JSEZA Launches New Global Online Facilitation Tool

The Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA) has launched its online Facilitation Tool, a digital platform designed to enhance the ease of doing business with the country’s SEZ regime.

The tool aims to streamline engagement between investors, developers, and regulatory stakeholders, while improving efficiency, transparency and service delivery, resulting in a more seamless investment experience.

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator the Hon. Aubyn Hill, speaking at the launch event at the AC Marriott Hotel in Kingston, on Thursday (June 11), championed the online platform’s implementation, noting its global impact.

“It delivers real-time application, submission, and tracking from anywhere in the world… and it replaces uncertainty with transparency and administrative delay with efficiency,” Senator Hill said.

“So, the message to the global market is deliberate. Jamaica is a competitive logistics hub and an attractive, efficient, productive, and profitable investment destination. We are serious about investors’ time, investors’ capital, and investors’ confidence in Jamaica,” the Minister added.

The Minister emphasised the need to link the platform with similar government systems to eliminate redundancy and improve coordination among agencies.

“Everybody’s linked; we’re not doing silos. We’re one Ministry, one Government so digital government tools such as online single windows, application portals, streamlined interagency coordination are not just administrative niceties, they are competitive instruments,” Minister Hill added.

The launch of the SEZ Facilitation Tool will be completed in three phases.

Phase one will focus on the application portal, which enables stakeholders to create a profile for their entity, upload and scan all their documents using artificial intelligence (AI) and track their applications.

Additionally, there is seamless integration across several Government databases, allowing company information to automatically populate on the application for the user to verify and confirm.

Phase two will expand into the management of SEZ through a dashboard that developers can use to manage their occupants and zone users, while phase three will include the launch of the platform’s payment portal to quickly complete transactions.

The third phase will also focus on continued improvement based on feedback from users.

Chief Executive Officer of JSEZA, Kelli-Dawn Hamilton, said the platform’s launch aligns with the agency’s 10th anniversary.

She noted that the initiative is building on the JSEZA’s achievement, while propelling the agency forward in the Government’s mission to establish Jamaica as the fourth global logistics hub.

“We are here to build on the future, better, faster, and smarter than the first 10 [years]. And that is why today is a big moment for us as we launch our digital platform. It is not simply a technology project, it is a statement about who we are as an institution and what we believe our stakeholders deserve,” she added.

She pointed out that the JSEZA team will provide training and personalised guidance during stakeholder onboarding on the platform.