PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson threw into sharp focus last night, the spiralling fuel costs and the immediate and potential impacts on the Jamaican economy.
His stark reminder is that the annual cost of importing oil is now nearly US$950 million or three times the 1998 figure of US$316 million an increase which he said is greater than the combined increases in the net foreign exchange earnings from tourism and bauxite, the two largest export industries. The question is what can and will be done to mitigate this?
The direct impact on the economy is obvious high energy and fuel costs have a significant impact on individual households as well as the national economy. When production costs mushroom, Jamaican manufacturers and service providers are likely to be less competitive on the local, regional and international markets.
It is somewhat ironic too, that in one sense, the Patterson administration is a victim of what the Prime Minister has touted as a major success of his government the huge numbers of imported cars on the roads. These vehicles on traffic-choked roads are not only
consuming huge volumes of petrol but undermining efforts at improving productivity. The amount of time spent commuting is as self-defeating as when people had to wait for hours to get public transportation. These problems are national ones however and each of us must do our part to reduce consumption at the individual household level and in the way we do business each day.
In his broadcast to the nation, the Prime Minister outlined some of the steps already being taken to achieve greater fuel efficiency in several sectors of the economy as well as to reduce our fuel bills.
But we believe now is as good a time as any to re-launch the kind of aggressive public education campaigns which were more common features of the 1970s when foreign exchange was scarce and the OPEC oil price boom was having its earliest negative impacts. These campaigns urged greater energy conservation habits and fuel-efficiency by individuals at all levels of the society. It is a campaign well-worth revisiting.
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