MORE than 100 local and overseas investors are expected to converge in the resort city of Montego Bay next week as Jamaica looks to sell the island as a top investment destination.

Jamaica Investment Forum 2012 will be held March 1 to 2 at the new Montego Bay Convention Centre and will showcase key growth sectors and significant investment opportunities on the island. Event organisers Jampro, the country’s investment promotion agency, said at the press launch yesterday that it is expecting business interests from more than 13 countries and coverage from a host of international media houses.

“The Jamaica Investment Forum 2012 is the first investment promotion event of this scale to be carried here in Jamaica,” said Jampro president Sancia Bennett-Templer at the agency’s head office in Kingston.

“We want to ensure that the message is that Jamaica is open for business… that our excellence in sports, that our excellence in music, etc also translates into excellence in business,” she added.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will head a high-profile slate of local and international speakers at the forum, including Ambassador Patrick Casserly; Microsoft executive Phillip Vandervoot; Associated Brands chairman Arthur Lok Jack and Round Hill Hotel boss Josef Forstmayr. Simpson Miller will also host a welcome reception at which participants will be able to meet members of the Jamaican Government and senior leaders in the private and public sectors.

Jampro is collaborating with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Compete Caribbean Programme in the organisation of the event.

“This is a very important event, a very important initiative of the Government and Jampro,” said IDB country manager Ancile Brewster, noting his hope is that the forum helps to create “better synergies between key sectors”.

Minister of industry, investment and commerce Anthony Hylton, in his remarks at the launch, stated that foreign direct investment (FDI) will be playing a more significant role in the economic development of the country.

“The Government of Jamaica fully expects that FDI will play an even greater role in the economic development of the country, given the scale of projects that we must undertake in order to achieve any significant measure of economic transformation,” he said, adding that local investors have a critical role to play in this strategy by forging partnership initiatives with foreign investors.

FDI inflows to Jamaica hit a 14-year low in 2010 when they declined by over 60 per cent to US$201 million.