PPM: Cayman making progress
Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin in LA (Photo by
Dennie Warren Jr)
(CNS): The premier claimed that his Progressive administration was making progress on Cayman’s economy when the government published its own mid-term report Friday after two years in office. Alden McLaughlin said government had made “excellent progress” and it was delivering on election promises made in its manifesto. He maintained that the progress was based on turning around the economy, which he described as being at “a standstill and in threat of backsliding” under the previous administration.
“Today we have an economy that is stronger, more sustainable and growing, with our gross domestic product up a respectable 2.1 per cent in 2014,” he said, adding that further increases were expected. “Under our stewardship the economy is improving and growing.”
However, despite the official statistics and claims about a growing economy, the PPM is struggling to convince the community that they are doing better. With Caymanian unemployment still problematic and small businesses struggling to stay afloat, not everyone is enjoying the benefits of the government’s claimed progress.
Although the government says unemployment among locals has fallen from 9.4% 2013 to 7.9% at the end of last year, not everyone is convinced the figure is accurate.
Acknowledging the need for more jobs, the premier said government had worked hard over the past two years to create an environment conducive to the growth of existing businesses, encouraging start-ups and attracting new businesses, which he hoped will lead to future jobs.
“Government is also doing its part by investing in the necessary infrastructure, including roads, airports, the landfill and cruise berthing, which will assist private growth,” he said in his address to the Legislative Assembly.
Not unlike McKeeva Bush, his predecessor, McLaughlin is still relying on promises of major private sector developments to deliver further economic success. However, with the notable exception of the Dart Group development, no significant projects, such as the promised Ironwood golf course in Frank Sound and the redevelopment of the old Hyatt, have begun. And while government is close to beginning the airport expansion, which has wide support, the cruise berthing facility is now in question and the waste-management project a long way from commencement.
Remaining upbeat about his government’s record in office so far, McLaughlin said, “No one can deny that when we took over the helm of government the country was in a mess. We set our course to restore stability to the government and its finances thereby restoring confidence while promoting economic growth.”
He added that the Progressive-led government had stuck to its plans and “consistently delivered progressive results”, and with stability restored, it would continue “to deliver strong, sustainable growth”.
Category: Government Finance, Politics
PPM what a joke
Fortunately for us the opinion of more than half of the country’s voters is more important than yours. Giving us back some form of financial accounting that mckeewa destroyed alone is a miracle and anything on earth but a joke.
The Government will just need to sit down and think things through on how their decisions will affect Cayman in the next 10 years going forward, and not how their pockets can benefit. They need to think about their children, their families and the future generations to come, not all this bickering and fighting which solve no issues. A law should and will need to be passed on how many terms one politician can run, as I think this will be really beneficial to Cayman. Alden, Kurt, Mac, and all the old school politicians (you know who you are) need to step down and retire and give the younger generation a chance to run. The people of the Cayman Islands when voting time comes around again, please make a decision on who you think will do their best to represent, solve issues and make a change in Cayman, not someone who runs with a political party, gets in government, collects a big paycheck at the end of the month from government and their companies that have outside their political job. I say “Enough is Enough”.
The Government is always saying how “The younger generations are our future”, well as a young Caymanian I don’t see how the government is changing anything and trust me I can state a lot of examples. We as an island can and need pray that they get us back on track and do what is right.
If spending $730,000,000 dollars per year on a country the size of a small town with 50,000 people is success then I stand corrected.
A lot more should be achieved with such an immense sum of money!
Meantime, crime, unemployment, poor education, dump stinks, no money for infrastructure, unauditable accounts, businesses relocating offshore, people living in huts, more mousquitos than ever, and the list goes on and on.
Look at that number again and realize what we should be getting for it! Success? Give me a break!
Well the CIG is made up of people who feel there is an obligation to employ Jamaican nationals, hence largest expenditure is revenue and check our police, education, hospital, and administrative staff majority are Jamaican nationals even if some have status, plus they send their money home and can get assistance from CIG no other nationals can get. See any British nationals standing in line outside social services? At least the British are not a drain on our resources and if we want to tax the law firms they’ll still be sticking rich, even in Cayman.
Our smart MLAs past and present can’t stand up for their people but the Jamaican AG, DPP, Chief Justice, Dep Commish, Acting Head of Education, CIMA Executives, Lands & Survey etc are all run by Jamaicans who do and can influence our MLAs to ensure their people are taken care of
Really? That’s your reply to the comment about the vast amount of money being spent by government? That Jamaican nationals in lines for social services are eating up the money?
I counter your racism and suggest that actually the money is being used to line the pockets of Caymanians in positions of power through corruption and greed.
That’s not countering racism, that is engaging in your own racism.
Really it doesn’t make sense to complain because the PPM fans are the one to blame because they voted them in. Soon Cayman won’t be a place to live in for the future generations to come because all the government/politicians are thinking about are themselves, families and their so-called friends.
From the first chapter of the UDP kool aid manual.
yep, two sides of the same coin. Birds of a feather, mate.
Did you know that two sides of the same coin are ALWAYS completely different? I pray one day that those of us who haven’t done so will wake up to the clear as day, right in our faces, undeniable from whatever angle you look fact that we have suffered beyond measure from the udp’s insanity and start supporting our present government’s efforts to sort out the incredible mess they inherited, indeed not the least of which is bringing back some form of financial system and transparency to our beloved country, rather than being hell bent on buying wotes at ANY cost to us and throwing our money to the wind at every single hint of an opportunity to do so..
The ppm again inherited a a financial mess of nefarious dealings but additionally are reaping the benefits of projects that were initiated by the prior administration. They are true to form merely coasting….they are doing nothing to address caymanian unemployment and actually created an environment which ignores the legal infrastructure put in place over many years to provide the people of these islands job security in their own country.
Effectively we can’t even thank Alden for caymanian ditch digging jobs which are the result of the prior administrations (sure often conflicted) efforts. We can however credit him with loss forever of management level positions to companies who realize they have secured the positions of expatriate workers for as long as they wish with the grant of the first permit.
The only thing he has done is use the power given to him to create a policy to punish a press organization which dared to print an opinion which was really wasn’t all that bad.
“…reaping the benefits of projects that were initiated by the prior administration”.. This is a phrase parroted a lot by UDP supporters. What projects? Do you mean the Kimpton Hotel? Should they have terminated those projects instead? Just partisan chatter.
I don’t think anyone would consider a post referencing “nefarious” and “conflicted” efforts of the prior administration as UDP support. And no one suggested, except for you, that a project be abandoned. Your response is the only part of this string that is irrelevant partisan chatter.
I am no ppm but if there is someone who appears to be hard at work and showing some results is Marco Archer.
The rest are just politicians. Talk much do little. They even started talking little judging by the frequency of the LA meetings.
Use the world economic recovery to claim local success.
I agree and would add that Winston seems to be an intelligent MLA with a lot of integrity. Would be great if a few more similar young caymanians ran in the next election.
Our Honourable Premier says, “No one can deny that when we took over the helm of government the country was in a mess.”
Er, ah, well………… Excuse me Sir, It still IS.
You’re excused. We’re working on it.
The point is that we are in a much better position than we were then. If you don’t realise that it is due to your own ignorance.
Mm tell us with incontrovertible facts what has been done to make us better off today. Please do this and I’ll kiss U
That’s easy. We have a stable government of competent individuals that is not creating scandal so we are fearing collapse or arrests for corruption each day or having the govt. sued for shady deals. It is pursuing a prudent financial strategy so we will shortly not have to have our budgets approved by the UK. They have substantially lowered the tax on diesel which will lowers the cost of living for us.
Politicians use the race card to curry favor with their supporters but what is happening is hugely damaging to Cayman and its people. The hate against expats has become palpable over the past two years and this message will be traveling far. You are already reaping the rewards by finding it difficult to recruit from overseas (Jamaica excluded). Of course its difficult to be a minority in your own country but there has to be trade offs if Cayman wants to remain one of the leaders for tax evasion.
So you are saying that it is the expats that make us “leaders in tax evasion”? I thought it was the Caymanians who were steeped in corruption.
real ppm report card:
alden: spineless
kurt: asleep on the job…
marco: got schooled by foolio on the radio a few weeks back…enough said
ozzy: incompetent and ignorant beyond belief
moses: just look at the brac ‘economy’
wayne/alvin/alva: their election was like a lottery win…free money for life for doing nothing
ju-ju: international laughing stock
Report card for Bush: Gambling on the job
Dont forget SLEEPING on the job.
But when you’re SLEEPING you’re not DRINKING and when you’re not DRINKING you’re not GAMBLING and when you’re not GAMBLING you’re not LOSING and CUSSING and when you’re not CUSSING you’re not SINNING and when you don’t sin your heart is pure and your hands are clean and you go to HEAVEN.
And getting the Government sued over shady deals.
Obviously a UDP fan. If you think the Foolio schooled Marco it invalidates the rest of your comments. You have got it completely turned around. Who is Alvin?
not a udp fan…..the last adminstration was just as bad…..but at least they had a few new ideas….
Oh sure, like branding themselves forever honerable and relocating the country’s treasury to Las vegas and forking out half a mil for a private jet ride and cruising the globe first class on our hard earned money and firing decent folks they cant wok wit and giving dart our future in concessions and giving mils to their church to buy wotes and giving away thousands of status grants for you know what and being chastised like bad little boys by mama UK for trying to sell our soul to CHEC and falling asleep in the LA and…oh forget it. Really can’t say i’ve heard any of that crap coming from the PPM, although they do seem to have given us back some form of financial accounting. Congratulations guys, press on.
Sure they did – all bad ones. Dredging the North Sound? Oil Refinery? Massive quarry crater in EE?
great stuff alden!….surely you should start holding government press conferences again to celebrate all this ‘progress’……………..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
He doesn’t hold press conferences because he doesn’t like the press taking pot shots at him. Instead he takes pot shots at the press in the LA, where they can’t touch him.
if you want to see how lame this administration is just look at what they have done with the e&y report……
can someone tell me one major ppm economic policy change????
they have just maintained the status quo form the last administration and have luckily benefitted from a better international economy…..
the ppm have not got the fortitude or ability to tackle the major issues…
They didn’t raise taxes on gasoline and everything else and use the money to take their friends on world tours to Dubai, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc saying they were going to attract “investors” to Cayman.
They didn’t try to purchase $15 million of solar panels to put on the roof tops of their supporters’ houses.
They didn’t put $5 million into a “save the mortgage” fund and gave it all out to family and friends.
They didn’t put $10 million into a “Nation Building Fund” and use it to pay school fees for their supporter’s children.
They used properly recognized financial institutions instead of their friend’s companies to save on financial transactions.
They appointed competent people to head up NGOs instead of political cronies who corrupted the process, lost us huge sums of money, and are now either in jail or facing the prospect of time in jail.
Would you like me to continue?
I assume from your comment that you would support the Compass’ recent editorial claiming much corruption in Cayman and oppose Alden’s ban on government advertising, because your list certainly back’s up Legge’s claims. Maybe you would like to continue.
If the PPM is good, simply because the UDP was bad, Cayman really is in trouble.
The corrupt practices that I mentioned were specifically linked to a single elected official and ceased once the elected official was no longer in power so that can’t be what Legge was talking about. Also, Legge as a beneficiary of the 2003 Cabinet Office status grant was meticulously careful to avoid mentioning any of XXXXXX’s shennanigans, of which there are many, as an example of corruption.
Your response once again supports Legge’s claim that corruption is so endemic in Cayman that many Caymanians, your self included it would appear, do not even recognise it as such.
Your list is not attributable to only one Caymanian. Every Caymanian who benefitted from unjustifiable trips to Dubai, China, Hong Kong, Singapore etc, every Caymanian who would have accepted free solar panels, every Caymanian who benefitted from the “save the mortgage” fund, from the ” Nation building ” fund, from unjustifiable financial service fees and through political connections is guilty of corruption.
I suspect that is quite a lot of Caymanians.
And if you think changing government impacted how those Caymanians who are corrupt operate, you are seriously deluded.
Find me one country in the world where you can’t find hundreds, make that thousands, of people who would willingly accept free trips around the world, free solar panels for their houses, free education for their children etc. etc.
Your notion of what constitutes corruption is as twisted as David Legge’s. The corruption is plainly with the person making the offer, it’s human nature for anyone to accept anything that will make their life better if it is not illegal and there are no strings attached. Except of course the invisible string of returning the giver to power repeatedly.
With this type of logic, Jeff Webb should get off scot free. Willful ignorance is no defence.
The posters point is that none of these things apply to all Caymanians or even the majority of Caymanians. If our culture is “steeped” in corruption then it means we are all corrupt. Did you ever see tea steeped in hot water where only some of the water was coloured? You are letting your racism show.
Naive and delusional or blinded by loyalty to ppm. Corruption and abuse of office takes many forms this government are as guilty as the last set. They aren’t as overt or bombastic. The players may change but the games stays the same
All that is true but they are hugely incompetent just like the last lot.
@9:30 am And i suppose that would change should we elect foreigners instead of Caymanians, because that seems to be what really irks you.Before you try to defend choosing expats ,I would like to remind you of one thing “Operation Tempura”.
Ok lets give it back to mckeewa then shall we? Outfit him with an unlimited credit card and a ticket to Las Wegas and one to China and we will all be prospering in no time.
Said the gambling rabble.
at 9:03 pm It is only fair that we benefit from a better international economy;afterall we suffered as a result of a poor international economy.
Hey Alden. How are those arrests to prove we do not tolerate corruption coming?
Shouldn’t your comments be addressed to the Commissioner of Police who is also head of the Anti-Corruption Commission?
Shouldn’t Alden be pressing him to demand answers as to why, with all the money invested, and the seemingly overt nature of some of the issues dating back to the status grants, nothing has been done? Or do we have no corruption here?
I recall last time he pressed to pursue an investigation it was deemed to be political interference in police work.
Progress for the wealthy . . .suffering for the poor.
Progress for those that contribute to the economy. Suffering for the self-pitying. Everyone wins.
CNS, you need an editorial page separate from you news articles. You always speak disparagingly about the private sector and seem to think that more government employment is the answer. That’s one point of view but ought to be on the editorial page.
“No one can deny that when we took over the helm of government the country was in a mess. We set our course to restore stability to the government and its finances thereby restoring confidence while promoting economic growth.”
Could have sworn that was in the midterm speech from the last administration… And the administration before that.
What i do see is banks closing or leaving, small businesses closing, where is the job growth? I don’t see it.
11.48..it is precisely because of lack of government action that Caymanians are falling out of the work force, they are not teaching them the skills needed in financial services, they are not teaching them what competitive means, not even how to behave in an office or other job. They need to fix it, quick.
Thsi guys must be looking through another lens. Progress is jobs not promises!! SMH
In other news economists stated that Caymans economy would have grown 15% if it were not for the politicians.
Help us! Our leaders are living in an alternate Universe! The poverty, the crime, the unemployment! Pull your head out and take a good look around this island! Come out of your ivory towers!
Well there is crime. We’ll give you that. The other two, not so much.
The phrase ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ comes to mind here. I’d say from a visible perspective the net result of two years in office is rather less than zero but then I’m not wearing the proverbial rose-tinted glasses am I?
No but your two line comments here tells us you do not want to infirm debate just crucify the ppd. Your electioneering is a bit early!
No I’m just suffering financially and don’t like it. In fact I can’t see any difference between this lot and the last lot or the lot before – they’re all as incompetent as each other and just as full of hot air and BS.
Mr. McLaughlin may be relying on promises from investors, however the country is relying on his promises (and his predecessors) on education. More jobs could be created in providing premises (i.e. schools) that are up to par (not just the airport, the government offices and the port).
As with most relatively well off countries, the best we can hope for is to keep muddling along and that our national debt burden does not completely overwhelm annual intake.
Look around the developed world. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
And it could be a lot worse.
ROFLOL this guy should be a comedian
Alden’s “there is no corruption here and to say otherwise is treason” routine is a classic. “Off with Legge’s head” is a great catchphrase.
Of course the Premier said no such thing but like Legge you wish to distort the truth for your own ends.
Delusional much? Which planet is this guy from?
Caymanian unemployment is on the rise, discrimination against Caymanians is common place, crime is on the rise, costs of living is rising, the public education system is a mess, the environment is being destroyed, Caymanians are now second class citizens in our country. A small country of 55,000 people has and operating budget of 730 million and serious long term debit but the PPM think things are alright and progress is being made.
I swear nobody could make this stuff up. It’s like the twilight zone with a government out of touch with the reality of its people. SMH
To be out of touch you would have had to been in touch to begin with. Everyday I read the news its the dump, dock, education, and crime and they’re all in a mess. We have a budget of 730 Million can anyone really look around and see what this money is being spent on? People are losing homes college graduates are at home unemployed and we are doing better?? How much worst was it?!
Caymanian unemployment is a myth. Take out the unemployable, sick,disabled, elderly and the just plain work shy, and you would be left with an extremely low unemployment rate that many countries only dream of having.
is it a myth or would we still have unemployed be it a low rate?..make up your melon.
I beg to differ. Discrimination against driftwood and non Caymanians is going through the roof.
An unfortunate and very negative consequence of what has happened to Caymanians at the hands of a small group of corrupt officials and their “friends”.
“Treason”
I think you mean discrimination in favour of non-Caymanians is going through the roof. That is found in every company where non-Caymanians are in charge.