December 2016 | Business View Caribbean

74 75 are viewing agriculture as part of the business community and our farmers as members of the MSME fraternity. In this way, we incorporate all elements of both agriculture and business – which has worked out very, very well.” BVM: What particular programs or initiatives are fundamental to the Ministry’s mandate; how does it provide support and governance to the businesses of the island? SAMUDA: “We seek to expand the production of food and farm produce, ranging from live- stock to vegetables. One of our initiatives is the linkage between the Ministry of Industry, Com- merce, Agriculture and Fisheries with the Min- istry of Tourism, where we have established a council that addresses the needs of the tourism sector. And, in this way, we are able to produce more of the items that are used by our visitors to the island, and we retain foreign exchange because we don’t have to buy them from over- seas. So, we are seeking to use the tourism sector as an export industry. It’s just like export- ing to the United States, but we ‘export” to the various hotels within the sector.” BVM: What percentage of the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) comes from the agri- cultural sector? SAMUDA: “The agricultural sector, by itself, provides over 30 percent of the total employ- ment in the country, and is running between seven and nine percent of GDP. But we are hop- ing to move that up quite a bit. Over the quar- ter, ending this past June, 2016, the agricultural sector grew by 13.5 percent, and we contribut- ed, in that quarter, 0.5 percent of GDP growth. So, we are hoping, and expecting, that with the MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY - JAMAICA thrust in production of agriculture products, that we will contribute, over the next four years, in the region of two to three percent of the Gross Domestic Product.” BVM: How does the Ministry attract new foreign investment? SAMUDA: “Our foreign investment portfolio is handled by JAMPRO (Jamaica Promotions Corpora- tion), one of the agents of government, and, of course, the Minis- try. I, myself, just re- turned from London two weeks ago, where we met with distribu- tors and regulators to determine the criteria under which our exports are accepted into their coun- try. And we are hoping to give them the level of confi- dence that they need to purchase our goods by main- taining international standards on a consistent basis. If we are not certified, we won’t be able to attract the markets that we are seeking to penetrate. That’s one of our main missions – to convince purchasing agents overseas that our products carry the level of integrity and consistency that is required and meet all the sani- tary requirements of international trade.” BVM: Is the Ministry involved in the ongoing pro- cess of attempting to establish Jamaica as one of