Growth & Jobs | Positioning Jamaica as a product: Export-led investment business missions

PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) Shullette Cox says the organisation, through the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, is actively promoting Jamaica as an attractive business destination within new and traditional markets.

“We take great pride at JAMPRO in being Jamaica’s marketing agency. Jamaica is our product, and we are very aggressive about how we sell the value proposition that Jamaica brings,” she stated in a recent interview with Caribbean Business Exchange.

Through ministerial export-led business missions, JAMPRO has coordinated several delegations with local businesses, enabling them to engage in business-to-business meetings across various sectors. Already, Minister of Industry, Investment, and Commerce Senator Aubyn Hill has led these missions to countries including Guyana, Trinidad, the Dominican Republic, the United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Recently, Hill led a mission to Latin America (LATAM), where several Jamaican companies were able to forge connections and initiate discussions for export and investment opportunities. These countries included El Salvador, Colombia, and Mexico.

“We aim to make our big exporters bigger, our small exporters big, and introduce new exporters into the exporting community. We also want to introduce all exporters to new markets beyond what we know,” Cox stated.

She added that the LATAM mission opened new opportunities for Jamaica in sectors such as tourism, global digital services, and construction.

“One of the things that we advocate for is that as a construction company (in LATAM), we want you to come to Jamaica and meet other developers and partner [with us] so that we can also build our local construction industry. We want to make sure that Jamaican companies are a part of that process,” she said.

Noting that the mission exceeded expectations, Cox said the organisation is following up on the opportunities identified for local companies and potential investors in those markets.

Against this backdrop, she encouraged business leaders to participate in these ministerial business missions to benefit from market penetration support and business matchmaking with key players who are encouraged by the credibility of the Government’s involvement. Exporters are encouraged to contact JAMPRO at info@dobusinessjamaica.com for further information on upcoming missions and export and investment facilitation services.