Joe Issa Backs “Planning for Survivability of Today and Sustainability of Tomorrow!”

Businessman and environmental advocate Joe Issa, has said that “while we are planning for today, we must also plan for the future, as the two are not mutually exclusive,” while agreeing with a report which offers strategies that seek balance for the Caribbean in the survivability of today and the sustainability of tomorrow.

Issa made the statement in response to a warning that if Jamaica and its Caribbean neighbours continue on their current development path, by 2050 they will face unmanageable debt, poor growth, and greater socio-economic problems.

 

The warning was reported in a CMC article from The Seychelles, where it was issued by the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat based on a study of the current policies and trends in six Caribbean countries - Bahamas, Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica.

 

Titled, “Achieving a Resilient Future for Small States: Caribbean 2050,” the report is said to have made a 34-year projection across different sectors, which shows that five out of the six countries would experience a debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) above 100 per cent, a level it describes as “dangerous” if growth continues to lag, the article said.

 

The projections also suggest that interest expenditure on debt is likely to drain public finances, reduce funds for development and increase social and economic problems, all outcomes which Issa says “Jamaica has already experienced and is moving away from to better days by focusing on reducing its mounting debt, under an IMF austerity programme that has left little else to develop the country and provide jobs or its people.”

 

Noting his concern, Issa says “we should take the warnings seriously and make the necessary policy adjustments,” while stating however, that Jamaica has had its fair share of all these problems over the years, citing the study’s findings - sluggish growth, spiraling debt, high youth unemployment, rising crime rates, piecemeal investment, and low productivity.

 

The report claims to have taken into account the current and future threats facing the region - lack of competitiveness, human and financial resource constraints, crippling debt and limited access to development finance - and suggests “practical steps that set out a new trajectory to help realise the full and rich potential of the region.”

 

It said that in addition to the serious threats to the region’s future, climate change also casts a long shadow, stating that “small island developing states are most vulnerable to extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing natural resources but lack the funds to plan ahead and minimize risks,” a point which Issa has highlighted in the local and international media leading up to last December’s Paris Conference on Climate Change.

The report by the Commonwealth Secretariat is said to challenge “the status quo and sets out policy interventions in targeted areas aimed at tackling persistent barriers to the region’s growth…It offers strategies that seek balance for the Caribbean in the survivability of today and the sustainability of tomorrow.”