As 2025 turns the first page, a number of leaders across various industries in the local business community have expressed mixed optimism in their outlook for the year ahead.

From dealing with instances of crime and violence to further reducing interest rates and meaningfully growing the economy, the bulk of those canvassed foresee 2025 as a year filled with new opportunities and vast economic potential.

The Business Observer, in capturing some of the sentiments, shares them below.

Metry Seaga—PSOJ President

“I remain optimistic about Jamaica and so I continue to wish for the best to happen for us a country this year. While we’ve achieved a lot in the law few years, I still think that we have a long way to go as there remains many opportunities. I’m, however, very encouraged by the signs of reduction in crime and by the number of investments I see coming to our shores. I think if we focus on continuing to get crime down and to keep the macro-economy stable, we should be in a good position. As we move forward in the year, we need to now up the focus on growth and I’m looking forward to working with government to see how best we can try to establish and achieve this.”

Sydney Thwaites—JMEA President

“Coming out of a challenging year where we had a lot of headwinds in terms of high interest rates and supply chain challenges, we are hoping to have much of these smooth out in 2025. We’re hopeful for additional rate drops to help with getting the economy moving again and for us to have some growth, going into the election year, the JMEA as a body wants to see some our top issues addressed in the lead up to the polls and for both parties to be clear on what the priorities are. Notwithstanding the challenges, we’re optimistic about the economy and we certainly want to see the continued reduction of our debt to GDP and other things that will help to keep the important variables trending in the right direction as we continue to seek after more growth and stability.

Robin Russell—Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association (JHTA) President

“Despite the disruptions from weather and other industry challenges, forward bookings are looking promising and so as an industry we are hopeful that tourism in 2025 will continue to make strong contributions to the economy. We have increased our room stock in the last two years adding over 3,000 rooms, and so with the continued push to bring more airlifts to the island and from new destinations we are positive that there will be strong upticks in output from the sector this year. Concerning negative travel advisories we remain in dialogue with our US partners as we work to reduce current ratings and with crime and other major incidences trending downward, we are hoping in seeing favourable updates in this area.”

Garnett Reid— Small Business Association of Jamaica (SBAJ) President

“The SBAJ in 2025 will continue to advocate for commercial banks to lower their interest rates so that more of our small businesses can thrive. As some of the country’s small producers continue to grapple with poor road networks, we also would love to see more improvement of structures being done so that they will be able to gain access to markets. Additionally, we want to see the current level of crime and violence in the country reduced and by extension, the economy becoming more prosperous. As members of the small business community we will this year continue to clamour for the promised prosperity which we are not yet feeling, but hope to.”

Steven Whittingham—Chairman of the Jamaica Stock Exchange

“After years of global inflationary pressures forced contractionary monetary policy responses from central banks, I’m hoping for relative price stability in the year ahead. Price stability will be good for consumers, businesses and investors and so I’m expecting that the recent trend of interest rate cuts will continue and that we will begin to see a gradual improvement in capital market conditions over the course of the year. I’m optimistic that 2025 will be a year filled with opportunity for the bold and the deliberate.”

Shullette Cox—Jampro President

“I think 2025 will offer an opportunity for Jamaica to double down on export-led investments with a strong focus on our service sectors. We have a lot of untapped potential across our business community for exports and so we want to capitalise on this where necessary and Jampro stands ready and committed to helping our local companies to ensure that they get the support they need to enter new markets and to get in front of more buyers. With the country now well-positioned to diversify into new areas, particularly on the tourism side — we’re looking to see new offerings that we can bring tourists to parishes such as Portland and St Thomas with the opening up of the roadways and airport. In the outsourcing sector, we’re also looking to unlock those higher-value segments. We’re also very happy for the contracts that will be issued for the film fund during the first half of this year. These projects will impact not just the economy but also further showcase our talents and culture to the rest of the world and we are excited about this. Using what we now see based on the macro-economic fundamentals, there is a lot of opportunity going into 2025 and we look forward to exploring them with our business community as we continue to support their success.

Harold Davis—Acting CEO, Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC)

“The JBDC is already claiming 2025 to be a good year for entrepreneurship and the MSME sector. It’s going to be a year filled with opportunities given the number of areas we are moving to explore. In 2025 we will continue to push for the inclusion of MSMEs in the digital economy as our aim is to have 2,700 of these players upskilled and utilising digital technology across their businesses by 2026. This year as we help them to expand their offerings and to gain increased access to commerce and new markets, the JDBC, by virtue of all the things we have planned, sees this year as one of heightened opportunities — one that will help the sector to become more innovative and efficient. In 2025 we think there will be lots to take advantage of and we are confident that our MSMEs will seek to learn as they earn.”

Wayne Chen—President of the Jamaica Employers Federation (JEF)

“For 2025 I want us as a country to focus on skills training and improvement as we put more focus around education at all levels and ages. With technology and the fast-developing world that we live in, we have to ensure that our skills and processes are up to global standards in order for our labour force to take advantage of growing opportunities. As individuals and businesses, we this year will have to turn up that focus on improving our people’s skills, as it is only in doing so that as a country we’ll be able to increase productivity and to sustainably increase the income and wealth of our workers.”

Newton Johnson — President of the Realtors Association of Jamaica

“With interest rates trending down, I think this year we will begin to see a totally different real estate market. As more people come back to Jamaica and move to acquire property, the sector is likely to become more active as various developments get off the ground. As elections become due this year, there is also an expectation for there to be some apprehension, but the general outlook for the fast-growing and lucrative sector remains positive.”

— Compiled by Kellaray Miles