JAMPRO to have Business Hub

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Karl Samuda, has said that, within the next four months, a Business Hub is to be created at Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO).
Opening the 2010/11 Sectoral Debate at Gordon House, Tuesday (May 11), Mr. Samuda noted that the Business Hub will be on the ground floor of JAMPRO’s head office in Kingston, and will be the only one-stop ‘business facility’ of its kind in Jamaica.
He added that it will allow for easier and more direct access by clients to business information, via touch-screen monitors, Internet desks and a modified contact centre. It will also entail the establishment of a permanent showroom/exhibit displaying a variety of Jamaican products with emphasis on new and emerging brands and a virtual and physical information hub with data to assist clients in making critical business decisions.
“On certain days of the month, JAMPRO will facilitate ‘full service’ days, where it will assemble all Government-related services for the conduct of business in the Business Hub, and invite the business community to access these services,” he informed.
This initiative comes as, over the past several months, the entity’s role has been re-focused from a wider approach to investment promotion and facilitation, to a more specific sector targeting approach.
“The new JAMPRO.is being reconfigured to address, and to become an even more critical institution to support the Jamaican business community, in particular, our large, medium and small exporters,” the Minister explained.
JAMPRO, he said, is engaging in more aggressive export promotions while implementing a national linkages programme connecting competitive Jamaican producers with local and foreign buyers.
“Guided by the refined and targeted focus on companies within the small and medium-sized enterprises sector, JAMPRO will identify and support such entities that demonstrate strong export potential for development into export viable companies, whose products can then be promoted,” Minister Samuda said.
Key to this process, he noted, is the execution of export readiness diagnostics, facilitation of technical assistance, access to financing, facilitation of business linkages, coordination of cluster and sector initiatives, stakeholder partnerships and ongoing client interface with the export clientele to identify issues affecting export expansion.
He said that, as Minister, he is concerned about what hampers production and the growth of Jamaican exports, and that he is determined to “overcome the hurdles and bureaucratic red tape” stifling the growth of the export sector.
“It is my resolve, as interest rates continue to trend downwards, to create a more business-friendly environment for the increasing numbers of local entrepreneurs and producers seeking to go into the export market; that these proud, brave men and women, receive the highest quality of export facilitation from JAMPRO, on par with the best in the world”, he added.