Patricia Francis, president of JAMPRO, is flanked by Dennis Francis (right), High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago, and Minister of Industry, Commerce and Technology Phillip Paulwell (left). They met at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Investment World Investment Report 2002 launch at the JAMPRO headquarters in New Kingston yesterday. - Contributed FOLLOWING IS an excerpt from the presentation made by Patricia Francis, president of Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO). She was speaking at the launch of the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) World investment Report for 2002, in Kingston yesterday.
"We have observed strong growth in FDI inflows in the last decade and have directly contributed to over 25 per cent of these flows in the past four years.
According to the World Investment Report, FDI inflows into Jamaica have grown from US$28mn in 1980 to US$722 mn in 2001. To place this performance in perspective: Trinidad and Tobago attracted some US$184mn in 1980, which grew to US$729mn in 1999. The Dominican Republic attracted some US$92mn in FDI inflows in 1980 which grew to US$952mn in 2000. And, Costa Rica attracted some US$53mn in 1980, which increased to over US$669mn in 2000.
It is obvious from these comparisons that Jamaica is emerging as a major investment location in the Central America and the Caribbean region.
Export growth performance dwarfs, however, in comparison to the increased FDI inflows that have occurred. Whilst exports grew from US$962mn in 1980 to US$1.2bn in 2001, the balance on goods and services has deteriorated from US$-44mn in 1980 to US$-1bn in 2001. Without the benefit of any in-depth research, one would be tempted to conclude that FDI flows into Jamaica have been more greatly influenced by the resource and market seeking motives than by efficiency seeking motives.
JAMPRO's services will include to a greater extent targeting greater linkages between the transnational corporations and our modernised local enterprises with the objective of competitively filling export demand. We are constantly reviewing our corporate targets to ensure that we are promoting investments that have significant export earning potential.
This strategy is of utmost importance when placed against the relatively weaker global FDI performance in 2001; the continued decline in FDI inflows into Latin America; and a upper limit two per cent global growth projection for 2002.
The 2002 World Investment Report states that "after the record high levels of 2000, global flows declined sharply in 2001 - for the first time in a decade. This was mainly the result of the weakening of the global economy, notably in the world's three largest economies, which all fell into recession, and a consequent drop in the value of cross-border m&as."
The 2002 world investment prospects published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, forecasts flat global inflows for 2001 and 2002 at around US$780bn, but points to a recovery in 2003 to US$900bn and then by 2006, a return to the $1trillion trend line of the late 1990's.
The forecast for Latin America is, however, not as optimistic, with a long-run decline in FDI inflows from the over US$100bn in 1999, to around US$96bn in 2006, attributed mainly to the southern cone economies. The Caribbean economies are expected to lose FDI inflows to the southern cone economies over the next four years.
With this global and regional outlook, Jamaica must strategise not only to get the much needed FDI inflows to increase gross fixed capital formation, but also to maximise its impact on the economy."
