Perspective: The “Pay to Play” Model of Economic Development may have Worked for China but Jamaica is no China
Commentary
We now have a LNG plant in Jamaica and hope it will reduce the cost of electricity to Jamaicans.
It is great for the environment also. So it is great!
Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is senior international correspondent & photojournalist for Vision Newspaper.
The “Pay to Play” Model of Economic Development may have Worked for China but Jamaica is no China
If it wasn’t for the Obama Administration our governments would have never built the LNG power plants as successive governments appear to be seeking to build their party’s electoral machinery or personal wealth than having broader consider for providing prosperity for the people of Jamaica.
The World Bank in 1992 approved the 360 MW LNG power plant at a cost of approximately US$126 million. It took our governments some two decades later (24 years) and a cost of US$630 million to build.
Now we see the same game re-play with the LNG Hub initiative. The PM should be promoting LNG to the broader Caribbean and Latin American markets instead of traversing the globe begging for tourism investments. This is bigger than tourism. Our growth strategies should be focused on the US LNG agreement worth over US$100 billion to the Jamaican economy. Stop chasing easy Chinese Phantom Loans and Tourism with its diminishing marginal returns. The Jamaican economy cannot sustain a regime of constant devaluation in order to subsidize new entry into the Jamaican tourism market. This has cost us some US$30 billion in economic value since 1990.
“On his 2015 visit to Jamaica President Obama and his administration took the strategic decision to license Jamaica as the first country outside the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) for the export of US LNG and for Jamaica to become the Hub for America’s Energy Exports to Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Singapore was developed as the oil and gas hub of Asia and not by importing Chinese merchants. Race and class-based economic development had created a lot of social upheaval in Singapore and there are signs this is proving to be a problem for Jamaica. Mexico has the largest Tourism Mecca in the Americas yet 46% of its people live in poverty. Development must be prioritized even at the expensive of losing the next election
Photo from: www.green4sea.com
