Opportunities Exist for Investment – Shaw

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, has said that despite the global economic turmoil, various opportunities exist for investment, and he would be willing to facilitate any prospect that would create growth in the economy.
“I’m going to create an avenue where anyone who wants to invest, anyone who wants to take a chance in embracing productivity and production, I’m there with them, because that is the way out of our troubles,” he stated.
The Finance Minister, who was addressing the 50th anniversary church service of the National Union of Co-operative Societies (NUCS) held yesterday (Feb. 15), at the Spring Ground Missionary Church in Manchester, said that for far too long, Jamaica has been reliant on a narrow range of industries.
“It is time for us to seize the opportunities that are there. The opportunities for economic transformation are there… we have not been seizing the moment,” he pointed out.
Among the investment areas the Minister cited was the sugar industry, noting that while there were opportunities to diversify into energy production, because so many people have gone out of sugar, the price was beginning to go up on the world market.
Limestone, he said, also had great potential, “but I am a firm believer that much of our future is wrapped in our ability to transform agriculture in Jamaica.”