EDITORIAL - A good move by Dr Tufton

LATE IN 2008 when the administration still believed that the sub-prime meltdown would be either good for Jamaica, or that this country would be immune to the ravages of the oncoming recession, this newspaper proposed to the Government a number of strategies for confronting the emerging crisis.

Among these were suggestions for the naming of global trade and investment ambassadors who would leverage their prestige and contacts to drum up business for Jamaica to help the country map a route through the economic turbulence. In Britain, the Labour Party was still in office and Gordon Brown, the prime minister. Mr Brown named a number of senior executives business ambassadors, with much the same mandate.

Our government probably didn't notice the advice, or felt it would be of little efficacy. Nor did it take on board our suggestion that it follow President Obama's strategy when he named Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric, to head a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Better late than never

But, as the saying goes, better late than never. In the circumstance, therefore, we welcome last weekend's announcement by the new investment and trade minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, of the plan to appoint businessman Patrick Casserly as a special ambassador for information and communication technologies in his ministry.

Said Dr Tufton: "... He will be integral to all activities relating to the development of and promotion of the ICT sector in Jamaica, and will work closely with JAMPRO to execute a discrete programme of promotional activities specifically geared towards the attraction of investors to this sector and the expansion of existing companies within the industry."

We view the strategy and the specific appointment on two fronts.

First, Dr Tufton could hardly have made a better choice than Mr Casserly, who has been a talented and successful entrepreneur. He was a founder and CEO of e-Services, a business process outsourcing company that, before its sale two years ago, he built from a handful of employees to more than 4,000 employees in Jamaica and St Lucia.

Endless potential

But more critical for Jamaica is the potential offered by the ICT sector: investment and job creation when it was envisaged by one of Dr Tufton's predecessors, Mr Phillip Paulwell, over a decade ago during his engineering of the liberalisation of the telecoms sector. Unfortunately, Mr Paulwell botched the programme to support business process outsoucing companies, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Nonetheless, a decade on, business-outsourcing operations in Jamaica employ 11,000 people and, according to Dr Tufton, gross around US$145 million a year. More important, though, the Latin America and Caribbean market is valued at US$2.5 billion and expected to double over the next two years.

Dr Tufton, rightly, wants Jamaica, which has available to it the latest in ICT technology and a pool of young and trainable talent, as well as being close to the world's major market for such services - the United States - to have a share of this growth. In that regard, Mr Casserly is to help refine the ICT strategy and, we suppose, tramp the pavements.

Maybe Dr Tufton can meet his goal of 40,000 ICT jobs in three years, which defied Mr Paulwell. Dr Tufton has a head start, including Mr Paulwell's missteps, as a guide. And he has Mr Casserly.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.