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After a near six-month stalemate and swearing-in of Irfaan Ali as the new president of Guyana, Jamaican businesses have renewed their plans to enter the South American country, which is expected to have positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 53 per cent in 2020, despite COVID-19. Following the first offshore discovery of the black gold by ExxonMobil in 2015, Guyana became the centre of attention among several businesses and multinationals looking to capitalise on the untapped economic value of the new resource which the English-speaking country didn’t have before. However, a vote of no-confidence against the Government forced the country into an early election as mandated by the provisions of the constitution. The election fell into disarray following disputes over attempts to alter the election results. This unresolved issue made many businesses apprehensive of setting up shop in Guyana until the election results were finalised. That, along with COVID-19, delayed investments into the country as more firms became cautious on expansion plans. The election result was eventually resolved on August 2, giving businesses the confidence to renew their plans for business in Guyana. When the Business Observer canvassed several local firms, the feedback received was mainly positive as they geared up to execute their plans. One such company was the National Commercial Bank Financial Group (NCBFG) which, through its subsidiary NCB Capital Markets Limited (NCBCM), funded the construction of a new landmark facility in January by Nabi/KCL Oilfield Construction Services . President and CEO of NCBFG Patrick Hylton welcomed the resolution of the elections in Guyana as the group develops an operating model for country. “NCB Financial Group Limited is happy that the general election stand-off is now settled, and we look forward to pursuing opportunities in a Caribbean territory poised to experience the largest GDP growth over the medium term,” Hylton said. NCBCM will remain the main vehicle at the moment through which NCBFG can derive value in the South American state.   Source: Jamaica Observer by: David Rose

THE Flow Foundation yesterday launched a $60-million pilot programme focused on digital learning and supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The announcement was made by the foundation’s chairman, Stephen Price, in a livestream on Flow Jamaica’s social media platforms. Price, citing the challenges amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted that many Jamaicans and MSMEs are being left behind as the country accelerates its digital transformation. “Digital literacy and empowering our MSMEs are two critical drivers of enabling progress at both the individual and community levels, especially during this time. The Flow Foundation, in partnership with the Cable & Wireless Charitable Foundation (CWCF), will roll out a national development programme in support of digital education and entrepreneurship across the country, driving more digital learning and support for MSMEs and anyone interested in starting a business,” said Price. Said a Flow release: “The Flow Foundation will roll out six initiatives under two pillars. The first pillar, digital learning, is focused on digital literacy, increasing school and community connectivity and providing certified online training for professionals. The second pillar, supporting MSMEs, is focused on a JumpStart programme for entrepreneurs, including a pitch element for funding; support for micro entrepreneurs and the small cottage industry at the community level and supporting a virtual entrepreneurship expo.” The announcement was endorsed by Fayval Williams, minister of science, energy and technology, who delivered the keynote address: “I believe that this programme is timely as we create the new Jamaica where access to the Internet is a right,” she noted. The minister also highlighted various initiatives being undertaken by the Government, while commending the Flow Foundation and the CWCF for their support in building Jamaica’s technological capacity. “The work that you are doing is integral to our pursuit of a new Jamaica, a society driven and powered by technology and where every community, student, business, sector is connected,” she said.   Major partners on board Ruchi Kaushal, director of the CWCF, which is sponsoring the pilot, stated, “While our technology is the backbone for development across the region, there is another major calling, which is to make a difference… enabling and empowering individuals across the region and helping them on their path to achieve more for themselves and their families. This focus is very selective as, with the right programmes and investment, it can lead to significant transformation.” These sentiments were also echoed by the lead partners who delivered remarks at the launch. Dr Maurice McNaughton, director of the Centre of Excellence and Innovation at the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM), stated, “MSBM enthusiastically welcomes this partnership with the Flow Foundation. Through the Caribbean School of Data initiative, we have been laser-focused on digital literacy and data skills as imperatives for Jamaican and Caribbean youth to be competitive in today’s, and the future, digital economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the urgency of this mission. We are delighted that this initiative has been selected as a pillar for the Flow Skills for the Future Programme and we look forward, along with our strategic partners, to a successful and impactful collaboration.” Ricardo Allen, president & CEO, One-on-One Educational Services, added, “An economy cannot thrive without an educated and developed people. The world is changing, rapidly and we must adapt and ensure we prepare our professionals for the digital future. This partnership signifies our commitment to that better future. We are excited to see Jamaicans take advantage of this opportunity and learn the skills necessary to adapt confidently and capably to the changing economy.” The Flow Foundation’s Enabling Progress through Digital Inclusion Pilot Programme will initially run for 12 months as the CWCF assesses the model as a template for the rest of the region. The programme is expected to continue in Jamaica after the initial 12-month period. Individuals interested in participating in the programme should follow Flow’s social pages for when the application process opens.   Source: Jamaica Observer

The Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA) is reporting heightening investor/stakeholder interest in operating in the country’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which are key components of the Government’s Logistics Hub Initiative (LHI). Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the JSEZA, which is spearheading the Initiative’s development, Dr. Eric Deans, tells JIS News that the Authority has 31 SEZ applications for established activities such as business process outsourcing, manufacturing and logistics, pointing out that a significant number of the applicants are micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). “We are also seeing interest from a wide cross section of industries in new and emerging industries, particularly in the logistics and maritime sectors, which are deemed attractive to operate in Jamaica,” Dr. Dean notes. Dr. Deans points out that a JSEZA market analysis identifies pharmaceuticals; higher-end agro-processing; electronics; medical device; auto parts; and motor vehicle assembly among the diverse set of additional activities for consideration. Noting that there is local and foreign interest in pursuing activities in these new industries, he attributes this to new incentives being offered under the SEZ Act that “investors are taking advantage of”, coupled with Jamaica’s strategic location in the Caribbean. The JSEZA’s Director of Investor Relations and Communications, Kelli-Dawn Hamilton, tells JIS News that the SEZ incentive regime includes an attractive corporate income tax rate of 12.5 per cent, which she says can be further reduced to 7.75 per cent with the application of various promotional tax credits, compared to 25 per cent in the regular domestic economy. Additionally, she says SEZ companies are able to import items at the duty-free rate. Mrs. Hamilton also emphasises the importance of the Authority’s inclusion of the general economy in the engagements embarked on. “So through the regime, we have created an incentive framework that allows persons who purchase goods and services in the domestic economy to pay zero per cent general consumption tax, which is a huge win for the investor and for the local economy because it now means that it is more attractive to purchase goods locally,” she states. The Director also points out that the Authority is keen on creating linkages with domestic suppliers. As such, she says they have been advancing work to create a policy that facilitates a linkage programme, “which sees us connecting local suppliers with investors”. She further tells JIS News that the Authority is developing an MSME Policy, pointing out that the Special Economic Zone Act stipulates the development of such an instrument. “We recognise that our MSMEs are central to moving our economy… and so we must carve out a special regime for these players… and it is something that we are actively working on with a number of stakeholders,” Mrs. Hamilton says. She emphasises that the Authority is implementing a regime that is adaptable and responsive to the market, “while maintaining our role as regulators of the free zone/SEZ space”. “Our processes continue to be consultative (because) we believe that we must be listening to our clients. But we take our role as regulators very seriously, because there are certain rules that entities must adhere to. We see our SEZ brands as being flag-bearers for the country and for business in Jamaica, and we, therefore, expect that they must be operating at a certain level,” Mrs. Hamilton states. In emphasising the importance of protecting brand Jamaica, if the country’s development is to be further advanced, she says the Authority “will continue to push that and work with our stakeholders to ensure that the regime achieves its intended purpose”.

The Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA) is reporting heightening investor/stakeholder interest in operating within the country’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which are key components of the Government’s Logistics Hub Initiative (LHI). Dr Eric Deans, chief executive officer of the JSEZA, which is spearheading the initiative’s development, told JIS News that the authority has 31 SEZ applications for established activities such as business process outsourcing, manufacturing, and logistics — pointing out that a significant number of the applicants are micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). “We are also seeing interest from a wide cross section of industries in new and emerging industries, particularly in the logistics and maritime sectors, which are deemed attractive to operate in Jamaica,” Dr Dean noted. He pointed out that a JSEZA market analysis identified pharmaceuticals, higher-end agro-processing, electronics, medical device, auto parts, and motor vehicle assembly among the diverse set of additional activities for consideration. Noting that there is local and foreign interest in pursuing activities in these new industries, he attributes this to new incentives being offered under the SEZ Act that “investors are taking advantage of”, coupled with Jamaica’s strategic location in the Caribbean. The JSEZA’s director of investor relations and communications, Kelli-Dawn Hamilton said the SEZ incentive regime includes an attractive corporate income tax rate of 12.5 per cent, which she said can be further reduced to 7.75 per cent with the application of various promotional tax credits, compared to 25 per cent in the regular domestic economy. Additionally, she said SEZ companies are able to import items at the duty-free rate.

​The fairly newly minted Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority, JSEZA, is in the international market to tap billions of dollars in multilateral development financing for local businesses it is trying the lure into setting up mega enterprises in stand-alone economic zones. It is also celebrating the more than $3 billion in local and international investments it has attracted since the special economic zone regime was formalised with the promulgation of the Special Economic Zones Act two years ago. Chief Executive Officer Eric Deans says his organisation is now in talks with funding agencies, including the Caribbean Development Bank, CDB, and International Finance Corporation, the private sector funding arm of the World Bank. “We are trying to be innovative in terms of financing. It is unlikely that we will find many persons in Jamaica with the amount of capital readily available to invest, so we are looking at creating equity funds, where a pool of funds will be created that Jamaican firms can access to allow them to participate in these types of joint ventures and use the revenues from the joint ventures to repay (the loans),” Deans told the Financial Gleaner in an interview on Wednesday. He is expected to carry his pitch for sustainable financing for special economic zone enterprises to the CDB officials when he addresses the CDB governors conference later this month. This is part of the push by JSEZA to rely less on foreign investments to drive the zones and to create possibilities for more local firms to take up the tax-free incentives they offer. These include no duty on goods and zero general consumption tax on electricity and telephone calls. The JSEZA is also in talks with energy providers to introduce liquified natural gas, or LNG, as well as renewable energy to reduce energy input for prospective investors, its CEO said. Numbers growing Deans pointed out that there are now some 190 free zone businesses across 12 parishes operating under the old regime. JSEZA is charged with transitioning these firms to the new special economic zone regime with a statutory deadline of December 31, 2019, to do so; attract and process new applications even as it ensures the overall governance, legislative and operational framework; and regulates all entities under the SEZ architecture. SEZs in Jamaica include technology parks such as the Barnett Tech Park in Montego Bay, several business process outsourcing operations, the Kingston Container Terminal, Kingston Wharves, Walkers-wood Caribbean Foods agro-processing business in St Ann, a petrochemical manufacturing firm located in Old Harbour in St Catherine, and the Garmex industrial and commercial operation in Kingston. The size of existing SEZs is fairly small and one of the preoccupations of the authority now is to encourage the scaling up of future investments to the mega developments being pursued elsewhere in the world, such as in China and Singapore, that includes large commercial, industrial, residential and recreational facilities in one location. A typical SEZ in China is said to be around 400 square kilometres, whereas Jamaica’s largest SEZ, the Kingston Free Zone, is 19 acres or 0.076 square kilometres. JSEZA sees the joint-venture model as the best way of achieving the setting up of bigger zones in Jamaica. Mega SEZs in the pipeline ,such as the planned 1,200 acres Caymanas zone in St Catherine, the 6,000-acre Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company industrial park for Nain in St Elizabeth, as well as the talked-about 4,000-acre Vernamfield airport city in Clarendon, are intended to be of the large scale contemplated. The investments being hunted and promoted are expected to be multibillion-dollar enterprises which would dwarf the US$400 to US$600 million a year in investments Deans noted that Jamaica has attracted over the past 10 years. The aim is to get closer to the US$1 billion to US$4 billion per year being raked in by Jamaica’s regional competitors, including Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominican Republic and to a lesser extent, Trinidad & Tobago and emerging Cuba. The feasibility study for Caymanas is not expected to be completed until August this year, and Vernamfield is even farther off. Deans said requests for proposals will be invited from prospective investors immediately thereafter. The timeline for Caymanas, he said, does not represent an unusually slow movement on the long-proposed project, as the concept has been radically changed from a real estate project selling lots to an integrated township develop-ment with commercial, industrial and residential components. Deans pointed out that the take-up of SEZ opportunities by Jamaican businesses has been among the high points of the work of the authority to date. Kelli-Dawn Hamilton, director of investor relations and communication at JSEZA, said investors and business owners have been “very vocal” in their feedback. This response has included opposition to the initially proposed flat fee-rate structure across the board for SEZ businesses. The revised fee structure is now based on square footage and is payable by the developers of SEZ space. Even though the SEZ legislation replacing the old free zones act was passed in 2016, it wasn’t until late last year that the companion regulations needed to give effect to the law were out in place, giving the authority and its 12 staff the mandate to operate from its 13 Waterloo Road offices in St Andrew since January last year. Deans, who is also the chairman of the Jamaica Logistics Hub Taskforce, is regarded in some circles as the principal technical architect of Jamaica’s logistics hub initiative. He is an associate professor in logistics and supply chain sustainability at the Caribbean Maritime University, CMU, serves as executive director of the CMU’s centre for sustainable supply chains, and was at one time Jamaica’s representative to the International Maritime Organization. He is still gung-ho on the vast potential of Jamaica logistics initiative meant to capitalise of the country’s central location in the global goods-supply route to generate industry, jobs and economic growth. In fact, former Trade and Investment Minister Anthony Hylton appears vindicated by the early success of the initiative he was famous for having trumpeted

APPROXIMATELY 87,000 direct jobs are expected to be created if Jamaica’s Logistics Hub Initiative is realised, chief executive officer, Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority Dr Eric Deans has said. A further analysis of the multiplier effect, done by Nathan Associates, a group of economic consultants headquartered in the United States, shows that each job can potentially create five additional openings, equating to an overall 437,000 employment opportunities. The hub is regarded as crucial to generating higher levels of sustainable economic growth, greater fiscal stability and significant job creation over the next 20 years. Its full build-out will comprise nearly 3,900 hectares of development islandwide from over US$28 billion of projected investments. Speaking after the launch of the 422-page Logistics Hub Master Plan and Market Analysis at the Regional Headquarters of The University recently, Dr Deans told the Jamaica Observer that the first phase of the plan has already started. “The consultants were required to identify existing projects, and there are over $1 billion worth of projects which have already started. So phase one has commenced already; it’s well underway. “For phase two, we’re currently doing the Caymanas project and working on the feasibility study which will be completed in June, and then we will go out to get developers and that will follow the development,” Dr Dean said, though adding that this will be driven mainly by the investors who come.

The Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA), in association with the Planning Institute of Jamaica, has launched the Jamaica Logistics Hub Master Plan. Prior to the launch last Thursday, during a public session at the University of the West Indies Regional Headquarters, Mona, the master plan was presented to government ministers Audley Shaw and Dr Horace Chang, as well as Senator Aubyn Hill, executive director of the Economic Growth Council. The JSEZA, which is housed under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, is the government agency responsible for facilitating the development of Jamaica’s special economic zones. The master plan, designed by international consultancy Nathan Associates, in conjunction with Berger ABAM, recommends land use and infrastructure improvements as necessary for successful implementation of the Jamaica Logistics Hub Initiative, which will involve the creation of zones, the upgrading and further development of ports and the creation of an enabling environment, allowing businesses to fully exploit Jamaica’s strategic location. Final version to be submitted at end of month With the Jamaica Logistics Hub Master Plan now available to the public, a final draft is to be submitted by the end of the month, following local feedback. “The road map outlined in this report represents one of the most significant milestones in Jamaica’s modern industrial history,” said Dr Eric Deans, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority, during his opening remarks at, launch of the document last Thursday. Deans said the master plan “demonstrates the link between the vision [and] the future possibilities for the Logistics Hub, and establishes the overall character, extent, and location of various land uses”. The draft master plan outlined that, at full build-out, there will be more than 3,800 hectares of development across the island, an investment of over US$28 billion and 87,000 direct jobs.   Ongoing process Deans emphasised that the development of Jamaica as a Logistics Hub will be an ongoing process. The feasibility study for the Caymanas Special Economic Zone, for example, should be concluded during 2018, followed by its development. Other projects mentioned in the draft master plan that constitute elements of the Logistics Hub, include the dredging of the shipping channel in the Kingston Harbour, private concession of the Kingston Container Terminal and the expansion of Port Esquivel. The Planning Institute of Jamaica funded the consultancy that developed the master plan, through the Foundations for Competitiveness and Growth Project (FCGP), a US$50-million project designed to strengthen the business environment in Jamaica for private-sector development. The World Bank provided the loan of US$50 million that funded the FCGP. As a logistics hub, Jamaica is positioned to be the fourth node in global logistics, joining Singapore, Dubai and Rotterdam. It is expected to establish the country as a significant player in the global shipping and logistics industry, and potential investors and business interests will see themselves as being within striking distance of a market of 800 million people, including those in North America and Brazil. The FCGP is aimed at enhancing competition in the business environment through the implementation of reforms that will improve the ease of doing business in Jamaica, as well as increase the country’s global competitiveness. Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20171120/logistics-hub-master-plan-presented-public