Jamaica’s Global Competitiveness Profile Gets Good Ratings

President of Jamaica’s investment promotion and export trade development agency, JAMPRO, Patricia Francis, has said that Jamaica’s Global Competitiveness profile, shows that the country enjoys five key strengths, which are among the highest in the world. As such, producers of Jamaican goods and services are poised to benefit from significant income earning opportunities.
She was speaking at a Policy Forum held recently at the Management Institute for National Development (MIND), at its Old Hope Road headquarters in Kingston.
Mrs. Francis, who made reference to the Global Competitiveness Report 2002, pointed out that while Jamaica’s growth and micro economic competitiveness had declined over the past year, there were other competitive factors which were holding their own.
According to the report, five of Jamaica’s key competitive strengths are: its branding; unique products; port infrastructure; the role of women in the economy; and the investment rate.
The ratings given by the Competitiveness Report ranged from one to 80 – one being the highest, and 80 the lowest.
“There are some things in which we are doing remarkably well,” the JAMPRO President noted. “In fact, as far as the branding and the name recognition of Jamaica are concerned, we are 14 in the world,” she said. “That means we have greater name recognition than Singapore. We have greater name recognition than a number of places that you all know about,” she pointed out.
The rating for the other factors, based on a chart Mrs. Francis displayed, was as follows: unique products – 20; port infrastructure – 24; role of women in the economy – 18; and investment rate – 13. Interestingly, Jamaica was ahead of such countries as Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominican Republic, India and China, with two exceptions: India was ahead of Jamaica in terms of port infrastructure as a competitive factor; and the investment rate was surpassed by China, with a rating of number two in the world.
Jamaica’s investment rate, while getting a high rating of 18, was admittedly also influenced by a number of factors. “We have been attracting significant investment although.a lot of that investment has to do with purchasing of existing businesses, whether through the divestment programme, or through the ‘un-FINSAC-ing’ of certain assets,” she said.
With the strength of the positive factors named, the JAMPRO President noted that the main challenge lies in the translation of the competitive factors into wealth. “The branding is not being translated into wealth for ourselves,” the former consultant lamented.
Elaborating, Mrs. Francis told the group that she had received a very high profile magazine from a client, in which there were 30 pages of fashion, all shot in Port Antonio, Portland.
“When you looked at the fashion,” she remarked, “they all looked like dance hall fashion . in addition to that, there wasn’t a blouse in there that wasn’t US$500. So the price tags on those fashions were huge. But what did Jamaica get out of it? They got out of it the photo shoot, the room and board for the models and the crew . there wasn’t one Jamaican designer in that grouping.” the JAMPRO President pointed out.
“So here it was,” she continued, “it was fashion that was based on our culture, generated by our culture – they brought it to Jamaica to put it within our own context. they came because of this branding, and we got the pickings off of it”.
Mrs. Francis told the audience that there are many such illustrations. Turning to the film industry, she referred to the movie, ‘ Cool Runnings’ as an example of profitable Jamaican branding. “The Cool Runnings movie was something that made a phenomenal amount of money – Jamaican story, Jamaican branding.” But, “we didn’t make the money,” she emphasized.
The JAMPRO President asserted that there is therefore a huge opportunity, which Jamaicans need to exploit.
She also informed the Forum, “we have made a deal with MTV out of London.they want local videos, music videos.And we’re working with a whole team of people to see how we feed into that opportunity that we have created for the film and music industry”.
The key, she declared, is to think globally. If you think globally you will take care of your local market as well. “If you start thinking that you’re going to produce something only.to satisfy the local market, you’re dead in the water,” she stressed.