Nicholas Richards, Gleaner Writer
Jamaicans are among the world's most entrepreneurial people. This was one of the findings of research conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).
The study, titled 'Jamaica 2005', revealed that some 391,000 Jamaicans owned businesses last year. Of this, 241,500 were nascent entrepreneurs and the remaining 154,100 had established their organisation within the last 42 months of the study.
The research, which was conducted by a group of academics from the University of Technology (UTech), headed by Sandra Glasgow, showed that Jamaicans recorded one of the highest levels of entrepreneurial activity, which is measured by the extent of small business activity in a country. This was tabulated by compiling responses from some 3,000 small business entrepreneurs and 36 established owners.
Among the 35 countries included in GEM's cross-national assessment of entrepreneurial activity, only China, 26.7 per cent, New Zealand, 28.2 per cent, Venezuela, 33.1 per cent, and Thailand, 34.8 per cent, registered higher levels of entrepreneurial activity than Jamaica with 26.4 per cent.
The island was also ahead of other middle-income countries like Argentina, Chile, Mexico, South Africa and Venezuela (countries which conducted similar studies) in terms of the extent to which early-stage entrepreneurship translates into full fledged business activity.
This, the report said, "leads to increased job and wealth creation."
Welcome findings
The keynote speaker at the launch of the study, Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, welcomed the findings as good news, commending Jamaicans for such initiatives which were responsible for creating 30 per cent of the island's jobs.
He added: "We have to continue to place tremendous focus on this area, because if we are going to create wealth it is about entrepreneurship."
But, amid Paulwell's enthusiasm, Jamaica also recorded one of the highest levels of business failures among the 35 countries.
Classified as a middle-income country with a real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.5 per cent in 2005, the study revealed that many Jamaican businesses failed within the first several months of being established.
This is especially as it relates to newly-established businesses, as of the 17 per cent or 241,500 Jamaicans that established businesses, only 9.5 per cent of them survived.But it was stressed that crime and violence - in particular, bribery and extortion- were the most pressing problems facing entrepreneurial development.
These suppress business develop-ment and expansion of new and existing businesses and reduce the attractiveness of the country for investment.
However, Jamaica still ranks high on the World Bank's list of countries which were classified as places where it was easy to do business.
Jamaica still ranks high on the World Bank's list of countries which
were classified as places where it was easy to do business.
