KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaica government is providing J$200 million towards establishing a Fiscal Research Institute within the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
“Further endowments will follow this to establish the Fiscal Research Institute, which, we expect, will be financed from the returns on its endowment,” said Finance and Public Service Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke.
He told legislators that he intends to secure the private sector’s support in endowing the Chair of the Institute as part of the Government’s initiative in collaboration with the UWI.
The Fiscal Research Institute will be a non-partisan think tank conducting rigorous, high-level research, teaching, and training in public finance and public policy.
It will offer courses in public finance and public financial management at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
The Institute will analyze and inform economic and social policy decisions, particularly those involving public expenditure, taxation, and fiscal sustainability, to help policymakers and the general population understand the impact of public choices on individuals, households, firms, and the Government’s financial position.
“While we will always be able to benefit from the advice of our multilateral partners, the Jamaica project becomes unsustainable without the increased domestic capacity for public finance management training, analysis, and research,” Clarke said.
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