KINGSTON, Jamaica — During Wednesday’s Sectoral Debate in Jamaica’s House of Representatives, Opposition spokesperson for Productivity, Efficiency and Competitiveness Peter Bunting delivered a stark assessment of the country’s long-term economic trajectory, warning that decades of slow growth have left Jamaica trapped in stagnation even after achieving macroeconomic stability.
As the Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern laid out, Jamaica’s average annual real GDP growth has hovered around just 1% for multiple decades, placing it among the lowest-performing developing economies in the world. Bunting outlined a cascade of persistent economic weaknesses: labour productivity has actually contracted over the past quarter century, inflows of foreign direct investment have plummeted from previous peak levels, gross fixed capital formation has weakened, and real wages have remained under consistent downward pressure. Compounding these challenges, he added, a persistent brain drain continues to drain the country of its most skilled workers, who leave in droves to seek better professional opportunities abroad.
“In short, we have stabilised the economy without transforming it,” Bunting told the legislative body. He noted that leading global economic bodies including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development all share a consistent consensus on the core requirements for long-term sustained growth: nations that prosper over generations do so by continuously boosting productivity, strengthening institutional governance, investing in human capital, fostering a culture of innovation, and building a policy environment that allows domestic and foreign businesses to compete and scale. Nations that fail to prioritize productivity improvements, he argued, eventually hit an insurmountable growth ceiling marked by stagnant wages and shrinking economic opportunity — a position Jamaica finds itself in today, per his assessment.
A key target of Bunting’s critique was the recent sectoral progress report from Audrey Marks, Minister of Efficiency, Innovation, and Digital Transformation, who pointed to rising volumes of online transactions, expanded electronic payment infrastructure, and increased digital government services as evidence of meaningful progress. Bunting pushed back on this framing, arguing that increased digital activity does not equate to improved productivity.
He pointed out that Jamaican businesses still grapple with widespread systemic inefficiencies, including redundant reporting requirements, fragmented government administrative systems, and unreasonably lengthy approval processes for critical business activities. Even with digital expansion efforts, more than 70% of all transactions in Jamaica remain cash-based, and adoption of the Bank of Jamaica’s central bank digital currency JAM-DEX has remained negligible despite the central bank’s extensive outreach and investment. Inter-bank payment systems still operate under constraints rooted in outdated institutional structures that do not align with the demands of a 24/7 modern digital economy: the Bank of Jamaica’s Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system only operates between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., while commercial banks’ Automated Clearing House (ACH) still processes payments on a next-day basis.
“Technology is an enabler, not a substitute for reform,” Bunting stated. “If inefficient processes are simply transferred from paper to computer screens, what emerges is not efficiency but digital bureaucracy. Productivity gains arise when processes are fundamentally redesigned, responsibilities are clarified, duplication is eliminated and institutions become more responsive. Technology can facilitate that transformation, but it cannot replace it.”
Bunting emphasized that the trend of Jamaica’s labour productivity over the past 25 years should be a wake-up call for every member of the legislature. Today, he confirmed, Jamaica’s overall labour productivity — measured as real GDP per worker — remains lower than it was a quarter century ago. For context, he compared this performance to peer economies: over the same 25-year period, U.S. labour productivity grew roughly 50%, while China’s saw an expansion of more than 400%. Even among direct regional competitors in Latin America and the Caribbean, which Jamaica competes with for foreign investment and export market share, productivity gains have been far stronger than Jamaica’s results.