‘We need a plan’ – Sagicor boss says Jamaica’s ‘corner shop’ economy holding nation back

Jamaica is lagging behind because it has no plans to solve its economic and social problems and create an environment in which the country’s potential can be realised, says the head of the island’s largest life insurance company.

Richard Byles, president and CEO of Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited, lamented the deepening of the nation’s woes, while countries like Singapore and Barbados are achieving creditable growth in their gross domestic product (GDP).

He said the growth levels of those two countries, as well as Jamaica, could in the recent past have been compared to a corner shop.

“One has become a supermarket, the other a Wal-Mart and the third has remained a corner shop. That’s Jamaica,” he declared while speaking Saturday night at the annual awards banquet of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.Read more on the Gleaner’s website

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