BUSINESS are not as mean as it might seem to some Jamaicans, in terms of supporting social and community development, says prominent businessman and chairman and managing Director of ARC Manufacturing Ltd, Norman Horne.

Horne, who spoke to the Jamaica Observer minutes after receiving his of the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) national award at Kings House on Heroes Day, said that local businessmen/investors are not tight-fisted about supporting social intervention, but may be scrimpy about publicising their support.

According to him, the philosophy of most businessmen is that they should help, but that they do not need the publicity that often comes with assisting.

“We help persons as a genuine response to genuine needs, but we don’t believe that when we put ourselves forward to contribute in this way, that we should publicise it, and so I also believe that other business people are finding their own way of making a contribution without making a public spectacle of it,” he told the Business Observer.

“For our company, we have been an advocate for social improvement. As a matter of fact, our mission statement says that we strive for economic prosperity, while improving social conditions. So, I believe a lot of business people are involved in trying to improve the social conditions. I think they do recognise that social improvement requires improved economic conditions. It requires money, to do it. But I do believe that businesses are involved and that they are playing their roles,” he added.

Horne’s social involvement is widespread in the south St Andrew area of the Corporate Area, and includes one of the most productive but vulnerable areas of Kingston and St. Andrew. he believes that while businesses are widely engaged in social interventions they do recognise that economic growth and development are the basis for social progress.

“The award that I got today is for entrepreneurial and community service. We have invested a lot in the building industry, manufacturing items like nails zinc sheets, roofing and we have the only treatment and wolmanization plant in Jamaica.

“So we have paved the way for areas like import substitution and the expansion of industry but, more importantly, we have taken on some social projects, for example the Hunt’s Bay police station and we work closely with a number of churches and schools, and we have contributed to a number of individuals, in terms of helping to improve the housing stock.

“I am proud of the work that we have been doing. Being conferred with this award, it is a very humbling experience. I accepted it with the utmost levels of humility because it allows me to recognise that we are just a dot in the Jamaican experience and each of us as mortal men have our roles to play in building our country and developing our economy.

“We, as a country, are not where we should be. We have many challenges with gun violence, we have challenges with our justice system, it is taking far too long for cases to come to an end. We have a lot of different problems that we have to address.

“But, we have to focus on becoming the drivers, because, in order to resolve our social issues it requires economic solutions. So we have to participate in trying to grow the economy, create more jobs, create more opportunities for taxation for government so that they can invest more in the country and, at the end of the day, to be able to secure a better future, not for us, but for our children,” he concluded.

The son of a former deputy mayor of Black River, Horne has represented both the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in general elections, and also sat in the Senate between 2002 and 2006 courtesy of former Prime Minister and JLP leader Edward Seaga. He resigned as treasurer of the PNP in 2016.

Although he has not been lucky enough to win a seat in the House of Representatives he had been quite an effective member of the Senate and has since risen, probably beyond his own expectations, to great hights due to his contribution to business, social and community developments.

Interestingly, while he was dabbling in politics Horne was also eyeing the vast number of rusting zinc roofs across Jamaica in the mid-1990s, and saw the opportunity to use technology to convert the local zinc market from galvanised zinc sheets to aluminium zinc sheets, which are rust-resistant. This led to the birth of ARC Manufacturing Ltd in 1996, of which he is the founder and executive chairman.