MR. BRUCE Golding, who recently returned to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), said the best way to spur growth in the economy is by proper fiscal and monetary management and a proactive approach to try and stimulate new investment.

"In the short term, a way that could impact significantly on the economy is trying to assist existing idle capacity to get back up to speed," Mr. Golding said. He was addressing The Gleaner's Editor's Forum last Friday.

"There are businesses that still have not recovered from the savaging of FINSAC," he said. "If I had those decisions to make, one thing I would want to do quickly up front is to make businesses more attractive by giving them a little help out of the hole that they are in.

"That would mean returning to production quickly and putting people to work as quickly as possible."

The country's burgeoning debt has long been a hindrance to the economy and ways to curtail its reliance on borrowing have been the subject of much debate.

"It is absolutely necessary to reduce our current reliance on debt. One of the things I would like to see is a cap put on our debt," he said . "I'd like to see a Government that says look, here is where our level of debt is now and we won't be borrowing a dollar more and then put in place a phased programme for its reduction.

"I think the debt mountain is the country's number one problem. Ideally I would put a cap on our debt right now and would structure a programme of downward adjustment over a period of time.

"The PNP targeted a reduction of the debt to GDP ratio to 100 per cent by 2006 and then 90 per cent, as part of the strategy to manage the national debt and reduce debt servicing costs. I think that would be a reasonable target but I would like to go beyond that, I would like to see the debt go down to more than 60 per cent of GDP and I think we should specify this."

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