Jamaica's trade and investment promotion agency, JAMPRO, seeking to ensure that the benefits of hosting the ICC Cricket World Cup last well beyond the six-week event itself, has embarked on several initiatives parallel to the World Cup itself.
Chief among these initiatives, according Sancia Bennett-Templer, deputy president, is the Jamaica Investment Attractions Programme, "where we have looked at and continue to look at prospective buyers and prospective investors in Jamaica, inviting them to Jamaica during the period of the event".
The invitees will not just participate in World Cup events, she said, but will be exposed to investment opportunities, "to go on site visits, to be hosted by other business persons in Jamaica in areas of interest, light industries or sectors and so on".
For this initiative, Jamaica is drawing on the model used by the city of Atlanta in the United States for the 1996 Summer Olympics staged in that city. An expert who worked on the Atlanta programme is now advising Jamaica on the local version.
"What we are looking at is a targeted approach, where we would look at particular countries, particular sectors, taking that deeper to particular companies, and look at how we bring the persons here and how we host them and expose to them all the opportunities that are available in Jamaica, and essentially using the time of cricket as a catalyst for that," Mrs. Bennett-Templer explained.
Companion to initiative
The Jamaica Investment Attractions Programme is a companion to another initiative - the Caribbean Business Club, a membership-based approach to investment opportunities. In anticipation of the international attention that will be focused on the region during the six-week staging of the cricket World Cup, the Caribbean Business Club has been launched in several countries - Australia, India, the United Kingdom and Canada.
"We are looking at how we can leverage the opportunity of cricket, the additional media exposure as it relate to cricket; the additional persons, some of whom perhaps would not, under normal circumstances be coming into Jamaica. We are using all of that to accelerate and expand our investment and trade opportunities," the JAMPRO vice-president explained.
