American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (Amcham Jamaica) President Ann-Dawn Young Sang says despite the novel coronavirus pandemic the chamber has been exploring avenues and opportunities to attract investments to Jamaica.

Speaking during a webinar titled ‘Creation of a new normal — Getting back to business’, hosted by Amcham Jamaica recently, Young Sang said there are also opportunities for Jamaican businesses to see what opportunities exist outside of Jamaica which they can access to facilitate further growth.

She said the key now is to come together and deliberate, to create a pathway to Jamaica’s economic recovery as the country needs to get back on track and create new opportunities going forward.

“This new normal needs a concerted and united effort — creating synergies between all stakeholders working as a team,” said Young Sang.

According to Young Sang, Amcham Jamaica is deeply passionate about seeking opportunities for local businesses, and she looked forward to continuing the collaboration with the US Chamber of Commerce to facilitate infrastructural investment for Jamaica’s agriculture and ICT sectors.

She noted that with access to more than three million businesses in United States, Amcham Jamaica, through the US Chamber of Commerce, can provide and access resources to assist local companies and various industries.

The Amcham Jamaica president, during the webinar, highlighted key opportunities that will continue to be explored in order to determine if any further benefits can be extracted or accessed by Jamaican businesses and industries.

Young Sang also gave the commitment of Amcham Jamaica to continue pursuing dialogue with the Ministry of Industry Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries; the US Chamber; and the US Embassy to assist with the further exploration of opportunities identified during the discussions.

She added that Amcham Jamaica will also continue its ongoing discussions with the US Embassy in Kingston on pursuing financing options available to Jamaican businesses.

Minister of Industry Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Audley Shaw; US Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice-President for the Americas Neil Herrington; and Joe James, economic/commercial officer at the US Embassy, made presentations during the webinar which covered a number of issues — including how businesses and countries prepare themselves to resume operations, identifying new business/investment opportunities post-COVID-19, and how Jamaica can benefit from supply chain disruptions.

Amcham Jamaica has scheduled another trade and investment webinar for next month to continue the dialogue to assist Jamaica with getting back to business.