Minister Shaw Endorses Proposed Jamaica Social Stock Exchange

Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, has endorsed the proposed establishment of the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange [JSSE].

This is being initiated by the Jamaica Stock Exchange [JSE] as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The endeavour aims to create a platform that lists the country’s social enterprises and not-for-profit entities and their projects, designed to assist the society’s most vulnerable and less fortunate citizens, for capitalization by donor investors.

“This is a truly commendable step as we move into a greater recognition, world over, of non-financial factors, such as socio-cultural and environmental factors and their impacts on the bottom lines of companies. Any form of development that has at its core, the strengthening of our greatest asset – our people – cannot fail,” the Minister said.

His remarks were delivered by Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Fayval Williams, during a JSSE stakeholder sensitization luncheon hosted by the JSE at the Terra Nova Hotel in St. Andrew, on Friday (Nov. 16).

Mr. Shaw said the JSE’s undertaking reflects an acknowledgment of a “new and evolving” business model, characterized by an increasing number of entrepreneurs employing more creative and innovative business methods to tackle social and environmental challenges.

He argued that regardless of the entities’ structures, whether profit-based or not-for-profit, entrepreneurial solutions are offering engagement in areas where “that was once a mere thought”, adding that “we must encourage this trend”.

Mr. Shaw said the Ministry notes this development with “great interest” and, in this regard, has revised the Micro, Small and Medium-size Enterprise (MSME) and Entrepreneurship Policy, “bearing in mind strategies that support the development and formalization of the social enterprise sector”.