Prime Minister Bruce Golding (centre) and Audley Shaw (right), minister of finance and the public service, receive a grant of €18.625 million from Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni, head of the delegation of the European Commission, as budgetary support from the sugar programme to Jamaica. The ceremony was held at Jamaica House in St Andrew. - Ian Allen/Staff Photograper

THE COUNTRY has been warned to brace for some bitter medicine when the Government presents its Budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

"In the Budget that we are finalising now and that we intend to present to Parliament on April 7, we intend to make it clear that this crisis is too valuable to be wasted. We have to take tough decisions," Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced yesterday.

Golding, who yesterday sat with his Cabinet members to sign off on the Budget, also promised that his administration would explain the reasons for any painful decision.

Building strong foundation

"There is a critical obligation on our part to be strong, to be bold, to engage the people in a dialogue as to the tough choices that have to be made, the challenges that face us and the importance of not only trying to navigate our way out of the current crisis, but building a strong foundation for the future," Golding declared.

"This government that I lead has no intention of flinching," Golding added.

The prime minister was speaking at a function where the European Commission handed over $2 billion to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service for budgetary support in the fast-ending fiscal year.

Most of the money, approximately $1.3 billion, is for general budgetary support to reduce the public debt and remove obstacles to economic growth.

The rest of the grant, $700 million, is part of an ongoing programme by the European Union to support the Government's divestment of the sugar industry and to minimise the social fallout which could occur.

In handing over the cheque, Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni, head of the European Commission delegation in Jamaica, commended the Government for its handling of the global crisis so far.

Speed up reforms

However, Mazzocchi-Alemanni urged the administration to speed up necessary reforms in many areas.

"This (grant) is a tribute to your Government's stewardship during this very harsh global macro-economic crisis and it seems to me that the money comes at an opportune time as it will help to contain the fiscal deficit for the year 2008-2009," Mazzocchi Alemanni said.

"But the crisis does not make reform less urgent, but rather more (urgent). Therefore, we are looking for an accelerated pace of reform in the areas of financial reform and divestment of entities, sugar divestment and security and justice," Mazzocchi Alemanni added.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com