Anthony Hylton welcomes latest competitive index

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce and chairman of the National Competitiveness Council Anthony Hylton has welcomed the latest Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum, which shows Jamaica retaining its ranking of 86.

The report, which was released last Wednesday, found a correlation between highly competitive countries and those that have either withstood the global economic crisis or made a swift recovery from it.

Jamaica, while maintaining its overall competitiveness, managed to improve its performance on procedures to starting a business, ranking third globally and eighth in the legal rights index.

According to Hylton, the importance of a more enabling business environment in Jamaica remains an emphasis as reforming the environment is a priority for his ministry and its agencies.

"Perhaps an important lesson to take away from this report is that Jamaica cannot relax its efforts to build a stronger, more enabling business environment. The country still has a lot of work to do to improve its resilience to external factors; however, there is demonstrable evidence that work has started in this regard," said Hylton.

Growth Agenda Committee

Hylton argued that the Government has taken tangible steps through the formation of the Growth Agenda Steering Committee and the National Competitiveness Council to work with ministries, departments and agencies to implement key reforms to support the business environment and increase investor confidence.

"Jamaica continues to struggle in the most problematic factors for doing business where inefficient government bureaucracy, crime and theft, tax rates, corruption and access to financing were identified as being the top five hindrances in doing business.

"As a Government, we are making strides to fix these issues as well as improve key drivers such as productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship. In this way, our human capital can flourish and so, too, our economy," said Hylton.

Global Competitiveness Index scores are calculated by drawing together country-level data covering 12 categories - the pillars of competitiveness - that collectively make up a comprehensive picture of a country's competitiveness.

The 12 pillars include institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.