Jampro President, Diane Edwards, has said that the execution of the Global Services Skills (GSS) loan agreement will be a major step towards advancing Jamaica’s role in the digital global economy. She made the comments at the agreement’s signing, last week.

The agreement was signed by Dr Nigel Clarke, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, and Adriana La Valley chief of operations at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Edwards said the project, which aims to promote the growth of global services in Jamaica through training and boosting Jamaica’s ability to export services, would help the island to join economically developed countries that have welcomed the 4th Industrial Revolution.

“Driverless cars, smart home appliances, telemedicine, robotic process automation… all are a reality in developed countries and Jamaica must play more than catch up,” she said. “We must equip our workforce to take the leap into the future, to ride the wave rather than be swallowed by it. The GSS Project is most timely and will help to ensure that Jamaica’s workforce is properly trained, prepared and positioned for this paradigm shift.”

Jamaica’s Global Services sector currently includes Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology Outsourcing.

Dr Clarke noted that there were two challenges within the Global Services sector. One was the need for greater infrastructure for skills training to ensure that Jamaican workers who are employed are properly prepared for their jobs. This infrastructure would also help to upgrade the industry from what is known as Business Process Outsourcing to Knowledge Process Outsourcing which involves higher skilled areas of expertise.

He went on to say that the second area of challenge is at the “investment, attraction, promotion level” to guarantee that efforts in this area are sustained and competitive to attract the best firms to operate in Jamaica.

The US$15 million GSS loan agreement which will be repaid over 24 years is a five-year project that will address these challenges and bring further development to the Global Services sector which has already enjoyed significant growth.

“Between 2015 and 2016 approximately 57 percent of the growth in employment that we enjoyed in Jamaica came from the Global Services sector so it is a sector that we need to focus on,” Dr Clarke stated.

Edwards elaborated on the two components of the project which will address the areas of challenge outlined by Minister Clarke.

“Some of the best practice that we will implement here will set up a public/private global services sector skills board and this is the first time that we are really bringing industry and academia and educational institutions together to ensure that the products of those skills training will be filling the needs of the private sector,” she said.

The Global Services Sector Skills Board will include HEART Trust/NTA, Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica and the Ministry of Youth, Education and Information. Edwards went on to describe the second component which involves promotion.

“It will focus on strengthening Jampro’s ability but also really deliver a digital services strategy and this is critical to our development as a nation developing towards a digital economy,” she said. “It will improve our penetration of international markets and implement incubator and accelerator programmes for SME (small and medium-sized enterprises).”

In lauding the agreement, Adriana La Valley, Chief of Operations at the IDB, paid tribute to the efforts of those who helped to make the project a reality.

“We see a true commitment of Jamaican people working across sectors, across institutions, as a true collaboration and Jamaica has now the first sector skill council established in the whole Caribbean,” she said. “So that’s something that we have to be very proud of, that we need to celebrate and that marks the beginning of a new Jamaica ready to ride the digital wave and move forward.”

—Alexis Monteith