As is customary, I must begin with the acknowledgement of the support which have received throughout the year, especially in the preparation of the Budget documentation.

One always courts problems in singling out persons and institutions given that so many contribute to the Budget process. However, I have no option but to give due respect and acknowledgement to the following:

• The Financial Secretary, the Deputy Financial Secretaries and the staff of the Ministry of Finance and all its different departments;

• The Governor and Deputy Governors and the staff of the Bank of Jamaica;

• The Director General and staff of the Planning Institute of Jamaica. Even whilst we sit, work is being done to ensure that more documentation is available;

• The Director General and the staff of the Statistical Institute who have toiled to prepare all the documentation, some of which was presented weeks ago and some which are presented today;

• The staff of FINSAC and the FIS

• My personal staff who, in addition to putting up with me normally, have had to put up with me during the last few weeks and days abnormally;

• The Jamaica Printing Services, who have worked for years but every year they deliver, and a lot of the documentation here reflects their dedication and efficiency;

• Members of my constituency for returning me as an MP, for which I am grateful, but also giving the Prime Minister the opportunity to reappoint me as Minister of Finance.

This is my fifth opportunity to open the Budget Debate, and I think it is generally acknowledged that this is perhaps the most difficult presentation I will make. Not only because I am reporting on a difficult calendar year 1997, on a difficult fiscal year '97/98, but because the efforts in order to recapture the gains which were achieved on the fiscal 'de in previous years will have to be, as the multilateral love to say "front loaded" in terms of fiscal year '98/99. Despite being a difficult year, I must note in passing, the fact that the people of this country went to the polls during the fiscal year and gave this Administration a resounding vote of confidence. Of particular significance, to me at least, was that economic issues, especially inflation and the exchange rate policy did not feature in the campaign. There must be a strong lesson somewhere.

The structure of my presentation will follow the traditional pattern but as we have prepared a great deal of documentation I can be allowed to treat several issues in summary form, since those who are interested in details and numbers will have more than adequate material in the form of the official publications and the Ministry Papers which have been tabled.

In terms of the structure of my presentation, I will briefly review the out-turn for fiscal year '97/98, and, given the way in which the data are collected, in certain instances, I will make reference to calendar year 1997. Then I will look at developments in the financial sector, with the focus on the operations of FIS and FINSAC, as well as the progress made in the passage of financial legislation. I next turn to the discussion of the Economic Programme for fiscal year 1998/99, but I wish to stress that this will be done within the context of a three-year medium term programme, and the reason for stressing the context will become more obvious as I move into the presentation. Naturally, since this is a discussion about fiscal year '98/99, that will be the focus.

Against the background of the three-year programme for '98/99, '99/2000 to 2001, 1 will next summarize the Expenditure Budget. But again, given that we have the documentation for some weeks, and it's been in the public realm for an extended period I will not spend much time on that except to highlight certain particular areas. Then I will discuss programmes aimed at stimulating growth and then I will speak about how this Budget will be financed. Then I will conclude the presentation.

Having outlined the structure of the presentation, let me indicate that my aim this afternoon is to make a presentation with two equally important objectives. In the first instance, the presentation must establish beyond a shadow of a doubt the technical integrity of the economic programme, ensuring that all the various pieces and policies complement each other. This is nothing new but this has become increasingly critical as we seek to successfully access the international capital market. It is not that this internal consistency was not required in the past, but as I indicate we are in a bigger stage.

Of equal importance, I need to indicate to all the various sectors which make up this extremely complex society - and this includes not only those who are residents here but those who are part of the extensive and extended Jamaican family throughout the world the rationality and the eventual benefits from the set of policies which we have pursued and which we are discussing for the medium term. In this regard, effort must be made to address the concerns, the fears and the hopes of various social groups and classes which comprise this country. For unless this complex amalgamation of sometimes diametrically different viewpoints can be pulled together around a central theme, then the technical coherence of the financial programme may become useless since the relevant social groups have not bought into it.

Therefore, the issues of ensuring not only the technical coherence of the programme, but also the fact that each of the various social and economic groups buys into this programme, is perhaps the more difficult task and it's something which we have to spend time on this afternoon.

Before I go further, I would like to make an appeal to the private sector and to the media, that to carry out proper analysis we need access to adequate data. We have a difficulty in collecting data and as a result, STATIN and similar agencies labor under a major handicap in their efforts to collect reliable information.

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