It is no accident that the third Latinfinance Caribbean Finance and Investment Forum will be held in Jamaica at the Pegasus hotel tomorrow as, after long decades of malaise, Jamaica finally appears to be one of the shining stars of the Caribbean region.

In his presentation on “Opportunities for Local Financing of Jamaica’s infrastructure Development” for the Claudette Crooks-owned local investment firm Money Masters yesterday, Daryl Vaz, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, outlined many of Jamaica’s current positives, ranging from our meeting all our IMF targets (including very healthy net international reserves) to falling crime (particularly murder) and unemployment.

He reiterated the emphasis of the current Government on win/wins with the private sector, freeing up government resources through privatisations (noting the commitment of Finance Minister Nigel Clarke to broad-based ownership, eg the planned Wigton Wind Farm initial public offering) and Public Private Partnerships (PPP’s) to allow it to pursue its core activities.

He observed that, contrary to popular belief, 70 per cent of the transactions arranged by the Development Bank of Jamaica since 2009 have been with local investors. He added that the relaxation of the investment limits on pension funds was “top of the list” for Clarke, who was very aware of the Economic Growth Council’s “strong arguments” on this issue.

In addition to outlining some recent projects, he emphasised new planned areas for PPPs as including education and health, eg a School Solar Energy PPP, various Ministry of Health projects, the long-awaited Caymanas project and performance-based non-revenue arrangements for the National Water Commission.

Vaz added that the Government would also be looking at PPPs on a much wider scale eg water, sanitation and urban transport, observing however that “we are not there yet”.

He saw huge potential in medical tourism, referencing amongst other things recent developments in Canada, and advised that a Cabinet submission on reviving downtown Kingston was coming, based on the Government Square concept of locating services downtown around the future Parliament site.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-observer/jamaica-finally-getting-down-to-business_148373