JSE Has Given Exemplary Service – Senator Hill

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator the Hon. Aubyn Hill, says the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has given exemplary and well-recognised service to the economy.

“The JSE has been the meeting place of investors with capital, and [budding] entrepreneurs… with great ideas. We have recorded some sterling successes [with] a well-structured, properly regulated and well-run Jamaica Stock Exchange, especially under the exceptional leadership of [Managing Director] Dr. Marlene Street Forrest… and I’m pleased to be working with them,” Senator Hill said.

He was speaking on the topic ‘Positioning the Jamaican Economy for Growth through Impact Investments’, during the JSE’s 17th semi-virtual Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday (January 26).

Senator Hill said the JSE has been a success story garnering global attention over several years.

He cited a 2019 article published by Bloomberg, which highlighted the JSE’s capital market out-turns the previous year that saw the entity’s main index rising by 29 per cent in US Dollar terms, the highest among the 94 benchmarks tracked by the media conglomerate.

The article pointed out that the JSE’s “outperformance” over the preceding five years was “even more striking”, as Jamaican stocks surged almost 300 per cent, more than quadrupling the next best performing benchmark.

“What all of that means [is] Jamaica is the investment destination [and the place] … you must choose in the Caribbean,” Senator Hill emphasised.

The Minister cited the recent announcement by the Trinidad and Tobago conglomerate, Massy Holdings Limited (MHL), to cross-list on the JSE, describing this as a “major vote of confidence” in the Exchange.

Massy Holdings and its portfolio companies engage in trading, manufacturing, serviced industries and finance in Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean and Latin American countries.

“I want the investing and general public in Jamaica and elsewhere to know that [I am] completely committed to the JSE, the investors and entrepreneurs who use it, and the broad open and transparent market system, which supports it,” Senator Hill said.

“The market must work, even as the Government plays [the] important role of, sometimes, being gatekeeper, and making sure the playing field is even. So, we stand committed behind the free market and the [Jamaica] Stock Exchange,” he added.

The three-day hybrid JSE Conference is being held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel from January 25 to 27 under the theme ‘Positioning Capital for Growth: Facilitating, Mobilising and Expanding’.