Butch Stewart's Piece of Advice to the Jamaican Government

Jamaica’s most successful businessman has some common sense advice on how the Jamaican Government can stimulate the country's economy, in a year expected to be one of the toughest in recent memory.

Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, who has made his Sandals Resorts into the Caribbean strongest brand internationally, said Jamaica had found itself in a never-ending spiral of borrowing to pay off its debt, while not earning enough to invest in development.

"As we borrow more, the hole gets deeper and deeper and we have a debt that we can't pay off. In fact, our grandchildren won't be able to pay it off," he said.

But Stewart said Jamaica could begin this year to dig itself out of the situation by tackling some projects he described as "low-hanging fruits", and using the funds to come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral sources which take their cue from the IMF, to invest in such projects.

Beginning today and over the next few weeks, the hotel mogul will outline these projects that he believes are "doable even in a difficult year as 2013 is expected to be".

Stewart confidently suggests that the Jamaican Government should move immediately to extend the runway of the Ian Fleming International Airport in Boscobel, St Mary, just east of the north coast resort town of Ocho Rios, St Ann.

He said the airport, named after the famous author of the James Bond spy thrillers popular with movie goers, had the potential of opening up north eastern Jamaica, particularly Ocho Rios, Port Antonio, Port Maria, Annotto Bay, Highgate, and beyond for tourism which would spur unprecedented development of the region.

He pointed to his hotel in Exuma, one of the islands of The Bahamas, noting that when he first went there, there was no jet airlift.

"Now we have Delta and Air Canada flying there and American Airlines touches down twice daily with their regional jets. Apart from making the place wealthy, we are providing a most wonderful service for the just under 6,000 people living there. They can now fly directly to Miami and on from there to other destinations in the US or Canada, literally from their backdoor.

Source: The Jamaica Observer