March 22, 2021

The Government has partnered with the private sector to develop the E-commerce National Delivery Solution (ENDS), which will enable business continuity during the coronavirus (COVID-19) curfew hours. ENDS will allow any business or vendor to connect to and leverage the islandwide network of delivery solutions to have their goods transported safely and securely to clients. Any compliant business, taxi or courier service provider, once approved to operate during curfew hours, will be able to utilise the ENDS platform. Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, who made the announcement during a COVID-19 digital briefing on Sunday (March 21), said the development of a model is far advanced, adding that limited testing of the service has commenced with the pilot is to be launched in Portmore by March 26. “The Cabinet Sub-Committee has been working with the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica to develop a model through which the quick service industry can be allowed to continue for longer hours within the curfew. Businesses and delivery operators registered on the ENDS system will be able to operate after curfew until midnight,” he explained. Mr. Holness, who emphasised that the system is intended to be fully inclusive and equitable. noted, “[it] will enable the smallest business operator, the vendor, the jerk chicken man, your favourite fish vendor to participate”. “The Government is trying to be as creative and facilitating as possible to the continuation of our economy. This is one way, using and leveraging technology, [that] will enable businesses to continue, even during the pandemic,” the Prime Minister said. Vendors who do not have websites will be able to sign up for free through e-commerce platforms, including ‘WeShop’ and those provided by banks. ENDS is designed to ensure that the small vendors are included and not left out from making online sales during tightened curfew hours. Additionally, ENDS will also enable consumers to order essential goods, such as food and medicine, after curfew hours, and ensure that vendors and critical businesses can remain in service.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness says 12 new Special Economic Zones (SEZ) are now under construction. Mr. Holness who made the disclosure during his contribution to the 2021/22 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 18, said the SEZs which span a variety of industries, total 1.1 million sq. ft of new space. “Business confidence in the SEZ model, which was established as an economic stimulus strategy, continues to grow, with heightened local and foreign investor interest in a wide cross-section of traditional, as well as new and emerging industries,” he said. Mr. Holness noted that the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority is currently in discussions with a number of prospective investors at different stages of their projects. These include educational, medical/pharmaceutical, film, petrochemical and other commercial industries. At the end of March 2020, 98 percent, or 131 of a total of 134 approved Free Zone entities had transitioned to the new Special Economic Zone Regime. This number, together with the 52 new SEZ Developers who entered into licensing agreements with the Authority, brought the complement of SEZ entities to 183 – representing a growth trajectory of 30 percent under the new regime. Prime Minister Holness said the SEZs are spread across 11 parishes with the aim of stimulating development of commercial and logistical infrastructure to catalyze the economy. “Jamaica’s SEZs embrace a range of services including – training, incubation space, warehousing and distribution, logistics, manufacturing, assembly, and production facilities,” he stated. He further informed that the regime currently boasts 26.6 million square feet of designated SEZ area.

After quietly exploring the viability of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for some time, Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) took the decision in May 2020, as a part of our ongoing retail payments reform, to venture into this digital innovation that is fast becoming a feature of global central banks. We are proud to be a part of a trend in central banking that is being led by the Caribbean. CBDC is a digital form of central bank issued currency and is therefore legal tender. It is not to be confused with cryptocurrency, which is privately issued and not backed by a central authority. CBDC is fully backed by the Central Bank, the sole issuer. The legislative review to amend the Bank of Jamaica Act to concretize BOJ as sole issuer of CBDC is well underway. CBDC will not be a cost to consumers and will be a full complement to bank notes and coins issued by BOJ. Both CBDC and physical notes and coins will co-exist in the payment space. CBDC will have the major aspects of money, as now obtains with bank notes and coins, with the only significant difference being that it is an alternative to cash to be used primarily for transactions, and will not attract interest when stored in any account. It will, however, like cash, be a store of face value, a medium of exchange, a single unit of account, and a standard of payment. As legal tender, CBDC can be exchanged on a one to one basis with physical cash. Households and businesses will be able to use CBDC to make payments and store value at no cost. Unlike cash, however, consumers will be able to make payments with CBDC anywhere, anytime, on any compatible device. WHAT CBDC MODEL WILL WE USE? Countries and territories using CBDCs issue them using different models, usually including cross border, wholesale, retail, and hybrid (a cross between the wholesale and the retail). A cross-border CBDC entails digital currency issued by the central bank to commercial banks, which can be used for foreign exchange transactions across jurisdictions. A wholesale CBDC entails digital currency issued by the central bank directly to commercial banks, which is in turn distributed by commercial banks in the retail market. Retail CBDC entails digital currency issued by the central bank directly to all users. This would mean that all users would have CBDC accounts at the central bank. A hybrid CBDC aims to combine the benefits of both wholesale and retail in various forms, and falls somewhere on the spectrum between the wholesale and retail models. The CBDC to be issued by BOJ is solely for domestic use, and Bank of Jamaica will be using the hybrid model for issuing CBDC. BOJ will therefore not only issue to commercial banks, but also to other deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) – building societies, merchant banks and authorised payment service providers (PSP), all licensed or authorised by BOJ. These entities will distribute CBDCs to the retail market. CONSUMER ACCESS AND USE OF CBDC In order to use CBDC, consumers will need to have a CBDC account, which will be different from a regular bank account and much easier and simpler to obtain, with streamlined and simplified Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. While persons who already have bank accounts will be able to automatically obtain a CBDC account, authorised PSP’s as well as DTI’s will be able to on-board unbanked customers. Customers will be able to transfer and convert funds seamlessly between regular and CBDC accounts. In order to carry out CBDC transactions anywhere and at any time, consumers will be able to access, download and deploy a mobile wallet app on any smart phone, tablet or similar compatible device using the networks of both major telecom service providers. Customers will also be able to top-up their accounts with CBDC through all authorised agents or smart ABMs and do business using CBDC phone-to-phone with merchants. BENEFITS OF CBDC Depending on the specifics of our situations, some other countries and territories may anticipate slightly different benefits from using CBDC, but several benefits are universal, and apply to us. Individual consumers and businesses will benefit from: The sheer convenience, from a broadened and more modern payment system, of a digital alternative to cash that is seamless, secure, and simple to use. Greater financial inclusion, as persons who do not currently have regular bank accounts will be able to access CBDC accounts in a way that will be easier and simpler than accessing regular bank accounts. The financial system will benefit from: Increases in systemic efficiency and significant reductions in costs for cash distribution and storage. An increase in the menu items of services available to customers and an opportunity to innovate unique products and systems complementary to CBDC use. Bank of Jamaica will benefit from: Increased efficiency by removing the time and effort it takes to forecast currency needs and order new currency in advance. Significant long-term cost savings. There will be no ‘wear and tear’ on digital currency, and it cannot get ‘lost in circulation,’ so there will never be a need for replacement. In addition, there will be no cost in increasing supply to the system if demand increases over time. The modernization and expansion of BOJ’s currency minting and issuance processes, in addition to the further expansion and modernization of the national retail payments infrastructure in keeping with the desired increased digitization of the economy. CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY – NOT BLOCKCHAIN The issuance and distribution of the CBDC will be fully integrated with the Bank’s financial market infrastructure, the JamClear® Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS). The approach will not compete with deposits in deposit taking institutions, but rather it will leverage the existing financial and telecommunications infrastructures of the country. It is this consideration and prerequisite that led to BOJ choosing a non-block chain CBDC option. Not using the blockchain technology that is often associated with CBDCs is not because of any major concerns with blockchain,

The Airports Authority of Jamaica is seeking to partner with small airline operators and aviation training schools overseas, in a bid to establish the country, as an aviation training hub. President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airports Authority of Jamaica Mr. Audley Deidrick told JIS News that Jamaica is seeking to tap into the general aviation market, which he points out, is a big growth factor for the country’s aerodromes. He said that aviation training is of special interest to Jamaica, as it has been found to be one of the drivers of general aviation. “Aviation training naturally has as an offshoot, interest in the sector, and by extension, the growth in the sector,” he said. Mr. Deidrick pointed out that general aviation runs the entire gamut, from business aviation to leisure aviation, but it is largely small aircraft operators doing different things. “It is a very big component of world aviation and it’s one that Jamaica, so far, has not tapped into in any substantial way and this is a major area that we intend to embark on, to pursue growth going forward,” he stated. The President said that part of the remit of the AAJ in growing general aviation is to build out training capacity in the country, which in addition to training “will act as a tourism product, if you will, where we can train pilots, and other aircraft operators and mechanics from overseas”. “That’s the power of an aviation training facility, people will send their child across the globe to train in a facility and when they’re finished to get back home to practice their aviation activities,” Mr Deidrick stated. Meanwhile, the President informed that in January 2020, just before the pandemic hit, the AAJ, along with the Jamaica Tourist Board, went overseas to court small aviation operations and also a training school to come to Jamaica. “That is where we were at that time when COVID-19 came, but all is not lost. I think it’s a matter of picking up where we left off with the airline operators and the aviation schools that we have been talking to, and to re-engage them early in the game. As aviation traffic and tourism grow out of the impacts of COVID-19, we will be one of the countries and indeed the organizations that are at the forefront of re-entering the growth path with this trajectory,” Mr. Deidrick said.