The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce are strongly encouraging the leadership of the political parties to urge their spokespersons to channel their efforts towards expediting the much-needed national consensus on crime.

Like all Jamaicans we continue to be concerned that, despite efforts, crime remains at crisis levels.

In late October, we joined the two political parties and many other civic groups in committing to attaining a National Consensus on Crime. The undersigned private sector groupings have noted the heightened level of political rhetoric building about the state of crime in the country. In recent times, spurred by ongoing instances of violent crime activities, we also notice the discourse has seemingly moved away from being collaborative to once again being combative on the matter.

We call on both leaders to keep their teams focused on taking a joint and collaborative position on fighting crime as their primary objective, and, while we continue to support the team working on finalizing the consensus views, we similarly urge them to expedite conclusion of this united view on the steps that need to be taken to reduce this growing scourge of violence and crime that grips our nation.