MONTEGO BAY, St James – The Montego Bay branch of the Trade Board will, at the end of the year, close its offices in the resort city as their online service comes on stream.

“The Trade Board Information System (TBIS), which allows people to apply online and pay online for their goods has now been implemented so there is no longer the need for people to come to that Office at all,” trade administrator Claude Fletcher told the Observer earlier this week.

TBIS is part of the government’s information and communication technology project, which will link the computer systems of public agencies and ministries, allowing for easier completion on multi-step transactions involving different government agencies. With the TBIS, Fletcher said that people are also able to access the Trade Board’s website and pay online for their applications.

“Right now we can also send their documents to them by courier so they (applicants) don’t need to come to the office at all,” he added.

TBIS aside, Fletcher said it had become increasingly unprofitable to keep the Montego Bay office open.

“The cost of operating that office is now much more than the number of licencces that they do. We have a situation where the volume of licences that they handle has been greatly reduced,” he said, adding that a lot of business people had been using TBIS in recent weeks to make their licence applications.

The Montego Bay office has been in existence for more than a decade. Up to two years ago, it was located at the state-owned Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) building at Catherine Hall. It was, however, relocated to the United General Insurance (UGI) building on Market Street in 2003.

The closure will leave four persons, three certifying officers and an office attendant, out of jobs. But Fletcher said the Trade Board had contacted a leading Montego Bay information technology centre that may be interested in hiring the certifying officers.

“The director of that company, who is also a director of the Trade Board, wants to interview the certifying officers with a view to taking them on in his operations. These are persons who are highly trained in customer service, computer technology and those are the types of persons he wants,” Fletcher said.

President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce Mark Kerr- Jarrett has meanwhile expressed concern about the closure of the office, noting that computers won’t be able to answer all the questions people may have.

“I am very disappointed because it would mean the business people might have to travel to Kingston (trade Board office) to process their documents,” he said.

– cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com