KINGSTON, Jamaica – (JIS) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to sponsor an international investment conference on the Caribbean in November this year.
In making the announcement, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw said the event, which would be held in Jamaica at his invitation, would include a session with international investors looking at potential partnerships with local investors, particularly those with inventions that could be patented and turned into viable projects.
Speaking at an Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank seminar on Intellectual Property Rights, at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston on July 9, in the context of the need for Jamaican entrepreneurs to engage in productive investments to build Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he said the Government would provide the necessary incentives for those who want to take business risks.
“In a dynamic economy, we must entertain a place for risk taking,” the Minister emphasised.
Mr. Shaw warned that the country could not sustain high interest on overseas loans, citing Highway 2000, which he said was financed with 10 per cent money.
“So, we are building relations with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the European Union, and any others to get four to five per cent funds. Wherever it can be found, we will find it,” he said.
Recalling the collapse of the financial sector in the mid 1990s, in which some 40 companies perished under the weight of the high interest rate regime, the Minister said they collapsed because their clients collapsed, citing himself among the hundreds of thousands of people who were being charged up to 100 per cent penalty on overdraft.
Mr. Shaw said the Government was committed to creating an enabling environment for those who want to take risks, by supporting them and providing the necessary incentives to encourage them to do so.
