By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterTALKS BETWEEN Jamaica and India on possible investments in the information technology sector have been stalled by the United States-led war in Iraq.
Last year, a delegation from the Ministry of Commerce visited India to begin talks on those issues and a follow-up visit to India, to intensify those discussions should have taken place during the first quarter of this year. However, with war now raging in the Middle East, officials of the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology are indicating that those discussions would not become a reality before mid-year.
"What we are trying to do is engage the business IT sector in India with strategic partnerships with Jamaica, but right now in light of the uncertainties surrounding the war, we have to place the continuation of talks on hold until about the middle of the year," Phillip Paulwell, Commerce, Science and Technology Minister, told The Gleaner.
Pointing out that India was a leader in software technology, Mr Paulwell said Jamaica could gain a lot from closer IT links with that sector.
"When we visited India in 2002, they indicated an interest in doing business with Jamaica and we will definitely follow-up on that, as soon as tensions surrounding the war is out of the way," he said.
He said the Ministry would be placing on the front-burner the strong features which the Indian IT sector could benefit from, if it relocated some of its businesses to Jamaica. Those characteristics, he said, included: Jamaica's close proximity to North America, its highly-skilled IT workforce, its low attrition rate in the sector and its freedom from the conflicts which have dogged the Far East and Middle East.
There is now only one Indian software development company in Jamaica, and that's in the Montego Bay area.
According to Mr. Paulwell, his Ministry will be promoting the old Goodyear factory in St. Thomas, as a feasible location for IT development.
Mr. Paulwell admitted though that there has been a softening of investments in the IT sector, since the run-up to the war.
"The tremendous interest we had seen from investors in the IT sector some weeks ago has slowed," he told The Gleaner. "We don't anticipate seeing lay-offs, but we won't see the growth at this time... there is a wait-and-see attitude by investors in light of the war."
His comments come amid claims by several companies in the IT sector that the war has caused a lull in their volume of businesses. Among those complaining are: Teleservices Jamaica Ltd. and Westcom Call Centres.
Meanwhile, Paulwell is still describing as "progressive", the prevailing climate in the IT sector.
International data on the IT sector show that Jamaica has outperformed the rest of the region in terms of the development of call centres and Montego Bay has the highest number of IT companies in one location in the region. There are 3,153 call centre agents in Jamaica as compared to Dominican Republic with 2,821 and Puerto Rico with 1,983.
