PRIVATE Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) president Chris Zacca says the historic victory of Barack Obama as president elect of the United States will create a sense of change and optimism for the future, something which was badly needed in the US economy.

Obama yesterday became the first African-American to lead the world’s most powerful and influential country.

Zacca said the victory would immediately redound to the benefit of the Jamaican economy, adding that the more confidence among American consumers, the more they would spend and travel.

“It would be an immediate confidence booster. And if he continues in the inspirational vein of the election campaign, it could mean a change in the world, especially in how the US relates to the rest of the world. In that sense, Jamaica would also benefit from Mr Obama’s triumph,” the PSOJ president told the Observer last night.

President of the Northern Caribbean University and independent member of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, Dr Herbert Thompson, said he was willing to take a bet on the economic plans laid down by the Obama campaign. He also said the Democratic leader would make more friends for the US out of the enemies made under the George W Bush administration.

“For the last eight years, the United States has been seen not only as a bully but as a heartless bully. In pursuit of terrorists and people who are not friends of the United States I think the United States has taken a very unfortunate unilateral position under the Bush administration,” said the university president.

Dr Thompson, however, said that while he believed that the United States foreign policy would not immediately bend in favour of the Caribbean just because Obama is president, it would be a more friendly United States that Caribbean leaders will find to deal with.

“I strongly feel that because Obama has a more conciliatory approach, more doors are going to be opened for Caribbean people to visit the United States or work there. Under the Bush administration, in the name of national security under homeland security rules, horrendous things happened,” he added.