Jamaica Is “Open for Business”

Jamaica’s trade and investment agency, JAMPRO, recently convened the Jamaica Investment Forum 2012 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The two-day forum focused on business opportunities in the areas of Information and Communication Technology, Tourism, Manufacturing, as well as privatization and development projects.

Staged in collaboration with Compete Caribbean and its joint funding agencies, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Kingdom Department for International Development and the Canadian International Development Agency, the forum was supported by the Jamaica Tourist Board.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller told attendees the objectives of the forum were to promote investment opportunities “in Jamaica’s most promising sectors with the highest job-creation potential,” to raise Jamaica’s profile as “a viable and credible investment destination” and to increase investor confidence “by demonstrating the Government of Jamaica’s commitment to facilitating investment projects which have significant impact.”

Prime Minister Miller made the matter very plain.

“We are providing a signal to the investment community that Jamaica is serious about being a business- friendly environment,” Miller said. “We are open for business.”

She listed Jamaica’s benefits to the investment community: its official language is English, its “improved telecommunications infrastructure and extensive road network,” modern airports and seaports, “a trainable workforce, a good industrial relations climate, and a government that is solidly pro-business.”

She acknowledged the challenges posed by the recession, which has “had an adverse impact on, among other things, markets for our products, the number of visitors to our shores and the amount they spend; the level of inflows of our biggest sources of net foreign exchange earnings – remittances and Foreign Direct Investment.”

Inward flows, according to the World Investment Report, have declined for $1.4 billion U.S. in 2008 to just over $201 million in 2010, she said.  

With an eye toward Jamaica’s role in the international credit community, she said, “We have begun re-engaging with the International Monetary Fund with the objective of entering an agreement that will place emphasis on social stability, growth and development, based on credible and achievable macro-economic targets.”

Toward this end, she said she had directed Minister of Justice Mark Golding, who chairs the Legislation Committee of her cabinet, to overhaul the legislative process in order to improve Jamaica’s “competitiveness.”

“We believe that our country, at this stage, possesses all the ingredients to make your investment profitable,” she said.

“We welcome both investments where you wish to be on your own, as well as those in which you wish to collaborate with the State.”

With the obvious importance of tourism to Jamaica’s financial outlook, Minister of Tourism & Entertainment Wykeham McNeill co-hosted the Invest in Tourism Roundtable at the forum. He seconded the prime minister for the sectors he oversees.

“The Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment is closely in tune with the Government of Jamaica’s determination to facilitate an ‘enabling environment’ for investment,” McNeill said.

He said that includes further infrastructural development; ensuring environmental protection; the diversification and deepening of the product offering; and “continued human resource development for service enhancement and improved security.”

McNeill showcased several new investment opportunities in health and wellness tourism. He also provided an update on incentives and legislation programs that are being implemented to boost investment. He noted that the primary tourism areas identified as ripe for investment include health, community, nature and eco-tourism, entertainment and gaming, cultural and sports tourism.

“And importantly, the government is highly focused on policy initiatives for Information and Technology which seek to provide better ways to attract both Foreign Direct as well as Local Investment and enhance the conditions under which such investments can maximize growth for the island,” McNeill said.

“To this end we are moving to create an environment that fosters investment by removing the bureaucratic hurdles that hamper investors.”