THE Montego Bay Free Zone (MBFZ), one of western Jamaica’s most successful business facilitators, begins its 30th anniversary celebrations with a church service at the Trumpet Call Ministries in Montego Bay today.

The service forms part of a number of planned activities, guided by the theme: “Positioning for the Special Economic Zone”, to mark the occasion.

Tomorrow, Free Zone staff and workers will spearhead a Community Outreach initiative at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, followed by a 30th Anniversary Open Day on March 5 at the Free Zone property, which involves an exposition and tours of the facility.

The MBFZ will join forces with its partners, the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ) and Columbus Business Solutions in staging a special public forum on the future of BPO in Montego Bay on March 19, at the Montego Bay Community College. This will be followed by a 30th anniversary banquet on April 18. The celebration wraps up on July 4 with a grand fun day for Free Zone workers and their families.

According to Gloria Henry, the assistant vice-president of operations and customer relations at the Montego Bay Free Zone, “we have much to celebrate as an important source of foreign exchange inflow to the country, having contributed over US$1billion to the Jamaican economy over the last 10 years, while currently employing over 10,000 people within the Zone and outside.

Henry boasted that the Montego Bay Free Zone is one of the most attractive and sought- after locations for offshore operations, in the Business Process Outsourcing sector, facilitated by the high quality of the trained labour force and the well-developed telecommunications infrastructure, supported by progressive government policies, which enabled the rapid and positive growth of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Montego Bay.

“As the Montego Bay Free Zone positions itself to advance up the value chain as a provider of services and transition into a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the occasion of the 30th anniversary will be used to begin the repositioning process and to expand the outsourcing value chain,” said Henry.

Owned jointly by the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) and the Government of Jamaica, the Montego Bay Free Zone was established on March 1, 1985 to promote foreign direct investment; earning some US$120 million last year alone.