Observer Business Leader Awards helps to promote diaspora investment — Jampro
JAMAICA’S premier investment agency, Jampro, says it decided to sponsor this year’s Observer Business Leader Awards because the focus of the event — entrepreneurship in the Jamaican diaspora — coincides with the agency’s priority to seek new sources of investment.
“The diaspora has contributed significantly to the development of Jamaica mainly through remittances,” Jampro said. “The World Bank estimates that in 2009 and 2010, Jamaica received approximately US$2 billion in remittance flows; this makes the country the third largest recipient of remittances in the Caribbean and the 14th globally.”
Despite that figure, Jampro said it held the view that diaspora direct investment is largely an untapped resource, which should be explored further in an attempt to extend diaspora contribution to the overall economic development of the country.
“As such, Jampro is presently in the process of developing a strategy that places focus on attracting diaspora direct investments, and the agency is also collaborating with the diaspora as business ambassadors and connectors in their country of residence,” the agency said.
“An event of this calibre is a platform to not only celebrate the tremendous work of Jamaicans living abroad, but also an avenue for promoting the fairly new concept of diaspora direct investment.”
The agency said the importance of the diaspora to its operations is multi-fold, as they form a critical source of and are drivers for investment.
Jampro also described the diaspora as trade facilitators, as members of that community make up the largest portion of consumers for Jamaican goods.
The agency said that persons of the diaspora community can contribute to their country of origin by bringing back skills and know-how captured in their country of residence. “This invariably results in the transfer of technology to further develop businesses in their homeland.”
In keeping with its mandate to attract foreign investment, Jampro staged, in March this year, the third annual UK-Jamaica Investment Forum London.
Three months later, it staged the Toronto Investment Forum which was aimed at engaging key Canadian business interests and presented Jamaica as a viable investment destination, with lucrative opportunities.
