Stimulus package to be revealed next month

The government will reveal a
stimulus package next month to put Cayman “back on the path to economic
prosperity”, Premier McKeeva Bush announced in his Strategic Policy Statement
on Thursday morning.

Mr. Bush, who on 16 September
promised in a national address to announce measures within 90 days to help the
economy, stated in his policy statement that he would unveil a stimulus
programme by the end of that 90 days, which will be 15 December.

The premier said a Stimulus
Implementation Group had compiled and filtered 250 suggestions and initiatives
from numerous committees and associations and were currently “prioritising a
list of measures which are targeted for implementation in the remainder of this
fiscal year”.

This fiscal year ends on 31 May,
2011.

“At the end of the promised 90
days, I will be unveiling this stimulus programme, thereby charting the way
through the recession and back on the path to economic prosperity,” Mr. Bush
said in his policy statement which he delivered in the Legislative Assembly.

The Strategic Policy Statement sets
out the policy and financial parameters which the government uses to prepare
its next budget. It contains a broad outline of strategies rather than
allocating resources to specific expenditures or identifying individual initiatives.

This year’s policy statement
complies with a three-year plan made with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth
Office to curtain public spending and raise revenues.

Cayman’s unemployment rate is
forecast to be at 4.7 per cent during the coming financial year of June 2010 to
May 2011, followed by gradual improvements to 4.3 per cent in 2012/2013 and 4
per cent in 2013-2014, according to figures in the policy statement – based on
assumptions that the financial services and tourism industries will see a
broad-based recovery in the second half of 2011.

Mr. Bush said Cayman had to address
immigration policies that had led a number of major businesses in the financial
services industry to move significant parts of their operations to other
countries. He said refusal of work permits had led companies to move overseas,
leading to many Caymanians who had worked for those firms, to face unemployment
and local businesses to suffer.

“As a result, there are not enough
people living in the country to sustain existing businesses or to create new
business opportunities for our local economy,” Mr. Bush said, adding that
demand for apartments and rooms had dropped, thus impacting the property
market.

He said new immigration policies
were being instituted to encourage long-term business opportunities.

“Let me also be very clear, the
government will ensure that our immigration and work permit policies seek to
stop unscrupulous employers who systematically refuse to hire willing and able
Caymanians and conveniently submit for work permits,” Mr. Bush said. Although
he stressed this happened in a minority of cases, the government would use the
established link between the Department of Employment and the Department of Employment
Relations to “root out such practices”.

Check back on caycompass.com for
more on the Strategic Policy Statement or read Friday’s Caymanian Compass.