Business Sector Lends Support to State of Public Emergency

A wide cross section of the business community in St. James are welcoming the declaration of a State of Public Emergency in the parish.

They noted that while employers and employees have been inconvenienced one way or another, it is a great feeling to know that there will be “light at the end of the tunnel”.

Mayor of Montego Bay, His Worship Homer Davis, said while he sympathises with the inconveniences being experienced by law-abiding citizens, he is convinced that the results from the current security exercise will be well worth it.

“This is not how we would have loved to be operating, but we have to take back our streets and communities. The Government was left with very little choice but to go down this route. It is also encouraging to see that there is overwhelming consensus in favour of the operation and the certain knowledge that we are Jamaicans first above any other consideration,” Mr. Davis stated.

He was speaking at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the expansion of business process outsourcing (BPO) company, Advanced Call Centre Technologies (ACT) at the Barnett Tech Park in Fairfield, St. James, on January 23.

President of the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ), Gloria Henry, while acknowledging the impact of the State of Public Emergency on businesses, stated that they are in support of the initiative.

“Of course, it is not business as usual in the critical business process outsourcing sector. We all have to look at the business hours of operation to adjust our schedules. However, we have been emboldened by the belief that all these inconveniences are in the national interest and that we should have a much safer place in which to live, work, raise our families and do business,” she told

Ms. Henry, who is also the Immediate Past President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, noted that everyone was “thinking long-term”, hence stakeholders have thrown their support behind the operations on the ground in the interest of Jamaica’s future.

“It is not the perfect situation and might certainly not be the end-all. It is, however, a serious start in combatting this crime menace, which has been threatening to derail all of the wonderful gains we have been making in both the tourism and BPO sectors. In the interest of Jamaica, this is not something we can allow to happen,” she argued.

Meanwhile, water sports operator Garfield Dussard, who has diving operations in Ocho Rios, Falmouth, Negril and Montego Bay, gives his support to the security initiative.

“We have to understand that our travel partners are smart people who know that Jamaica is, indeed, still open for business and that we have one of the safest records in the Caribbean when it comes to the protection of our visitors,” he explained

“I interact daily with our visitors and, not surprisingly, they do understand that it is in the interest of every government to protect the citizenry at all costs. If anything, our visitors are more sympathetic to our cause and are cheering us on as we seek to restore law and order in our beautiful nation,” he added.