President of AmCham and managing partner of Nunes Scholefield and Deleon, R. Anthony Jenkinson (left) at the recent AmCham breakfast discussion on investing in Jamaica, held at the Jamaica Pegasus last Friday. Beside him is finance director of Red Stripe, Hans van Lierop.
-Andrew Smith photo
Andrew Green, Staff Reporter
THE OPERATING environment for businesses in the island can be
significantly improved, say two
of the islands leading business
advisors.
Jamaica's investment climate is highly rated, based on international comparisons. But the tax system needs to be more transparent, say Tony Jenkinson, managing partner of Nunes Scholefield and Deleon and Allison Peart, partner at Ernst & Young.
WAIVER OFFER
"Our tax system gives the minister of finance discretion to give a waiver to
anybody," Ms. Peart said. "But not everyone can get to the minister of finance."
The Government has established a tax committee to give recommendations for reforming the present system. Many in the business community expect that some of the recommended changes will be instituted in the next financial year.
"We need certainty," Mr. Jenkinson said. "We need to be able to get from the tax authorities an opinion about a particular type of transaction."
The tax implication of a particular action is becoming an increasingly important issue for clients in structuring an investment, said Mr. Jenkinson. This is difficult to determine with the present tax rules. Both business advisors were participating in an American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica investment seminar at the Hilton Kingston Hotel last week.
"The system needs to be a little bit more transparent," Ms. Peart said. At present, a lot of effort is being made to accommodate
foreign investors, but the authorities also need to address the needs of local investors.
"We have to make the system acceptable to those investors who will be in Jamaica forever," she said. "It should be fair to foreigners and locals."
Another issue facing investors is that property transactions take too long, said Mr. Jenkinson. "From the Stamp Office to registration takes forever."
Pressure needs to be put on government departments to stamp documents and process them faster, he said. The time involved is unacceptable when a multi-million dollar transaction can be held up for weeks.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION MECHANISM
One of the quickest fixes to Jamaica's business climate is to establish a commercial dispute resolution mechanism, he said. "Our court system takes years and years to deal with small disputes."
The country needs to establish a panel of experts that disputes can be referred to, he said. This is a big industry in the United States and Canada and many investors expect to see such a mechanism in place.
"Jamaica: it is one of the friendliest environments there is," Mr. Jenkinson said. "We can get investments going, but we have some issues we really need to look at."
