Jamaica's economy
Ja needs to reengineer it's economy and this article delves into just what may be done. For the complete article, click the link below.
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4425023
From the Economist - Living and dying on history and artificial economic sweeteners
FOR three centuries after 1650, the English-speaking Caribbean lived from sugar. But for the past few decades this source of sweetness and slavery has been in decline, kept alive by trade preferences. Now the drip feed of subsidy is about to diminish. With bananas, another mainstay, also under threat from changing trade rules, Caribbean political leaders are caught between crying injustice and a long overdue search for alternatives.
The underlying problem is that growing sugar or bananas on small, hilly farms on Caribbean islands is far less efficient than in large, mechanised plantations in Latin America and elsewhere (see chart). Until now, the European Union has bought most of the Caribbean's sugar—at two to three times the world price
The biggest challenge is in Jamaica and Guyana. In Jamaica, two privately owned producers make a profit and may survive. The cash-strapped government cannot afford bigger subsidies for five state-owned and loss-making estates. But neither will it find it easy to help several thousand rural labourers gain alternative jobs.
Caribbean politicians rail against freer trade, but are loathe to make sacrifices to aid their own.
Four decades after independence, it is hardly surprising that colonial trade patterns are under threat. Caribbean economies do have a future, but a very different one, as service centres. As well as tourism and offshore finance, both of which could expand further, there are plenty of niches. A recent World Bank report noted that almost 70% of overseas medical graduates registered in the United States were trained in the Caribbean's 23 offshore medical schools. Some countries need help to make the switch from sugar and bananas. But the future need not be sour—provided that the Caribbean's politicians look to embrace it, rather than cling to the past.
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4425023
From the Economist - Living and dying on history and artificial economic sweeteners
FOR three centuries after 1650, the English-speaking Caribbean lived from sugar. But for the past few decades this source of sweetness and slavery has been in decline, kept alive by trade preferences. Now the drip feed of subsidy is about to diminish. With bananas, another mainstay, also under threat from changing trade rules, Caribbean political leaders are caught between crying injustice and a long overdue search for alternatives.
The underlying problem is that growing sugar or bananas on small, hilly farms on Caribbean islands is far less efficient than in large, mechanised plantations in Latin America and elsewhere (see chart). Until now, the European Union has bought most of the Caribbean's sugar—at two to three times the world price
The biggest challenge is in Jamaica and Guyana. In Jamaica, two privately owned producers make a profit and may survive. The cash-strapped government cannot afford bigger subsidies for five state-owned and loss-making estates. But neither will it find it easy to help several thousand rural labourers gain alternative jobs.
Caribbean politicians rail against freer trade, but are loathe to make sacrifices to aid their own.
Four decades after independence, it is hardly surprising that colonial trade patterns are under threat. Caribbean economies do have a future, but a very different one, as service centres. As well as tourism and offshore finance, both of which could expand further, there are plenty of niches. A recent World Bank report noted that almost 70% of overseas medical graduates registered in the United States were trained in the Caribbean's 23 offshore medical schools. Some countries need help to make the switch from sugar and bananas. But the future need not be sour—provided that the Caribbean's politicians look to embrace it, rather than cling to the past.
posted by BC at 12:19 PM
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