LAST week, the Government, with the support of corporate sponsors and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), hosted what appears to have been a successful Jamaica Investment Forum 2015 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre and the Hyatt Ziva hotel.

Efficiently organised by Jampro, the Investment Forum heard from Prime Minster Portia Simpson Miller, Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips, Industry and Commerce Minister Anthony Hylton, CEOs and top executives from private and public corporations. Together they served up a feast of vital information to an array of foreign investors from across the globe and local investors looking for joint venture partnerships.

Myriad topics were discussed, ranging from medical tourism to logistics to business process outsourcing.

There have been other investment conferences in the past, and as usual there was a lot of talk. But this time, connections were made with the prospect of actual investment. Jamaica has never been short of good investment opportunities, but most went unexploited. Markedly different this time was that investors felt much more confident about the long-term stability of Jamaica’s macroeconomic fundamentals and the improvement in business environment.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has attested to Jamaica’s economic progress and several international comparative indices of the ease of doing business indicate substantial absolute and relative improvement. Credit Dr Phillips for his astuteness and toughness, and the IMF, the World Bank, and the IDB for forcing the Government to reform the business environment.

Having recognised the improvement, let us not forget that Jamaica still has two more years to go to complete the IMF programme and that there is still far too much red tape and bureaucracy in areas such as Customs and the processing of building permits.

The proof of a good business environment and confidence in the macroeconomic future is satisfied and successful firms. In this regard, two aspects stood out. There were testimonials from CEOs of large foreign corporations, eg Groupo Campari, about the good experience they have had operating in Jamaica. In addition, the CEOs of Sandals (Mr Adam Stewart), GraceKennedy (Mr Don Wehby) and Jamaica Producers (Mr Jeffrey Hall) talked about their innovative strategies which have made them successful in the highly competitive international economy.

The conference demonstrated a genuine partnership between the public and private sectors. It is a sign of a good working relationship as well as a positive outlook when the CEOS of Sagicor, and ScotiaBank are in dialogue with the heads of the Port Authority of Jamaica and the Development Bank of Jamaica.

One of the most encouraging aspects of the conference was to hear of the creative strategies employed by small Jamaican firms to survive international competition and to take their operations to other countries. This type of innovative entrepreneurship is reassuring because there is so much negative talk about the business sector.

The investment conference was a sign that the difficult decision by the Government, the commitment of the private sector and sacrifices of the Jamaican people are beginning to bear fruit. But there is more to be done. Forbes, in its 2014 Best Countries for Business, ranked Jamaica 64 out of 146 countries. That means that there are 63 countries where an investor will find it easier to establish and do business.