GOVT to accelerate pace of Technology Development under Start-Up Jamaica

The 100-day accelerator development period prescribed for technology entrepreneurs under the Start-up Jamaica project, is to enable them to develop their ideas into prototypes in the shortest possible time.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), Hon. Julian Robinson, says the timeframe was deliberately set to be intense, bearing in mind the fast pace of technological development globally.

“You have, on average, on a monthly basis, about 20,000 to 50,000 new apps being developed and put on-line. So we are going to put people under pressure because that is the only way you can compete globally,” he said, while addressing a recent JIS Think Tank.

Mr. Robinson pointed out that the “tech-trepreneurs” would have already had an idea that is “near ready” and would have completed some level of work on their project prior to the 100-day period.

“We are going to say to them that in the first 10 days you need to do this and in the next 10 days you need to do that…so at end of the (prescribed) period, you would have moved from a concept to a prototype. Or if you had started building an app, you would have refined that…and made a quantum leap during the period,” he outlined.

Start-up Jamaica is a public/private partnership for economic growth and development, which aims to help Jamaica’s innovators and entrepreneurs grow their business ideas into a product, thus increasing employment and access to foreign exchange.

The initiative, being undertaken over a five-year period, also seeks to move Jamaicans from being primarily consumers of technology to becoming producers; and to position the country as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship within the Caribbean region.

It is expected that over the five-year period, the project will attract a significant number of young Jamaicans, who can be inspired to create their own start-ups.