Business View Caribbean | November 2020

24 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN NOVEMBER 2020 of building by way of housing apartments. For at least the past 20 years, we have been short on housing stock for a certain category of income. So there is a lot of potential in that area, if you can bring a two-bedroom, two-bath unit in for say 13 million Jamaican dollars, which is about $100,000 US. Then you will get ready purchasers because that segment of the market is largely unsatisfied and the demand is soaring. There are some builders who only operate in that sector, so they are always doing work. Kelly sums up the overall importance of the Association by saying, “At IMAJ, we encourage everybody in the industry to deliver on Time, Cost, and Quality (TCQ). Our training usually surrounds contracts and scheduling and such things that will help you to perform. Most of the larger contractors on the island are members of IMAJ and we also have trade suppliers, so it’s not just contractors. It’s a lot of persons who are involved in the industry, whether they are providing a service, or goods, or equipment. We advocate on a range of issues and we are consulted by government on various issues, also. So we encourage everyone to join, to make the industry stronger, because it’s important to serve our country in whatever capacity we can. We want people to build the best standards and help to train the young people. We pay school fees for children of construction workers and they don’t have to be from a member company. Once you are a construction worker, your child will qualify. For colleges, we don’t do the top performers, we give scholarships to the students who will perform better if they get help; the ones the school identifies as having potential but are struggling financially. We have a bunch of them in the industry who have come through that program and are doing well.”