EU Encourages Investors to Participate in Jamaica’s Renewable Energy and Digital Projects

The European Union (EU) is encouraging investors from across Europe to participate in Jamaica’s renewable energy and digital projects.

According to Director with the EU, Felix Fernandez Shaw, who is on a three-day visit to the island with an EU Investment Mission, it is now time to “unlock European investments” in Latin America and the Caribbean “for key technologies, green energy, and digital transition”.

He was speaking at a media breakfast at the Fairway Avenue EU Ambassador’s residence in Kingston today (January 25).

The Director said that they are seeking to support companies that want to invest in Jamaica, and the Mission is also interested in supporting the Government and other groups in “attracting those investments in key areas”.

“So, it is not about a general investment; it is about supporting the Jamaican Government in their bid to have strong renewable energy in the coming years,” the Director pointed out, underscoring that the group wants to support EU companies that come to Jamaica and “produce and distribute renewable energy.”

The Mission’s visit to Jamaica is to promote the Global Gateway Investment Agenda and to explore opportunities for economic cooperation in the country.

It is particularly focused on supporting Jamaica’s green and digital transition and transforming the Kingston Harbour into a sustainable logistic hub in the Caribbean.

“The European Union has been very active in supporting Jamaica, in bringing in digital skills to the people,” Mr. Shaw said, while also working on the rehabilitation of the Kingston Harbour, bringing EU and Jamaican companies together to make it a logistic hub.

“We are going to ask everyone to make the Kingston Harbour a model in the Caribbean, of efficiency and of greening,” the Director said.

For her part, Head of the EU Delegation to Jamaica, Ambassador Marianne Van Steen, said the EU is not only the biggest donor to Jamaica but is now the largest investor, and “we will continue to support the Government and civil society”.

“We will continue to work in the areas that we think are important to assist the country in its development, with grant funding, and we will do more,” the Ambassador told the audience.

The Global Gateway is a new European strategy to boost smart, clean and secure links in the digital, energy and transport sectors and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world.