he main priority for Jamaica’s Development Minister, Paul Robertson, is to create more jobs. “The unemployment rate is around 15 per cent and we want to reduce it to below 10 per cent in this term of office,” he says.
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The Minister, in agreement with other government agencies and the private sector, wants to encourage foreign and local investors to create sustainable employment. The tourism and information sectors are high on the agenda, both of which he says will create further construction and service jobs, as well as increased demand for agricultural products.
”We have only begun to scratch the surface of our potential in tourism,” says Dr Robertson. He hopes the full liberalisation of Jamaica’s telecommunications sector will encourage more foreign investors to enter the market. Call centres, which can serve the English-speaking world, is one area with potential for development. “We also want to get into other areas of telecoms operations and software development. We feel there is a lot of that type of activity we could develop and the basic infrastructure is in place to support it,” he adds.
Dr Robertson stresses that Jamaica is working to create a strong single market within the region through Caricom, the Caribbean Community. “We are developing a single market but within that framework we still wish to see Jamaica developing and doing well within that market,” he adds.
Up-to-the-minute information about investment prospects can be obtained 24 hours a day from the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro). Jampro has effectively eliminated red tape and acts like a ‘one-stop’ shop for investors.
Patricia Francis, President of Jampro, says: “The investors we are looking for are to a large extent, the investors who will become our exporters. We are working with those companies who are transforming traditional products into new, interesting, world-class products.
“We
are working with the Japanese on banana fibre, which can be used for
making paper or fabric. We are experimenting to see if we can come up
with a new product by mixing Sea Island cotton and banana fibre.”
The services sector is where Mrs Francis believes Jamaica will score
best of all. “Jamaica has [proportionally] more professionals
than any other English-speaking country outside of the United States
and Canada,” she says.
“We are strategically located, but the question is how to adapt
our human resources to the world trend in moving services offshore.
We have a strategy to move up in IT and we think Jamaica could be a
‘digital gateway’ in the Caribbean.”
Mrs Francis says that, while the country does have more skilled people in the workforce, many foreigners still think of Jamaica as a tropical island holiday paradise. “The challenge, therefore, is to overcome the image of being just a playground and present ourselves as a nation of serious people.”
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