JAMAICA’S Ambassador to the United States Audrey Marks has told members of the business sector in New Jersey that Jamaica is ready and open for business with a wide range of opportunities for investment.

Addressing members of the business community of Edison New Jersey at the Rutgers University Law Centre recently, she said there is a favourable macro-economic climate that is conducive to the stimulation of the productive sector, the crippling effect of high domestic debt has been alleviated and there are many fertile opportunities for investment.

She pointed to the revitalisation of downtown Kingston which she said was an urgent priority and which presented a vast opportunity for public-private partnerships in what has been estimated as a US$2.5 billion dollar redevelopment process.

“The city faces a complex set of interconnected challenges. An important component of urban renewal is providing economic opportunity, whereby promoting private sector-led growth is an integral part of the solution,” she said. “Urban renewal can be facilitated through business investment, job creation, and infrastructural upgrades. Therefore, I am working to attract investments into key sectors that will anchor this effort, including tourism, transportation infrastructure including shipping and small and medium sized enterprises.”

Marks pointed to a number of investment projects that are either underway or in the finals stages of planning, including the construction of the Falmouth cruise ship terminal at US$220 million, the Harmony Cove Casino and Hotel development amounting to US$1.5 billion, conversion to Liquefied Natural Gas which ultimately will reduce costs to the consumer by 30 per cent, the rehabilitation of the Palisadoes shoreline at a cost of US$56 million and the Kingston re-development project, at a project cost of US$2.5 billion.

She noted that there were developments at the regional level that also have a bearing on the investment and business climate of Jamaica and which are worth mentioning, given the benefits that may accrue to investors who are willing to take advantage of them.

She pointed to the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) which she said is designed to promote competitive production of goods and services for both intra and extra-regional trade and is intended to be an effective platform for dynamic trade and economic interface with the rest of the world.

“By pooling resources and improving the competitive production of goods and services, the objective is to assist Caribbean countries individually and collectively to adjust to more liberal international trade and investment arrangements. The CSME offers a tremendous advantage to investors — once presence is established in any country in the Caribbean, the investor would have immediate access to a market size of approximately 15 million people,” she said.

In addition, she observed that Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean countries plus the Dominican Republic, a grouping called CARIFORUM, recently negotiated an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.

“This EPA is a reciprocal free trade agreement that is intended to provide improved, long-term and more secure market access for CARIFORUM countries into the EU on a reciprocal basis, with provisions for cooperation and development support for the Caribbean,” she said, noting that the agreement presents greater opportunities for the region to penetrate the European market in niche areas, in order to maximise duty free and quota access.

Marks was on an official two-day visit to New Jersey.