Durrant Pate/Contributor

Minister of Industry, Investment & Commerce, Aubyn Hill is sounding a clarion call for local businesses to prepare themselves to access and utilise the US$2.4 billion in private investment from the international lending community to support Jamaica’s recovery, reconstruction, and private-sector-led growth following the impact of Hurricane Melissa. 

Speaking at the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Regional Investments & Capital Markets Conference at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston yesterday, Hill trumpeted: “Yes, gear up to use the money and don’t complain when other investors come in. Get ready, we’ve got money to spend.” 

This money, he was referencing, is the US$2.4 billion in private investment mobilised by a group of multinational lending agencies led by IDB Invest and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group to support Jamaica’s recovery, reconstruction, and private-sector-led growth following the impact of Hurricane Melissa. 

This funding is part of a larger, unprecedented US$6.7 billion, three-year support package for Jamaica. The Minister urged private businesses, construction companies, goods and service providers and other local companies to position themselves to take advantage of opportunities being made available from this funding package, arguing that small firms can pool their resources together to be able to access contracts for reconstruction and repairs, in the event they are too small to win these contracts.  

Making case for forming consortiums

“Where is the consortium, get the consortium together,” he told the packed Jamaica Pegasus ballroom, where the 3-day conference was being held, to be able to access the $2.4 billion, emphasising that the money was slated to go to the private sector and not any state agency. Minister Hill made an appeal for businesses to come together and forming consortium, making themselves eligible and capable of winning big international contracts.

According to him, “we need to come out of here thinking how to put companies together to spend this money,” making the observation that construction is set to boom given that in the government’s forward plans are the relocation of many buildings, some of them critical infrastructure like hospitals from the seaside to further in-land. Acknowledging that businesses need capital in order to expand and develop into big business, Minister Hill encouraged these enterprises to access the capital needed through the JSE to get equipment to give capacity to take in some of the US$2.4 billion in project financing.

The Minister sought to provoke the business leaders, financiers, pension fund managers and others to think outside the box, as they strive to benefit from the US$2.4 million, admitting, “this will have to take planning and serious ingenuity…so don’t come back and tell me only 1% of the people get the money.” He declared that PPP is the way to go, pointing to the success stories of Kingston Free Trade Terminal Limited and the Norman Maney International Airport.

Small businesses need to be rising

He made an appeal for the small business sector, urging the banks to look more on businesses in the middle rather than focusing on those at the top in helping them access capital for growth and expansion. He drew reference to supermarkets, transportation, construction and engineering companies and get them ready for the JSE. The Minister wants to see more companies on the JSE so can become bigger and export overseas. 

“The capital is available, the framework, the opportunities are right here in Jamaia so join in this noble national effort”, he lamented, saying this move will ensure robust and sustained economic independence for Jamaic,a land we love.