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40,000 IT jobs unrealistic says Kerr

OPPOSITION Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on emerging technologies, Vindel Kerr, is charging that Technology and Commerce Minister Phillip Paulwell's projection of 40,000 new Information Technology (IT) jobs over three years was "unrealistic and grossly impractical."

Mr. Kerr said that this is borne out in government statistics showing that with a year elapsing out of Mr. Paulwell's time frame, only 4,000 such so-called IT jobs have been created. Furthermore, the JLP spokesman charges, most of these jobs - such as call centre telephone operators and clerks - do not require high-tech training and expertise, they are at the lower end of the business and are not internationally considered as authentic IT positions.

Mr. Kerr, who is also the executive director for Generation 2000 (G2K), the young professional group associated with the JLP, wants to know whether Mr. Paulwell's current IT job figures include the over 1,000 redundant Cable and Wireless and Jamaica Public Service employees, some of whom have been rehired in the industry. In light of what Mr. Kerr is describing as "Mr. Paulwell's well-intended, but over-ambitious projection," the JLP spokesman is calling on the Minister to tell the nation how he plans to deliver the remaining 36,000 jobs, in the final two years of his programme.

Mr. Kerr feels it would be more practical for Mr. Paulwell to seriously revise his figures downward, and present the nation with a more realistic and attainable projection.

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