Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Senator Aubyn Hill, has urged Jamaicans to get creative, manufacture more goods and supply services to make the country rich and prosperous.

Hill, who was speaking at a Post Cabinet Press briefing at Jamaica House on Wednesday morning, believes that approach will make the country’s gross domestic product per capita amongst the best in the world.

Currently, Jamaica’s GDP per capita is US$6,874 a far cry when compared to other Caribbean islands headed by Bermuda (US$125,000) and The Bahamas (US$36,000).

“Turks and Caicos, they don’t even have a lot of rock stone like we have. We see where they are US$30,000. Barbados, US$23,000. I’m gonna go to Trinidad and Tobago, which is US$20,000,” said Hill.

The minister who once led the NCB group noted that in 2021 Jamaica imported nearly US$6b while exporting US$1b for a huge deficit, something that has been happening since independence every year except for one.

“When I saw that, I said this is a recipe not to get rich,” said Hill. “We have had 62 years of independence and we have had one year of a positive trade balance. Sixty-one of those years have been really negative trade balance except for 1966 when sugar made sense and bauxite was good, that’s where we were.”

Hill urged small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jamaica to step up to the plate and change those figures.

“The Canadians are not going to do that for us. The Americans not gonna do it. The Chinese not gonna do it. The British not gonna do it, not even our friends in Trinidad and Tobago not going to do it. It’s us Jamaicans who will have to change that figure.

“It’s not gonna take six months like I see some foolish people writing about. You have 61 years of negative and you want to change that in a year. Where is your head?”

“When I presented to Cabinet in October I told them this is not a six months job. It’s not even a six-year job. It’s gonna take time, but you have to work on it every single day to make that time shorter as much as we can,” he added.

Hill said his government has put things in place to help local businesses make that step.

“We’re gonna have to make sure we change that, but there are other things that struck me as I looked at the numbers and why we had to set a clear export policy. We’re gonna have to find ways to grow. We fixed our fiscal stuff, and we must keep it fixed. But we have to grow because, otherwise, we won’t be able to pay our bills, and we’re gonna go back to where we were. We cannot do that.

“We want more and more Jamaicans to invest. I want to tell you that we have 20 agencies in my ministry alone to work with you. You know many of them, JBDC, JAMPRO…,” said Hill.