Diaspora Confab: Growth prospects looking bright for Jamaica – EGC Chairman

Jamaicans living overseas are being encouraged to invest their long-term savings in projects that have been identified by the government as having significant growth potential.

Chairman of the Economic Growth Council (EGC), Michael Lee-Chin, told delegates attending the Jamaica 55 Diaspora Conference in downtown Kingston yesterday that they would get better returns if they invested at least 20 per cent of their long-term savings in the country.

At the official opening of the conference on Sunday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness identified logistics, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), nutraceuticals and agriculture as areas for investment.

Lee-Chin said the time to invest in Jamaica is now as the growth prospects for the island are now looking bright.

Lee-Chin pointed to the country's inflation rate which he said is at historically low levels, at less than four per cent, as well as the stabilisation of the local currency and strong support from international multilateral agencies as factors that make it attractive to invest.

The billionaire Jamaican said the National Commercial Bank, for which he is the majority shareholder, is doing phenomenally well because of the positive happenings in the Jamaican economy.

In addition to making attractive returns, the EGC chairman told those attending the four-day conference now under way that investing here would also boost the local economy, increase employment and thereby reduce crime and violence and the other social ills affecting the society.

Further, he told the group that a positive turn around in the Jamaican economy would lead to a revaluation of all assets owned locally.

Lee-Chin also said the aim of achieving five per cent Gross Domestic Product growth by 2020 remains on track.