EDITORIAL: Private sector must strengthen its sectoral linkages

OUR private sector must be prepared to put its resources where its mouth is... if indeed we are to realise thriving industries and economic growth. Yes, we do accept that Government’s role in facilitating this is by ensuring, amongst other things, that the necessary infrastructure and social requirements are provided at the domestic level. At the regional and international level, Government also enables trade through ensuring the making and executing of various policies and treaties between ourselves and our trade partners. Government acts as chief regulator. It also has an obligation to look after the poor and otherwise vulnerable in society; be that the youth, the elderly, the disabled or the sick. In addition to this, Government is chief employer.

For all the above, we pay taxes. From this point forward, the discourse becomes contentious and one is forever debating how much is too much taxation, the reasons and cures for unemployment and which industries should receive whatever amount of limited resources there are to spread around. Therein lies the essences of economics. Some narrow it to a specific sub-discipline called “political economics”. Yet we are told that economic growth is not driven by Government, but by the private sector.

Back to the opening line, the private sector must be willing to put its resources where its mouth is.... realising that if one sector is thriving it redounds to the benefit of the others, particularly if there is co-operation. This, in essence, is the true meaning of society. So to the extent that the hotel and tourism sector continues to sound the clarion call for state aid, while sectors like manufacturing and agriculture maintain that more can be done to strengthen linkages with the former sector, it means that we do not fully grasp what a society entails. Is the money initially saved in choosing foreign food over that which is locally produced, worth the high food import bill driven primarily by the tourism sector? Perhaps Government might have had more resources to spruce up hotel properties had they not been obliged to provide so many concessions to local manufacturers who cry of being side-stepped by hoteliers who prefer to stock up on cheaper furnishings. Of course we do not suppose that all hoteliers are guilty of this.

The same goes for our retail and distribution sector. We cannot demand them to carry only locally manufactured goods, yet they have an obligation to support the same manufacturers whose families shop at their businesses. Sadly, shopping alongside of them are the agriculturists who struggle too, frustrated by being looked upon as dying industrialists, overpriced and inefficient.

Perhaps this is where the entrepreneurs come into play. They can come up with the ideas – or use those suggested by others – and link together the right resources to make those ideas come to pass. Yet we meet another stumbling block… that is, the financing need for those ideas to materialise. One sure reality is that our banks need a successful entrepreneurial class. Perhaps more confidence would be placed in this sector, as well as small business owners, if lending institutions were convinced that business plans presented to them were sound enough.

This is where training and business support organisations come into play… We could continue in this vein and come full circle, but the purpose of this discourse is to remind the private sector that working together – taking the initiative to strengthen its sectoral linkages – is necessary if we are to experience significant growth. The private sector must drive this by understanding how important these inter-linkages are. Is our private sector willing to put its resources where its mouth is?