Jamaica’s location and people are strategic assets for investors, says Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.

“Jamaica’s position as a near-shore destination is a strategic asset for us and for investors, but proximity alone is not our competitive edge. We have lauded this geographic gift from God for a very long time, but we recognise that it is the people, the other God-given gift, the other natural asset that will give us the competitive edge,” he shared.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the opening of Outsource2Jamaica on Thursday at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

The fifth staging of the conference was held under the theme ‘Driving Excellence: Talent, Technology and Transformation’.

Underscoring that Jamaica’s workforce is English-speaking, tech-savvy and trainable, Dr Holness gave current and prospective investors the assurance that they have a strong partner in the Government of Jamaica, which will ensure that they have the labour force for their businesses to continue to grow from strength to strength.

“The Government of Jamaica has made a priority of workforce development and digital skills training to ensure that the future of work is not just something that we adapt to, but more so, the future of work is something that we can have an influence in shaping, by ensuring that our human resources are innovative and creative and adding value to the knowledge pool,” he said.

Dr Holness said the work of the national training agency, HEART/NSTA Trust,  the Global Services Skills Council as well as digital literacy and skills programmes have been instrumental in creating a steady pipeline of talent for traditional outsourcing, fintech, cybersecurity, software engineering and data analytics.

He shared that more than 52,000 Jamaicans are employed in the global services sector, with operations stretching across the island.

“We have grown significantly from our initial BPO (business process outsourcing) foundations, and we are now carving out a space in knowledge process outsourcing, in IT (information technology)-enabled services and specialised digital service delivery,” Dr Holness said.