Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke, has welcomed the announcement by international financial news service Bloomberg that the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has been the world’s leading performer over the past five years.
Dr Clarke told a Rotary Club of Kingston luncheon meeting at the Jamaica Pegasus, New Kingston, on Thursday, that the result makes Jamaica the best investment in the world today.
“That’s not measured in Jamaican dollars. It is measured in foreign currency as the best performing stock exchange in the world over the last five years. There is no better investment in the world over the last five years than investing in the real economy of Jamaica,” the minister noted.
“And let me just add to that, I want you to understand that those gains are also broad-based, because the 100,000 or so people who are in private pension plans have shared in those gains. The 400,000 people who are enrolled in the NIS have also shared in those gains, and the goal of the government is to broaden that base even further,” he added.
Clarke noted that, today, only 16 per cent of working people in Jamaica participate in a private pension scheme, but the government wants to see those numbers expand greatly over the next few years.
“The policy of the government is to broaden the ownership of the Jamaican economy by Jamaicans. You can work in the public or private sector and own a piece of the economy of Jamaica. The policy is going to be oriented around ensuring that participation in the ownership of equity in the companies and the stocks is broader tomorrow than it is today to ensure that the gains are shared by all,” he noted.
He said that the platform of policies at his ministry was aimed at: (1) economic independence; (2) protection of the vulnerable; and (3), economic opportunities for all.
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