How Jamaica and its prime minister are becoming a mini-superpower in the Caribbean

New commercial and high-end condominiums are rising from the dirt, the minimum wage is going up, unemployment is the lowest it’s been in years and tourism – the engine of the economy – is once more booming.

After years of being hobbled by crippling debt, double-digit deficits and negative growth, Jamaica, the largest island in the English-speaking Caribbean, is showing its ability to weather crises — and its hard-won economic stability is getting noticed along with the leadership of its prime minister.

In just the past 4 months, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and welcomed United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the newly appointed president of the World Bank Group, Ajay Banga, to the island. Banga’s visit, just 12 days into the job, was part of his months-long global tour and the first by a World Bank president in an official capacity in recent times.

And all of it is happening as the country continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, whose adverse effects had the economy shrinking by nearly 10 percent – its largest decline in history.

“We have implemented policies that are on the one hand empowering but on the other hand competitive and efficient,” Holness said in a recent interview with the Miami Herald at his office in Kingston. “We have sought to manage our debt, to bring it down.”

Known for its white sandy beaches, reggae music and world class sprinters, Jamaica had the dubious distinction just a few years ago of being one of the world’s most indebted countries. Its public debt was a record 147 percent of Gross Domestic Product just a decade ago.