ST JAMES, Jamaica — President of the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro), Diane Edwards says while a large amount of money is available internationally to fund projects, there is a financing gap that developing countries such as Jamaica have to face as they seek to develop their special economic zones and economies.

“I would say financing is another key issue because financing is expensive, first of all, and also most zones will not build speculatively so we have to find anchor tenants; and we work very closely with our developers to try to find anchor tenants for their new zones. So if you’re building a multi-occupant zone, at least you start with one tenant so that you’re able then to build in phases,” Edwards stated.

Addressing a panel discussion during the First Annual Conference of the Global Alliance of Special Economic Zones at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James on Monday, Edwards argued that developing countries do not have projects of the right scale and type to qualify for the right opportunities.

“There’s a lot of money sloshing around the international markets that are looking for climate-smart investments but it’s hard for developing countries to access this funding. And I think this was spoken about at the Summit of the Americas, partly because we don’t have the projects of the right scale,” she stated.

“We don’t have the projects that actually quantify the types of green energy and green opportunity that these climate-smart or environmentally focused funds want to invest in,” she added.

The Jampro head said this is something that needs to be addressed.

“Green bonds are fine but how do we develop the projects? Project packaging is something I’m very passionate about at the moment because I don’t think we have enough people who can help us to write the projects in the right way to attract the green funds that are out there. I think that is something that we really, really need to work on,” stressed Edwards, noting that Government has a role to play.

“… The green investment strategy and linkages policies… are ways in which we can help to direct the private sector down the path of accepting and integrating the sustainable development goals (SDGs) more into their new developments,” Edwards argued.

She added said human talent, such as training and skills upgrade, is also critical to the development of special economic zones and the economy.

“One of the things Jampro has done is to work with the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) to create a global services sector project which aims to upskill 24,000 young people over five years. I can’t talk more about it now, because it’s quite involved, but we have an apprenticeship programme, and we have a competitive fund which co-funds training with private sector companies,” Edwards disclosed.

“There are several initiatives under that programme and we’re actually creating a technology innovation district as well under that programme — and all of this is to build the skills of the young people and equip them for the jobs of tomorrow,” she added.

Edwards was responding to the question: What do you see as one of the biggest challenges in the whole transition to more sustainable economic zones, and is there a bigger role for the Government in accelerating that process?.

The conference, which is Jamaica’s first major international event since the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020, runs from June 13 to 17.