by Derrick Scott
NEW YORK – On Wednesday, November 6th the New York Stock Exchange flew the Jamaican flag on its building in New York business district in a tribute to the island’s stock market, the Jamaica Stock Exchange being rated the best performing stock exchange in the world.
According to the New York Stock Exchange, Jamaica is the only country where its flag has been flown atop its building in New York.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange commenced its Northeast USA Road Show on Wednesday, November 6th with a visit to New York Stock Exchange when the Jamaican flag was flown.
They also visited the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC, on Thursday November 7, and will be in Philadelphia on Saturday. The team will be at the Jamaican consulate in New York on Sunday.
The visit is in response to an invitation from Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States Audrey Marks, who is of the view that Jamaicans living in the diaspora should be aware of the of the tremendous opportunities available in the Jamaican stock market so that they can look to place more investment in the island.
The theme for show is “Exploring Wealth Creation opportunities while helping to build a better Jamaica”.
According to the Managing Director of the Stock Exchange, Mrs Marlene Street-Forest the move is an outreach into the Jamaican Diaspora in New York Philadelphia and Washington to sensitize them about the vast opportunities that are available in the Jamaican Stock Exchange.
The Managing Director of the JSE, Mrs. Marlene Street Forrest and a team including members from the Social Stock Exchange (JSSE) and a number of Jamaican Stock Brokers are planning an outreach into the Jamaican Diaspora to the New York/Tri-State, Philadelphia and Washington, DC areas, over the period November 5th to 10th.
In Philadelphia, the team will be hosted by the Hon. Consul of Philadelphia, Mr. Christopher Chaplin, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Trade Mission at a Public Forum, which will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10th at the Visitors Centre, 221 N. 13th St, 4th Floor, at 5:00 pm.
The JSE having being ranked by Bloomberg as the Best Performing Stock Exchange in 2018, following on a similar 2015 ranking, will bring awareness of its success and the benefits for wealth creation made possible by investing on the JSE.
Brokers from Jamaica will be on hand to share information about the market.
Equally important, the JSE will provide exciting news on the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange, an initiative for mobilizing capital for social development needs and will seek to engage socially conscious investors to #donate4impact, in support of the first five (5) Projects selected for listing on the Social Exchange.
The Exchange is also keen to explore interest for Diaspora originating projects to be selected and funded on the platform which offers total transparency and accountability for funds donated from the Diaspora.
In 2018 Jamaica’s stock returns were said to be the sort that tend to be a beacon for adventurous global investors— The nation’s main index rose 29 percent in U.S. dollar terms, the most among 94 national benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg.
Its performance over the past five years is even more striking. Jamaican stocks have surged almost 300 percent, more than quadrupling the next-best-performing national benchmark and septupling the S&P 500’s advance.
Over the past decade, Jamaica’s financial sector assets have tripled and the number of institutions has grown eightfold, according to International Monetary Fund figures.
While Kingston still regularly appears on global lists of dangerous cities, the World Bank now ranks Jamaica as the sixth-best nation in terms of ease of starting a business.
