By Ayanna Kirton, Gleaner Writer
David Wong (left), managing director of Peak Bottling Company, receives a plaque from Paul Taylor, senior vice president for marketing at Cable & Wireless Jamaica. They were participating in the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Job Creation Award Ceremony, at the Terra Nova Hotel yesterday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
MEGAMART WHOLESALE Club, the Quad Nightclub, and Peak Bottling Company have been recognised by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) for their role in job creation.
In association with Cable & Wireless, the PSOJ honoured the companies at their first Job Creation Award Ceremony for 2004, held at the Terra Nova Hotel yesterday.
MegaMart Wholesale Club, the brainchild of Mr. Gassan Azan, the company's CEO and chairman, has created a total of 450 jobs. Its newest location on Waterloo Road in St. Andrew opened last December, is the second of three MegaMart stores, the third of which is slated for construction in Montego Bay beginning early 2004. Mr. Azan said the island-wide expansion was part of a 10 -year plan conceptualised in 1997 after studying the concept of the 'super store' in foreign markets.
Sharing the latest plans for his recently opened night club with Wednesday Business, Brian Chung, head of Nite Time Promotions and co-owner of the Quad said the fourth floor of the club would be completed by April this year.
Dubbed 'Red Carpet', the new addition will provide premium services for an upscale clientele, particularly those who would prefer a more intimate setting amid the club's other forms of entertainment. Mr. Chung also said the club would continue to be opened for three days a week, with the space being rented out on 'off days' to corporate clients, many of which he said had expressed an interest in using the night club for company functions.
Peak Bottling Company, bottlers of Catherine's Peak Spring Water and recipients of the Small Business Award began operations in 1992 with a staff of three persons filling, capping and packaging bottles by hand. Today, the company has a staff of 50, and exports its bottled water throughout the CARICOM region, the United States, and is looking to the Japanese market this year.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Guest speaker at the ceremony and general manager for the Jamaica National Business Society (JNBS), Earl Jarrett said entrepreneurship was the only means through which jobs could be created and maintained in Jamaica. He congratulated the awardees for their contribution to job creation in an economy plagued by high unemployment particularly among residents of the various innercity communities.
The general manager also spoke about Jamaica National Small Business Loans programme created by JNBS to provide innovative and accessible credit for small and micro business owners who encounter difficulty when trying to secure loans form other traditional banking sources. Mr. Jarrett said the short-term loans not only helped to fund new and existing businesses but also helped to maintain jobs and create new forms of employment.
With a default rate of under five per cent, Mr. Jarrett said the amount of funds disbursed as at September 2003 amounted to over $106 million, generating and maintaining a total of 8190 jobs. Sixty percent of these jobs were in trading while farming, baking, beauty and barber salons made up the remainder of small and micro enterprises facilitated by the loan programme.
Mr. Jarrett also appealed to local authorities to remove the existing bureaucratic systems, which he said, helped to limit access to funds for potential and existing businesses. He urged the Government to review legislation that stifled the efforts of entrepreneurs, saying that such steps could only result in successful local and foreign investment, increased entrepreneurship and a stronger economy.
Since its inception in 2002, The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica has awarded 85 companies for their contribution to employment in Jamaica. The PSOJ also recognises smaller businesses that have created a minimum of five jobs.
