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President of Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO), Diane Edwards (right), is in discussion with Ambassador of Poland to Jamaica, His Excellency, Piotr Kaszuba, following a briefing session for members of the diplomatic corps held February 11 at JAMPRO’s New Kingston offices. The session was part of the programme of activities to mark the 17th annual staging of Diplomatic Week, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

The Government will be looking to build new relationships and strengthen existing partnerships with the international community through the staging of Jamaica Investment Forum (JIF) 2015.

The forum, scheduled for March 10 to 12 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James, is targeted at high level international investors and business executives, who want to discover business opportunities and industry developments, learn about alternative emerging opportunities and discuss Jamaica’s business climate.

Addressing members of the diplomatic community at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation’s (JAMPRO) New Kingston offices on February 12, Chairman of the agency, Milton Samuda, urged those country representatives, who have not yet done so, to suggest participants for the JIF conference 2015.

This, he said, “is so that we may invite them to Jamaica and make the case firsthand, up front and close, that Jamaica is ready to do business with them.”

“JAMPRO, through your several high commissions, embassies, consulates and international agencies, wants to forge and deepen partnerships with your countries and organisations so as to facilitate investment in Jamaica,” he said.

Meanwhile, JAMPRO President, Diane Edwards, said that over the last 16 months, the agency has been working to increase its outreach in the international market through its Consular engagement strategy.

Mr. Edwards noted that the strategy involves facilitating ongoing engagements with locally-based and non-resident embassies, to heighten trade and investment opportunities for the country.

“As a small country located at the fulcrum of the Americas, Jamaica has a real opportunity to expand its international outreach and to expand the service that we offer to the international market,” she said.

Ms. Edwards noted that in recent times, JAMPRO has collaborated with a number of countries, through their embassies, to ramp up this expansion drive.  She said the agency has been working very closely with the Venezuelan embassy to increase exports to Jamaica under the PetroCaribe Agreement, as well as with the Japanese embassy to develop the country’s animation industry.

“We see great opportunity in developing Jamaica’s animation industry with technical assistance from Japan, and then this year, we are also going to be working with the Korean embassy on a mission to Korea to facilitate exchange on animation,” she informed.

Ms. Edwards noted as well that the embassies of China and Panama have recently facilitated missions from Jamaica. “We have also undertaken reciprocal trade missions with the Dominican public and participated in trade fairs and export missions to Cuba,” she said.

The briefing session was part of the programme of activities to mark the 17th annual staging of Diplomatic Week, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

The week is being observed from February 8 to 13 under the theme: ‘Building Partnerships for Sustainable Development’.

Source: http://jis.gov.jm/jamaica-investment-forum-build-intl-partnerships/

Published Date: February 13th, 2015