Jamaica Lauded for Business Digital Platform

Jamaica has one of the best digital platforms in the region, says Managing Director of LPA Corporate Solutions (Caribbean) Limited, Elena Henckel DaCosta.

The platform, dubbed the ‘Jamaica Business Gateway’, is designed to streamline business to government interactions. It was recently launched at the AC Hotel by Marriott Kingston.

Speaking at the event, Mrs. DaCosta said the new platform is one of the best government portals in the region and Western hemisphere.

“I have analysed scores of government portals from Singapore in the east to Puerto Rico in the west, and if I may humbly say, the Jamaica Business Gateway (JBG) is world-class,” she said.

Mrs. DaCosta pointed out that with the platform’s launch, “many governments in the region will soon be knocking at your doorstep, asking for a peek into your progress as https://jamaicabusinessgateway.com/ will become a flag bearer for digital transformation.”

Prior to the launch, there was no central platform where businesses, citizens and investors could go to submit applications digitally for several government services, apply for permits, licences, authorisations and/or approvals, as these were, and some still are, performed with paper-based or other manual processes.

Mrs. DaCosta recounted that when the project started 15 months ago, “it was merely an idea with some powerful concepts surrounding judicially transforming the way government interacts with the private sector, citizens and international investors in the process of executing e-government services.”

The development saw various supervising agencies, beneficiary groups, Ministries, Departments and Agencies working tirelessly to design the JBG – a solution which encompasses and envisions all stakeholder benefits and expectations.

Recognising the hard work of the supporting agencies, including the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO), Mrs. DaCosta said she has worked in information technology for the past 25 years, and “I’m totally inspired by Jamaica’s exemplary approach to project development and oversight.”

“Nowhere else have I worked, witnessed and experienced the level of responsibility, accountability and transparency adhered to and absorbed by these agencies, in their supervising capacity throughout the life of the project,” the Managing Director added.