Gov’t to Create More Business-Friendly Environment

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Anthony Hylton, said the Government is moving “post haste” to remove the bureaucratic constraints to business and entrepreneurship so that the economy can grow.

“Part of our focus is to remove all stumbling blocks and hurdles that year in and year out, continue to frustrate businesses.  This Ministry aims to do certain things to assist businesses in Jamaica, chief of which is to remove a number of the bureaucratic elements.  We aim also, across a joined-up government approach, to drive business and to drive growth in the economy, creating those conditions for private investments to grow,” he stated.

Mr. Hylton, who was speaking to members of the Montego Bay business community on Friday (January 20), during a tour of facilities in the Montego Bay Free Zone, said the Ministry is committed to its mandate to foster business development to create jobs.

“The Ministry will play its part.  We have to work with partners  to achieve the objectives, and we are focused in doing that,” he stated.

He mentioned plans to establish an office of the Ministry in Montego Bay in order to have a greater presence in the West, and to reduce the cost on persons having to travel to Kingston to conduct business.

President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Davon Crump, expressed pleasure at the Minister’s statements, noting that the bureaucratic red tape has served as an impediment to attracting the investments needed for economic growth.

By Glenis Rose, JIS Reporter