Two Jamaican Businesses up for Prestigious Regional Award

Local companies, Spatial Innovision and Totally Male, are among 10 regional entities vying for a $5.3 million (US$60,000) grand prize in the inaugural Pioneers of Prosperity Caribbean Award.
The winner of the prestigious award will be named at a ceremony scheduled for the Half Moon Conference Centre in Montego Bay, St. James, on September 11.
The ceremony, to be hosted by Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding, will mark the culmination of several months of meticulous and stringent evaluations of entrants in the Caribbean Pioneers of Prosperity programme.
An initiative of the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the John Templeton Foundation and the Social Equity Venture Fund (S.E.VEN Fund), the Pioneers of Prosperity programme seeks to inspire and mobilise a new generation of entrepreneurs in emerging economies by identifying, rewarding and promoting outstanding small and medium-sized enterprises to serve as role models to their peers.
The Government’s investment promotion agency, Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI), was integrally involved in the programme’s implementation locally.
The other entities vying for the award are: Analytical Technologies and Scaba Cosmetics from Trinidad and Tobago; Alternative Insurance Company and Solutions SA, Haiti; Hummingbird Group Limited, Belize; Bulkan Timber Works Inc., Guyana; Caribbean Civil Group, Bahamas; and Trinity Homes, Barbados.
The 10 finalists, who were selected from some 580 entrants from each of the participating territories, each received a $3.5 million (US$40,000) country-level grants towards investment in training and enhancement of the technical infrastructure of their businesses.
Jamaica’s Hotel Mockingbird is among five entities shortlisted for honourable mention, which will each receive an $890,000 (US$10,000) grant.
Totally Male, which has been in operation for 15 years, retails clothing and accessories and offers fashion consultancy, grooming and spa services exclusively for men. Last December, the entity, which has a staff complement of 12, was assisted by the Government in securing funding totaling $1 million from the European Union-funded (EU) Private sector Development Programme (PSDP), to enhance its competitiveness of the operations.
“We were able to use the funding to implement customer service training, formalise our documentation, expand the facilities and upgrade equipment. This definitely put us in superb condition to enter the Pioneers of Prosperity programme,” Managing Director of Totally Male, Sandra Samuels informed.
Spatial Innovision, which has been in operation for the past 11 years, provides vendor, consulting and implementation services related to land mapping technology. The company was part of a JTI-led contingent to the Centrum der B