JMEA reveals five-year plan to boost GDP
ROSE HALL, St James — The Jamaica Manufacturer and Exporters Association (JMEA) says it is currently working on a plan to increase the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 50 per cent over the next five years.
The strategy, according to President of the JMEA Metry Seaga, includes enhanced workforce productivity and improvements in cost competitiveness.
He said that dialogue is currently being had with government officials to ensure that “things needed to achieve the target are implemented.
“We have been in discussions with Mr (Audley) Shaw (Minister of Industry, Commerce, agriculture and fisheries) our new minister, the Prime Minister (Andrew Holness) and the minister of finance (Dr Nigel Clarke) to ensure that the things that we need to get us there actually are implemented,” Seaga stressed.
The president said that the strategy was developed by the Jamaica Manufacturer Association and the Jamaica Exporters Association, before the recent merger, as a means of sustaining the sector.
“The JMA and JEA came together before we had merged and we started to look at a manufacturing strategy. And that strategy was based around the fact that we needed to move our industry. So we developed a five-year strategy, and some of the outcomes of that strategy are what we have listed in our documentation,” he suggested.
“So, we expect to take the industry from eight per cent of GDP to 12 per cent of GDP,” expressed a confident Seaga, who added “we are confident that if given the right incentives, we can do it.”
The merger of the 71- year-old Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association and the 42 year-old Jamaica Exporters’ Association was announced in April during EXPO 2018.
Seaga was addressing a session entitled ‘Manufacturing: Jamaica — the key link in the global supply chain’ on Thursday at the Jamaica Investment Forum held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall under the theme ‘Connect for Business’.