UK Businesses Optimistic About Jamaica

Business executives from the United Kingdom (UK) have expressed optimism about the opportunity to meet with the Jamaican business community with the aim of fostering trade expansion and commercial ties.

The executives are members of a UK Trade Mission to the island, which runs from October 8 to 10.

The mission seeks to deepen UK-Jamaica commercial collaboration and to identify new opportunities that can be leveraged for the advancement of both countries.

At a welcome reception for members of the mission at the British High Commission in Kingston on Wednesday (October 8), Head of Sales at Inciner8, Ghazi Sadledein, shared with JIS News that he is feeling positive after day one of the mission, as prospective partners have been receptive to the company.

Inciner8 offers waste management solutions to more than 190 countries as an alternative to open pit burning and sending waste to landfills.

“Nobody likes the landfill sites, they realise it’s not sustainable, so all of the conversations have been had with great conviction… very, very good conversations, everyone is engaging and it’s an absolute pleasure to be here,” he said.

Mr. Sadledein noted that his company is hoping to leave the mission with a better understanding of “what the short-term, medium-term and long-term policies are at government level”.

“It would be great to gain a greater understanding from various government officials in terms of what the future looks like in Jamaica for waste management and incineration in particular.”

Business Development Director for construction and infrastructure development company Mowlem Group, Adrian Wilson, expressed similar optimism based on meetings he had with Jamaican executives and government stakeholders.

“It sounds like there’s a lot of projects that they (Government) want to complete in the next four to five years. So, we would be delighted and excited to look at those projects with the Government and see where we could establish a foothold in Jamaica,” Mr. Wilson stated.

He emphasised that Mowlem is seeking to collaborate with Jamaican firms and people.

“So, what we hope to do is identify priority projects that the Government wants to be developed. We try to bring finance; often we will work with UK Export Finance. We will liaise with the Government from early concept right through pre-feasibility, feasibility, design and construction. We do everything from airports to highways,” the Business Development Director pointed out.

Meanwhile, Regional Director at Northern Consortium United Kingdom (NCUK), which develops tertiary education programmes across the world, Adam Connor, told JIS News that he is hoping that Jamaica becomes the 42nd country to forge a partnership with the firm.

“We’re currently in 41 countries with 130 partners who teach our programmes. The programmes give guaranteed access into our partner universities, which includes world-leading universities like University of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Queen Mary, Australian universities, New Zealand [and] Canada,” he outlined.

Mr. Connor said NCUK is looking to partner with Jamaican institutions that want to collaborate with UK universities or want to bring UK education opportunities into Jamaica.

He emphasised that “the objective is really to give more access to higher education to students”.

The enthusiasm of the visiting executives was mirrored by Regional Trade Director for the UK’s Department of Business and Trade for the Commonwealth Caribbean, D’Jamila Ward, who assured them that now is the time to do business in Jamaica.

Ms. Ward said that British companies look at three things when they seek to do business in external markets – vision, stability and predictability, noting that Jamaica offers all three.

“National priorities in infrastructure, renewable energy, logistics and digital transformation align perfectly with the UK’s strength and our modern trade and industrial strategies as we place growth at the heart of our foreign policy,” the Regional Director affirmed.