Dominica is worst off then ever before…
Poor Leadership and lack of vision has sucked the Vein tissues from Dominica..
Very well said Whistler.
What Growth Forum! You mean Dominicans do not already know where the economy and society are haemorrhaging? Don’t we already know our collective and sectoral strengths and weaknesses? You mean to say we need a Forum of all stakeholders to know that the cost of electricity is shrinking the economy? We need the IBRD, CDB, ECCB, IADB and the EU to tell us that our attitude to work is regressive? Eh! Don’t we already know that the cost of local manufacturing is prohibitive and the lending institutions are concerned only with loans for consumption and not for trade? Do we need to spend all that money at Fort Young to remind ourselves that there are reports gathering dust on desks in the public service that already diagnosed the economy, prescribed remedies yet never implemented? Eh! Don’t we already know that the State is not interested in following and learning from the macro economic indices which tell us where we are headed but spend all their time handing out items to satisfy individual needs?
To my mind, this Growth Forum will amount to nothing more than a “Forum for Growth in Talk and Talk”.
An election is upcoming and this lazy bunch are just looking for ideas for their next manifesto. They are simply searching for ideas to continue to fool the people because their promises are never fullfilled.
i suppose its Ambrose’s turn to be in the news.. he has been a bit quiet recently!
but we don’t want ambrose
Best Advice for the Private and Civil Sector in Dominica is to vote the Dominica Labour Party out Of Office…
That’s only how things will see light!
Under Labour Dominica is the Poorest in the Eastern Caribbean, take a drive around the island You can see the hopeless features on it’s citizens
Labour Party officials have filled their Pockets Building Villas, High End Houses, Expensive Vehicles,Whilst smiling at the citizens….setting Up a Red Clinic!
The best thing for Dominica- Red Clinic?
Sadly Dominicans are not brilliant minds.
Only in Dominica a Regime could do this foolish Acts!
Best Advice for the Private and Civil Sector in Dominica is to vote the Dominica Labour Party out Of Office…
For Hector John, Edison, Lennox. Ronnie, Prevost…Dominicans are satisfied with DLP
I can’t see Dominicans voting these people in, no way, no how.
they are better right now for the dominica and we dominican want them back labour party lie on them the first time and steal the election not this time.
But why do you say so, Mr. IPO? You honestly believe that “man for man”, Skerro is better than Edison? I don’t!! As a matter of fact, when DLP won the poles in 2000, they entered Cabinet empty-handed and broke. The current UWP team is no worse than the 2000 DLP team. So, if you took a chance with the DLP team in 2000, why can’t you do the same with the UWP team next time around? You voted for Skerro when he was an unknown. There was no evidence that he could do the job. As a matter of fact, the only thing known about Skerro was that he made moves on his students at DSC, yet we voted him in. Isn’t the current UWP team composed of more experienced and proved men and women than DLP? Common om! Let’s be honest! It’s Lent!
Well you have said it!! Dominicans are not brilliant minds!! And that includes the UWP as well!!!
I rest my case.
How on earth that men who did very well in business over 10 and in some cases 20+ years before entering politics are worse of these days and want to return?
No they were not trying to pay for votes; only the DLP does that.
There was never a Blue Clinic in the Ministry of Finance when Tim Tim was minister of Finance; only Skerrit does that.
These days only DLP that is corrupt. Guess is only when you in government and in charge you are corrupt.
And I guess is only when you out of office you does loose weight. But at all you age why seek to gain weight?
we DOH WANT AMBROSE but we love labour we need a new parle rep for newtown
PM I hope you listening
we fed up with dat family affair
Thank you times Sq. At least we have some intelligent, abreast and realistic people here.