Earl Jarrett, general manager, Jamaica National (JN) Building Society, is encouraging the country’s netball authorities to get the sport included in the Government’s growth agenda.

Jamaica’s economy can grow by tapping the potential of sports such as netball, Jarrett said.

He pointed out that netball, the most popular women’s sport in the country, can be further developed to serve the nation’s interests in the multi-trillion-dollar global sports industry.

“Economic growth can be achieved in Jamaica by focusing [an] our sport activities, such as netball,” Jarrett said. “I encourage you to put together a proposal to the Government’s Economic Growth Council to let them understand that through netball you can also contribute to growth.”

Jarrett was addressing the opening 2016 Dress Parade and Rally of the Business House Netball Association (BHNA) competition at the Leila Robinson Courts, Independence Park Complex, St Andrew, last Saturday. The Dress Parade was won by the JN Group, while the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information won the Rally.

An avid netball supporter and patron of the national Sunshine Girls team, Jarrett congratulated the BHNA for its ongoing development of netball skills in employees of corporate organisations for the past 43 seasons.

“I understand that we have some 600 persons participating in today’s exercise,” Jarrett said. “That means we have 600 persons wearing ‘brand spanking’ new outfits, which also means that some manufacturers would have got some work. Additionally, there are the coaches, physiotherapists, and a range of other professions who would have been employed in this exercise.”

He pointed out that the Sunshine Girls netball team played an important role in the formation of Jamaica’s global image. And he said his organisation, the JN Group, gained from the fact that its own netball team members were hard -working and also served as brand ambassadors.

“Netball is serious business,” Jarrett said. “Jamaica needs to focus on this aspect of the economy to enable us to grow and create more jobs and opportunities for our people.”

Tricia Robinson, president of the BHNA, welcomed the new teams participating in the event. These teams came from Hardware & Lumber, Stewarts Automotive, the Ministry of Education, Sutherland Global, and the Guardsman Group.

The BHNA started with 17 business houses in 1974, and Robinson said there are now 33 companies and 38 teams participating. She explained that the benefit to these companies is that, “Sports is not just about winning trophies, but about picking up yourself after setbacks. It comes with teamwork, promotes dignity in adversity, as well as generosity in victory and defeat.”

Marva Bernard, former president of Netball Jamaica, told the enthusiastic Business House Netball audience that, “It has been a pleasure to see where I started and observe how the sport has developed. I am proud of the quality of the leadership that has made it possible for this competition to grow.”