Ministry of Industry Investment and Commerce

7 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 operations, and information distribution since arriving in office last year. The focus, he explains, is on export, investment, and global trade. “We have ramped up our social media arrangement, because that’s how most people get their information these days, especially following the pandemic. Our Minister of Tourism travels the world to find new markets and airlines with can bring Jamaica into their network.” The Minister continues, “We are following his lead; in October of 2022, I traveled to Guyana with 35 business leaders, and we were received very well. We were invited to come back by senior government members and are doing so in January, this time with over 60 business leaders. We will be attending B2B meetings and arranging export and trade developments. The United States is a valuable global partner in this way also; both for export and investment opportunities.” Coming out of the pandemic, Jamaica’s economy grew by 8.2%, compared to an average rate of 1% per fiscal year from 1976 to 2016. “Jamaica is a fine investment destination, and our currency has been very stable,” Minister Hill elaborates. “Our focus moving forward is to build on this growth. Export, export, export is our unofficial motto. Last year, we celebrated our 60th Independence anniversary. I had my researchers look at 61 years of data from 1960, and they found that in the entire 61 years, we had one year of a positive trade balance. This was in 1966- decades ago. In 2021, we imported over five billion US dollars worth of goods and services, compared to just under 1.5 billion US dollars worth of exports.” “We have a per capita GDP of under 5000 US dollars across around 3 million people. If we continue to sell to only 3 million relatively poor people, our opportunity for growth is very slim. To boost our capability, Jamaica has to sell to the world, which means we need investments in manufacturing, professional services, and other exportable businesses. That in turn requires all of our businesses to be trained and ready to export.” The Minister continues with a note on Jamaica’s bright future. “Jamaica may not have the landmass of the US, Canada, China, or Russia, but we do have a solid foundation and committed government on which to build. Our strategy is to follow in the footsteps of small, wealthy countries such as Singapore, Japan, Latvia, and Luxembourg- they don’t have large populations, but their people are highly trained. To succeed in our export ventures, we will invest significantly in the training of our people. Jamaica as a country is unlikely to grow in terms of landmass or facility, but we are confident in our ability to grow our wealth using an abundance of knowledge.”