Newly elected PSOJ President Howard Mitchell gave his first public address at the annual Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Christmas luncheon on Wednesday.

In a humble, self-deprecating and often quite funny speech the 19th president (and the first lawyer to be president) noted that he had been close to the legendary Carlton Alexander, then chief executive officer of Grace Kennedy, when the PSOJ was founded in the 1970s (Alexander was one of its key founders), and “was and remained inspired by the high purpose and lofty ideals of the organisation”.

Advising that, for various reasons, “he was a man in a hurry”, he argued that 2018 was a year of decision for Jamaica — a “tipping point” – and his timeline for achieving his objectives was 12 months, which would include some new areas of focus, to be driven by an expansion of the PSOJ committee structure and its Executive Director (the current executive director Dennis Chung is leaving in January).

The existing objectives of the PSOJ “would not be abandoned”:tax reform, public sector reform, the reduction of the capital ratios as regulated by the Financial Services Commission (to release funds into the productive sector) and implementing the Caribbean Business Council. The latter two will still be driven by the immediate Past President PB Scott.

In taking stock of where we are as a country, in the positive column, Mitchell noted the following as “good news”: Jamaica’s falling debt-to- GDP ratio; increasing exports in 2017; rising foreign direct investment each year for the past five years; falling unemployment; well managed inflation; a re-valuing dollar (noting this is a two-edged sword!); tourism “going through the roof”; improving bauxite and alumina prospects ; and finally that tax and structural reforms are underway (although noting rightly that “some of us will question the pace and effectiveness”).

On the “bad news” side, he observed that with regard to crime and security “we are rapidly approaching the worst murder numbers in our own country’s history with the possibility that murders may exceed 1,600 for 2017”.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-report/new-psoj-president-howard-mitchell-describes-2018-as-a-year-of-decision-for-jamaica_119342