MONTEGO BAY, St James — Three models of Island Cruiser motor vehicles, manufactured by Excel Motors Ltd, Jamaica’s only car manufacturing company, left the Montego Freeport Shipping Port on the weekend, destined for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“It is as if a vision has now started to fulfil,” said an elated Patrick Marzouca, CEO of the Westmoreland-based Excel Motors, at a brief ceremony held at the Montego Bay Cruise Shipping Pier last Friday to mark what has been described as a significant achievement.

“The fulfilment, however, will come when the 30 more cars (on order) are shipped to the Turks and Caicos Islands and from there we will start our march from Jamaica to the islands of the Caribbean.”

Marzouca created local history in 2003 when he launched the Island Cruiser — a comfortable two-door vehicle mounted on a fibreglass chassis and equipped with a 1.5-litre Japanese-made engine. The Island Cruiser was first exported to the Bahamas in August 2003 and Marzouca noted that the quality of the vehicle was the main factor that continues to spark great interest from overseas.

Marzouca — in his address at Friday’s ceremony which was attended by Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Karl Samuda, former Minister of Development Paul Robertson and officials from the state run-JAMPRO, urged the Government to provide more support for the local manufacturing sector.

“Jamaicans are amongst the brightest people in the world but what is needed is the self-confidence of the country’s political leaders to invest in this resource,” he said. “Even in areas such as athletics and the arts, where Jamaicans have impacted the world, they have done so to a large extent without the help of any government,” he argued.

The picture, he added, is even more dismal in the area of manufacturing.

Marzouca, who has persistently called on the island’s commercial banks to lend money at a cheaper rate to the productive sector, also used the occasion to blast the banks for their high interest rate policy, describing them as “rapacious”.

“Their whole aim is to gouge every possible penny from the Jamaican people. Their only concern is piling billions of dollars of profit, even if it means charging the customers for daring to stand in a long waiting line to lodge his or her funds,” he charged.

Meanwhile, Samuda in his remarks pledged the Government’s commitment to the manufacturing sector.

“This administration is totally committed to the manufacturing sector because we recognise that it is through the expansion of the productive activities that we are going to take ourselves out of the economic difficulties that we face,” he explained.

He lauded Marzouca for his tenacity and determination “in pursuing against the odds”, noting that the entrepreneur has had tremendous difficulties in souring capital for his business.

He added, however, that his ministry would continue to give support to Excel Motors Limited.

Marzouca later told the Business Observer that the remaining 30 cars on order for the Turks and Caicos Islands could leave Jamaica within the next 12 months.

The cars, he said, will be deployed in the islands’ rent-a-car industry.

Excel Motors Limited is located at Gooden’s River, on the outskirts of Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

The company began operations more than 10 years ago and has so far manufactured 65 vehicles.

It currently employs a skeleton staff of four, but this Marzouca expects to increase to roughly 100 in coming months.