JAMPRO President Mrs. Pat Fransis in discussion with PSOJ President Hon. Oliver Clarke (left) and JCC President Anthony Chang. The occassion was the official launch of JAMPRO's new head office at 18 Trafalgar Road, Kingston, at which Mr. Clarke gave the keynote address. - Contributed THE JAMAICA Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) has achieved 86 per cent of the total investment targeted for the last fiscal year.
The agency facilitated capital investment into the country worth $10.3 billion. This represents $1.6 billion less than the amount projected for the period.
Patricia Francis, President of JAMPRO made the disclosure on Monday (July 15) during the official opening of JAMPRO's new offices on Trafalgar Road in Kingston.
On the export side, Mrs. Francis said the trade development project had equalled and exceeded all its targets and that clients had increased their exports by 30 per cent compared with the national average for non-traditional of minus 10.9 per cent by 2001.
The JAMPRO President said that the agency which was reorganised three years ago, through the Public Sector Modernisation Programme, has been "pursuing goals in an environment of global economic slowdown, increased risk averseness towards direct investment in developing countries, heightened concerns about global security and domestic challenges that make the task of marketing Jamaica a much more complex proposition".
She further pointed out that, "in this environment (political instability and the slowing of world trade), JAMPRO's challenge is three-fold. It is the challenge of presenting Jamaica as a competitive investment destination, assisting Jamaican exporters to be competitive in the overseas market and itself being able to effectively compete in the global market for investments".
With regard to the export sector, the JAMPRO President said the agency had defined its major objectives as facilitating and nurturing projects that develop export capacity and competitiveness of export oriented business that was involved in value added production in target sectors.
She also disclosed that an office would be set up soon to service the Latin American region with its headquarters in Jamaica.
The JAMPRO President emphasised that the objective of the investment activities was to promote industry sectors that offered the best possibilities for sustainable investments that build on Jamaica's comparative advantages.
"The targets are leisure industries (music and tourism), high value added manufacturing, specialised mining, recycling, nutraceuticals and ICT services," she said.
Mrs. Francis said the agency's new head office with its new features and facilities as well as "the new JAMPRO ethos and our professional and highly engaged staff will in our view efficiently implement and co-ordinate our investment and export policies and strategies across the public and private sectors".
The 3,646 square metre building comprises three floors. The agency has occupied 1,190 square metre of that space and the remainder will be rented.
With the acquisition of this building the agency is expected to save some $750,000 in rental expenses monthly, and earn some $350,000 in rent from new tenants.
Endorsing the steps to acquire new office space, Joseph Matalon, Chairman of JAMPRO Board said, "the opening of this building - the JAMPRO investment and export promotion centre, marks the maturing of the organisation as one of the primary vehicles for achieving the economic development on which the future of the country rests".
"This new building symbolises and is a physical expression of the modernisation of the organisation. As an investment, it is indicative of the confidence that JAMPRO itself, as the agency mandated to promote and mobilise investments, has in the country's economic future. And it is an example of the organisation's own expertise in asset management and investment strategies," he said. Up to December 2000, the new property was the corporate offices of the Mutual Security Bank and was owned by the Jamaica Mutual Life Assurance Society and the Jamaica Mutual Pension Fund Limited.
