Plagued by the continued impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic, global logistic/supply chain issues, high inflation, rising interest rates and other social pariahs in 2022, members of the business community, despite the continued headwinds, have expressed hope for a better 2023.

The Jamaica Observer, in reaching out to a number of key stakeholders, sought their greatest wish for the new year and have captioned their responses below.

Metry Seaga — President of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ)

“I remain bullish on Jamaica while being very hopeful and confident that we are going to get our crime problem under control as we grow our economy. From where I’m now positioned, I’ll be working to do everything I can to make that a reality.”

Marlene Street Forrest — Managing director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE)

“My hope is for more companies to access the market for capital and to become listed. Listing on the exchange allows for the growth and development of businesses and the economy as a whole — therefore, my wish is for companies, those already listed and those contemplating, to take advantage of the market and all the opportunities it provides. There are many opportunities in the market for long-term wealth creation and such we are also imploring more investors to get on board this year.”

Michael McMorris — President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC)

“On a macroeconomic level we’re hoping that conditions improve, currently we are fighting inflation which has led to some slowdown in business and business development, so going forward we are hoping to see improvements in a broader sense and more encouraging signs for businesses. Beyond that we also want to see issues concerning a shortage of skilled labour addressed with increased focus being given to investment in training. Like all Jamaicans, there is also the wish for a greater consensus around crime fighting, which continues to be a big area for us, as well as the development of urban centres. All in all, the expectation is for there to be more cooperation and participation from all interest groups around common goals as we [collectively] try to achieve prosperity and increase productivity for all our people.”

William Mahfood — Chairman of the Wisynco Group

“I’m very excited about 2023 and the environment in Jamaica for doing business. There are a few areas of concern I think we need to focus on including improvement in the health sector, security and education. If the Government is able to maintain focus on these areas and allow the business and private sector players to do their thing, investments will begin to flow; I think we have seen some amount of that last year and we’re only hoping for the opportunities to get better this year.”

Lenworth Fulton — President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS)

“For the agricultural sector, among my greatest wish is for the sector to get a lid on praedial larceny, secure greater access to financing and insurance. We also need the Government to get more serious on land reform and land distribution so as to ensure that land is available for farming. As we continue to struggle with the issue of food insecurity, we desperately want to see more local production and less imports. For the new year we also hope to get strong bipartisan support on agriculture so that we can get more lands into production, build more warehouses, expand irrigation and develop a central marketing system.”

Mark Williams — Chief executive officer (CEO) of Kingston Wharves Limited (KWL)

“I continue to be very optimistic for 2023. I, however, really hope we can get a handle on inflation and security concerns. I think if we can get these two right, the business community will continue to invest, because amid the challenges there are good opportunities that certainly we definitely want to exploit. For the port, we expect that opportunities for nearshoring will continue to be exploited for us as a country and we are certainly looking forward to this in the new year.”

Robin Russell — President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA)

“Aside from wanting to see our crime/murder rate come down, I’m looking forward to having more employment of locals in the tourism sector as we continue to grow the industry. I also want to see more integration in the sector with persons such as farmers, entrepreneurs and other operators offering more products to the highly sought after tourism market.”

Christopher Zacca — CEO of the Sagicor Group

“My greatest hope for 2023 is first and foremost a reduction in crime and violence which will redound to the benefit of citizens as well as businesses. Secondly, I wish to see a tempering of inflation and more macroeconomic stability related to that. I’m also hoping for interest rates to not surpass where they are currently and that we will get back to growing our economy in a more vigorous way.”

Donovan Wignall- President of the MSME Alliance

“For the year ahead an important goal we hope to achieve is to see a paradigm shift in banking policy and how financial institutions interact with the MSME sector. The past 36 months has been seared with unprecedented challenges for sector and the country but as resilient people we will continue to push through the rough road to full recovery. I believe that with the right mix of management and incentives we can to do great things in 2023. With the lessons learnt and experiences gained over the past three years, we will also continue to chart a path to sustainable growth and development for our MSMEs. An all hands on deck approach is also needed as we work to conquer the crime monster along with its impact on businesses.”

—Compiled by Kellaray Miles