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Growth & Jobs | DBJ receives UTech, Jamaica’s GEM 2021-22 Report

Published:Tuesday | March 14, 2023 | 12:54 AM
Deborah Newland (second left), general manager of the Strategic Services Division at the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), accepts a copy of the ‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Jamaica 2021/2022 National Report’, from Professor Colin Gyles, act
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Deborah Newland (second left), general manager of the Strategic Services Division at the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), accepts a copy of the ‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Jamaica 2021/2022 National Report’, from Professor Colin Gyles, acting president, University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) on Thursday, March 2. at the launch of the report. Looking on are Dr Andrea Sutherland (left), dean, College of Business and Management, UTech; and Kim Mair, chief executive officer, JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2021/2022 Jamaica Report was launched during a ceremony at the University of Technology on Thursday, March 2.

In 2022, the Development Bank of Jamaica contributed $5 million to UTech to research and produce the report which is coordinated worldwide. In recognition of the importance of this study, the Joan Duncan Foundation also contributed to the exercise with a contribution of $2.5 million.

Speaking at the launch, which was held on the UTech campus in Kingston, Deborah Newland general manager of the Strategic Services Division at the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) said, “The Development Bank of Jamaica, through our wide range of capacity development, technical assistance and loan programmes, is the premier support to the development of entrepreneurship in Jamaica. Our multiplicity of partnerships with local business development organisations, commercial banks and our international development partners will be enhanced exponentially with our new thrust to partner more closely with entities such as UTech, to conduct applied research, which will facilitate the collection of data to inform our policies and programmes to create positive, real, and targeted social and developmental change in Jamaica.

“Much of the DBJ’s work focuses on the entrepreneurial sector and the GEM Jamaica 2021/2022 Report (as a participating research project to the GEM Global Report) examines the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and national economic growth. The findings, therefore, are extremely important to the bank and development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jamaica.”

The survey and data collection supporting the GEM Jamaica 2021-2022 Report took place between 2021-2022 and was stratified by parish, gender, age, education levels and entrepreneurial activity.

The GEM research consortium, which has been measuring entrepreneurial activity across the world since 1998, hosts the world’s largest standing study of global entrepreneurial activity and highlights emerging trends in economies.