KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – The Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro) says 50 companies will benefit from capacity building and export promotion support under the government’s three-year Export Max III programme due to begin in April.

The programme is aimed at providing focused capacity, advocacy and market penetration support to exporters and export-ready firms and is also intended to competitively position the entities to exploit market opportunities and ultimately make a greater contribution to the local economy.

Jampro’s Sales Support Unit Manager, Ricardo Durrant, told the Jamaica Information Service ( JIS) that a key objective is identifying specific needs of the target companies and designing and implementing customised enterprise development initiatives to improve business performance and competitiveness.

As a result, Jampro has partnered with the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), and the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) will deliver the programme which also includes mentorship, business development, sales training and export promotion components.

“We have collaborated with these two super agencies, which will bring their individual talents and capacities to bear on the programme. The JBDC deals with business development, [which] they are strong on… and will bring that to the programme, while the JMEA will offer the mentorship and market intelligence that these companies will find useful,” he said.

“As you know with most small companies, there is an incubation period where they need that mentorship to develop and grow and become super companies, and we expect that the JMEA will deliver to these companies.”

Durrant said that Jampro, in delivering the export promotion component, will introduce the companies to various markets in the Caribbean, United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom through trade shows, expos and other inward or outward missions arranged.

“Entering into an overseas market is not the easiest thing… so capacity building is going to be very important. We have to ensure that they have sound management practices, [so] they will go through a productivity improvement programme and there will also be sales training and access to financial support,” he added.

The Export Max III programme seeks to attract Jamaican-made products from agro-processing, manufacturing and services in the categories of food, that is, processed and manufactured; non-food such as castor oil, chemicals and cosmetics; and services covering film, animation, education, music and information technology-enabled services.