Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Economy (March
30, 2005)
World Bank studying Ja's business climate
The World Bank is now undertaking a study of
Jamaica's investment climate to evaluate the island's attractiveness for
investment (foreign and domestic) and to identify the key impediments for
stronger investments.
The study being done through the bank's
Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS) - a joint facility with its private
arm, the International Finance Corporation, involves a survey of 350 private
companies in Jamaica.
The bank says that the results of its findings
"will be used to design the appropriate reforms to address these investment
constraints".
Among the issues being examined are
constraints imposed by:
. access to finance;
. infrastructure services;
. quality of labour;
. importing and exporting;
. conflict resolution;
. crime; and
. business-government relations.
"The survey collects detailed cost and
productivity information at firm level to allow identification of constraints to
growth," says the bank.
According to the surveyors, the investment
climate surveys being conducted in Jamaica have been implemented in 82
countries, including 16 in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
"They provide a unique opportunity for
the private companies from a wide cross section of the economy to voice their
concerns about the business environment and to provide suggestions on how to
improve this environment," said the World Bank. "The survey results
have allowed the stakeholders in these countries to develop reform actions,
monitor changes over time, and benchmark the country's performance against other
countries in the region and in the wider world."
Eight sectors are being included in the survey in
Jamaica: manufacturing, hotels, travel agencies and tour operators,
construction, transport, financial services, retail services, and IT.
The field work of the survey was launched in
September 2004, but according to the World Bank, was interrupted by Hurricane
Ivan. The survey is expected to be completed over eight weeks beginning March
21. It is being done by Market Research Services.
The World Bank says that the information
collected from this survey "will be kept strictly confidential" and
that "none of the intermediate of final outputs of the survey will bear the
name of the participating firms or individuals and your firm cannot in any way
be identified in the results".
An analytical report will be prepared based on
the survey results and made available to the public.
|
