WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — President of the World Trade Centre of Greater Philadelphia, Linda Mysliwy-Conlin, says she is impressed with the stability and growth of the Jamaican economy, noting that now is an excellent time to invest in Jamaica.

“I want to appeal to the business sector in Philadelphia to think about investing and doing trade between Jamaica and us. There is a significant opportunity to increase trade between Philadelphia and Jamaica and I can assure you that all efforts will be made to seize this golden opportunity. This is a win-win opportunity for both Jamaica and Philadelphia,” Conlin said.

Speaking at a forum on investment opportunities in Jamaica hosted by the United States Department of Commerce and the Greater Philadelphia World Trade Centre, in conjunction with the Jamaican Embassy, Conlin said her organisation would be sensitising the business community about the vast amount of opportunities available for investment in Jamaica as well as the potential to increase trade between the city of Philadelphia and Jamaica.

Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks, outlined a raft of investment opportunities in her country declaring that Jamaica was open for business.

She outlined a number of investment opportunities in Jamaica including the divestment of the Norman Manley International Airport, the redevelopment of downtown Kingston, the logistics hub and a number of specific projects related to water infrastructure development being undertaken by the National Water Commission.

The diplomat invited the entrepreneurs to visit Jamaica to take a look at the various opportunities available for investment and that she would be doing everything possible to attract new investment to Jamaica, including the launch of an investment road show targeting a number of states from which she hopes to garner new investment for Jamaica.

Jonathan Savage, the vice-president of Pennoni, a top engineering company, said he was eager to do business with Jamaica.

Savage said this was the first time he was attending an event like this that gave information about specific projects. Coming from Jamaica, he said this was impressive and critical to his business development.

Commercial Officer for the US Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, Rebecca Torres, explained that “the purpose of staging the forum was to introduce US companies and interested parties to the opportunities that exist for upcoming infrastructure projects in Jamaica, thus giving these US companies the opportunity to learn more about them and potentially bid on them as well as to invest in Jamaica”.

Ambassador Marks was supported at the forum by Jamaica’s representative to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Arthur Williams, the IDB’s Executive Director for the Caribbean Jerry Butler and minister counsellor for Trade at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington Ariel Bowen.