Jampro at 30
Published:Thursday | April 26, 2018 | 12:00 AM
The linking of former Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga to the country's emerging modern highway network is controversial, but his paternity of the merged national trade and investment vehicle, Jampro, which is this year marking 30 years of operation, is probably more settled.
Jampro is said to have brought some J$150 billion in foreign direct investment into the Jamaica and facilitated more than US$1 billion in export sales over the past five years.
Jampro President Diane Edwards believes that the agency she has headed since September 2013 has "a strong story to tell", even while the numbers were still being crunched to paint a picture of its total economic contribution to Jamaica over the three decades.
"The impact of Jampro has been felt over the years through job creation, investments and exports. I think we have a creditable record in all of those, and I think we have a strong story to tell the public," Edwards said.
Still bearing fruit
Part of that story is the 45,000 direct jobs created through its efforts and thousands more in indirect employment.
"Jampro has been responsible for a number of impactful initiatives and you are still seeing the fruits," Edwards told the Financial Gleaner in an interview at the agency's New Kingston head office.
The trade and investment agency was created in 1988 from the merger of Jamaica National Investment Promotions, JNIP, then located in the Office of the Prime Minister; the Jamaica National Export Corporation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; and the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation, then under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Edwards worked with forerunner JNIP from 1981, left the merged entity in 2001, and became president a dozen years later.
She previously headed up the United Kingdom and Europe office in London; and was in the New York office between 1984 and 1988 when that outpost was run by Audley Shaw, who is now again her boss as the new industry minister.
Overseas options
The New York office, shuttered for many years, has just recently been reopened as Jampro streamlines its operations with an eye on the next 30 years.
China is under consideration as a location to set up shop, but Edwards noted that the move cannot be done now because of resource constraints.
It might be late in the game, but Jampro is also at the forefront of a multiagency process to create a national investment policy, led by Chairman Don Wehby.
"There isn't any accepted and agreed-on policy as to how we attract investment and what we do with it," Edwards acknowledged.
Among the big successes claimed by Jampro is the data entry industry of the 1980s and 1990s, which has "morphed into the BPO industry" - now the darling of job creation, accounting for more than 26,000 jobs.
Another gem, according to Edwards, was the 807 garment industry, which thrived during the 1980s with the United States as a main market, but died after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, a trade pact involving the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Jampro is not responsible for all foreign direct or local investments, but is structured to promote investments, job creation and the export of Jamaican products and services as part of the Vision 2030 national development plan. Its sectoral focuses include tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, mining and minerals; services, including the creative industries; energy, and logistics business.
"We have sector managers and they develop and manage strategic plans for each sector to drive capital investment, job creation and export growth. Each has targets that add up to the overall target for the organisation," Edwards explained.
Following a recent organisa-tional review overseen by the Wehby-led board of directors, the agency is to zero in on its primary role as a marketer, with its first mandate to position and promote 'Brand Jamaica'.
"A brand means that we have to be managing a promise, a message, a positioning - and right now, I do not think that we are managing that in any structured way," Edwards said.
Jampro's second mission is to lead and coordinate the improvement of the business environment in Jamaica to get business done more easily and efficiently for Jamaicans as well as foreign investors.
The agency is now charged with getting the country firmly and consistently etched into the top 10 countries where it's easiest to do business, and is working with a World Bank consultant on this mission.
"The ranking is like a race, if you don't run faster than the next country, you will slip relative to other countries. The rankings are relative, not absolute. We are one of the fastest reformers in the Caribbean, but other countries reformed faster than we did," said Edwards. The agency's immediate focus is on areas where the country is lagging - registering property, trading across borders, paying taxes, and enforcing contracts.
The full review involves some 70 indicators, sectors and entities that impact the country's ranking for business friendliness.
By year end, for example, the Companies Office of Jamaica is to activate full online registration of businesses. This is to be part of an online Jamaica business portal, which is now largely information-based, but is intended to be transactional on completion within the next two years.