Prime Minister Bruce Golding struck a sober and conciliatory tone in his Budget presentation Tuesday that covered a wide cross-section of issues.

In certain areas it provided greater information and clarity on the plans that the adminis-tration has for central government expenditure in several areas, while in others he presented facts that were already in the public domain.

The PM acknowledged in a frank and forthright manner the severe impact that the world economic crisis would have on the Jamaican economy in the current financial year and in the short-to-medium term.

However, he was not as convincing in making the links between the impending impact of this crisis on the Jamaican economy and the Government's overall response in riding out the tsunami-type effects that the crisis will have on the economy.

Development Plan

The Vision 2030 National Development Plan and its companion document, the Medium Term Socio-Economic Policy Framework 2009-2012 were tabled by the prime minister as representing the way forward for the nation.

He pointed out that this plan was started by the previous PNP administration and completed under his watch, and was developed based on a series of consultations with various interest groups and the general public.

A careful assessment of both documents, as well as a review of the remarks made by the prime minister do not indicate any deviations in the proposed programmes to be attempted in phase one (2009-2012) as a result of the impact of the global situation and possible changes in the world order going forward.

In terms of the proposed tax package, Golding acknowledged that he had heard the various criticisms that had been levied on the proposed measures. However, he indicated that the Government felt that it had no choice but to introduce a tax package, and further that they had been guided by the recommendations of the Matalon Report which had been commissioned by the previous administration in 2004 in the development of the measures.

'Cherry-picking'

In this regard, the prime minister failed to address the question of 'cherry-picking' certain elements of the recommendations from the Matalon Committee which were intended to be revenue-neutral - as per the original terms of reference - as opposed to generating significant additional revenue.

Beyond this however, he left the details of any proposed revisions to the finance minister to make in his closing presentation.

One of the stronger aspects of the PM's presentation was his assessment of the impact of the world economic crisis on the local bauxite and alumina sector, the subsequent closure of three of the four alumina plants in the island, and the impact that this would have on the foreign exchange earnings of the country.

Loss of export revenue

The sector currently accounts for approximately 60 per cent of the merchandise exports of the economy, and according to the PM, the closure of the three alumina plants will result in the loss of approximately two-thirds of the potential export revenue from the sector.

He also indicated that the Cabinet has accepted a recommendation from a task force headed by Dr Carlton Davis that the country should move towards the use of liquified natural gas (LNG) as the preferred alternative to oil and as our main source of energy going forward.

His presentation would have been strengthened significantly if he had spent a paragraph or two to:

Make the link between LNG and greater energy efficiency for the productive sectors such as bauxite and alumina in the short-to-medium term;

Acknowledge the urgent importance of pursuing South-South bilateral and regional relations with South American countries such as Venezuela, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil, in pursuit of the development of our energy policy;

Emphasized the fact that LNG is a medium-term answer to Jamaica's energy needs, as it too is a depleting energy source;

And finally, while he pointed out that nuclear energy would take a long time to develop and is extremely capital intensive, we should not dismiss lightly the longer-term possibilities that this energy source could offer for the future.

The other two areas that could have been strengthened were his discussion on the crime situation and the training of young entrepreneurs.

Measures to fight crime

More needed to have been said about measures to fight crime, as well as stating whether the Government is committed to ensuring the swift passage of the Charter of Rights, which has been languishing from the early 1990s, and which incidentally was first mooted by former Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

And mentioning Seaga, the training of young entrepreneurs sounds remarkably like the Solidarity programme that he and his wife initiated in the 1980s, but without much of the other enabling features. Perhaps these issues will be addressed by other Cabinet members in the upcoming sectoral debate.

renee.shirley@yahoo.com