JAMAICA now has an Interactive Investment Map, that makes available to potential investors, critical information on the country’s resources and attributes at the click of a mouse. The Interactive Investment Map, developed by the Mona GeoInformatics Institute (MGI) in collaboration with Government promotional agency Jampro was launched on Thursday at Jampro’s Trafalgar Road office with an aim to lure increased foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country.

The web-based interactive map took just over three years and $2 million to complete, MGI managing director Parris Lyew-Ayee told Sunday Finance at the launch of the platform. The significantly low developmental cost was facilitated through Google’s free and open source software. The map, which is hosted on both the MGI and Google platforms, appears well thought out and easy to use. Jampro is encouraging persons to visit their website, test and provide feedback on the map so that further fine-tuning can be done. However, the map is very useful as it is now, Lyew-Ayee pointed out.

“The Map brings Jamaica to the investors, allowing them to interrogate a database and ask questions they couldn’t ask of a person. It also allows them to find answers to things that they wouldn’t simply find in a brochure,” said Lyew-Ayee. Claude Duncan, vice-president, investment promotion at Jampro, said the map can serve as the initial introduction to Jamaica for investors at the early stage of the investment cycle.

“With the Investment Map, we are trying to do more with less through innovation in this competitive global FDI landscape,” Duncan said. “Investors want to know the lay of the land, the location of resources and infrastructure and the proximity of these things to each other, and the map provides this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Right now we are pursuing interests in China and India and these places are in different time zones. We are sure that this tool will better enable investors to consider and evaluate Jamaica as an investment destination and act on the information they have accessed,” he said.

Guests at the launch, including Commerce Minister Karl Samuda, were impressed with the innovation, which Lyew-Ayee later revealed had only been achieved by two other countries, both developed. Samuda said the development once again places Jamaica at the forefront of technological innovation and use.

“This is one of the most powerful tools I have seen, unquestionably. With it, we are able to expose to the world all that really matters about Jamaica in terms of infrastructure, geographical composition, existing development and investment opportunities… it is absolutely incredible. If after seeing this someone is really interested in investing in Jamaica, they can’t help but be impressed,” Samuda said.

The investment map boasts six different categories of data ranging from general information, educational, workforce, investment opportunity and development projects, and registered exporters. Under the six categories, 90 different data sets are loaded up, such as hotels, airports, sea ports, beaches and training centres. For example, upon selecting the ‘workforce’ category on the map, an investor can find information on the type of workforce in an area or the area with the greatest concentration of tertiary graduates.

Persons can have a look at the map at www.tradeandinvestjamaica.org.