Jamaicans in Florida urged to come home and invest

MIAMI – Chairman of the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ), Aubyn Hill, has appealed to Jamaicans in South Florida to “come home and invest.

Mr. Hill, who was the guest speaker at the Jamaica United States Chamber of Commerce’s first annual recognition and installation luncheon, held recently at the Sheraton Hotel in Davie, said that there was tremendous opportunity for investment in the Jamaican economy.

He informed that the economy grew by 4.1 per cent last year and forecast growth of 3.3 per cent for 2006, with tourism, health, services, agriculture, construction and transport, being the main growth sectors.

Mr. Hill, who spoke on the topic: ‘Unleashing Our Entrepreneurial Spirit,’ said that investors could also look to non-traditional areas such as health and wellness tourism and the development of training facilities to meet the demand for higher learning.

“Jamaican workers are needed in the CARICOM countries, Asia and the United States (and) we have to train them and prepare them with portable skills to function and benefit in a globalized world,” he noted.

Turning to opportunities in agriculture, Mr. Hill said that with sugar on the decline, versatile ways could be found to make the crop productive. He spoke of the government’s investment in using sugar cane in the production of ethanol.

Meanwhile, the NIBJ chairman praised the growing membership of the Jamaica United States Chamber of Commerce, and encouraged his audience to have a visionary approach that would benefit them as individuals, as well as their island home.

The Chamber, which was started in March 2003, is the brainchild of Jamaica’s Consul General to the Southeast United States, Ricardo Allicock.