FCJ building projects facilitates more job creation! (Jamaica 2018)

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in his presentation to parliament during the 2018/2019 budget debates revealed that the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) was authorised by the government to implement three projects to develop 1.5 million square feet of space. Construction will take place over the next three to five years. The space will be dedicated 

to both commercial and industrial enterprises.

Among the engagements expected to be facilitated are agro-processing, business process 
outsourcing (BPO), manufacturing, distribution and warehousing. Prime Minster Andrew 
Holness, who made the announcement, said 30 per cent of the space will be dedicated to 
small and medium-sized enterprises.

This information was revealed during his budget speech which was titled
'Prosperity in Action.' Mr. Holness also noted that there was increased demand for 
commercial/production space which amounted to 470,000 square feet in 2017.

“At Garmex Free Zone, the largest commercial complex in the island, prospective investors 
demanded 241,000 square feet of production space. This high demand for space is also 
reflected in the increase in occupancy from 86 per cent to 93 per cent over the last 12 
months in FCJ facilities,” he indicated.

Holness pointed out that Garmex Free Zone in Kingston sits on 52.7 acres of land, 8.7 
acres of which is unused, greenfield “which is ripe for development”. He informed the 
House that the style of the existing buildings is “flat” construction, and will be redesigned 
to create multilevel structures of higher capacity.

The Prime Minister said that phase one of the project will entail the construction of 
360,000 square feet across 14 buildings of varying sizes. The FCJ, said Holness, has also 
received full approval from the Public Investment Management Secretariat, adding that 
“the procurement process has already started and these buildings are expected to be 
delivered by the second quarter of 2019”.

In relation to Morant Bay's revitalisation incorporating the establishment of a new urban 
centre at the former Goodyear tyre factory, the prime minister advised that FCJ has also 
received conditional approval from the management secretariat for this project 
and was awaiting Cabinet's go-ahead for the joint venture agreement.

Workshops for Entrepreneurs held in Kingston yesterday. (Jamaica 2018)

Edited March 27, 2018.

The founder and chairman of New Fortress Energy (NFE), Wes Edens, partnered with the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship at Brown University and the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM) to host two (2) entrepreneurship workshops yesterday (March 26, 2018). Mr. Edens' company has poured significant investment into helping Jamaica smoothly transition into the natural gas industry. He revealed that the workshops are part of his commitment to support economic development and job creation in Jamaica.

These workshops were held at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, at 9:30 am, and at 3:00 pm at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel. They were led by Danny Warshay, award winning educator, successful entrepreneur, and executive director of the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship at Brown University.

A press release from the organisers said that Warshay would assist workshop participants to develop entrepreneurial confidence, learn how to master and apply the structured entrepreneurial process, use bottom-up research to find and validate unmet needs as well as build their entrepreneurial networks. Warshay also discussed the critical importance of observing and listening anthropologically and empathetically in the entrepreneurial process.

"Wherever I teach throughout the world, entrepreneurship is a key driver to economic development, and so teaching entrepreneurship is an essential catalyst for economic growth. I am excited to be leading these workshops in Jamaica, thanks to Wes Edens and the New Fortress Energy, as well as the University of the West Indies. Based on the successes of these kinds of workshops elsewhere, I am confident that participants will find value in them and that these efforts will create even more opportunities for entrepreneurs in Jamaica," Mr. Warshay said.


Earlier, speaking about the motivation behind the workshops, Jake Suski, managing director for public affairs at New Fortress Energy, commended Jamaicans for their entrepreneurial spirit:

"Jamaicans have a natural tendency toward entrepreneurship, evidenced by the many innovative businesses that make significant contributions to the economy. We want to help encourage and foster even more entrepreneurship in Jamaica and support growth alongside organisation like the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC), Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), First Angels, Branson Centre, and the universities who are already doing valuable work in this space."

Additionally, he reiterated the company and its founder's commitment to supporting entrepreneurship in Jamaica:

"Investment in sustainable growth of Jamaica by supporting entrepreneurship and education is central to the vision of our founder, Wes Edens, and we look forward to building meaningful partnerships and investing in programmes that will have a lasting impact," he said.

As part of its long-term investment in Jamaica's energy landscape, New Fortress Energy undertook several iniatives last year (2017), including breaking ground at Jamalco for the new gas-fired heat and power plant, which is estimated to create over 500 jobs.  In addition, as part of an overall partnership with the UWI, New Fortress Energy is funding 10 scholarships for UWI Mona students with clear need for financial assistance to pay for their tuition, and providing guest lecturers to the School Engineering for enhanced curriculum around natural gas, cryogenics and energy projects. The workshops are being hosted in association with the JBDC, DBJ and First Angels Jamaica.

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Red Stripe Jamaica Increases productivity while Cutting Staff

Red Stripe Jamaica (Desnoes and Geddes), will make eight positions redundant in 2018 with most choosing voluntary retirement, an official has indicated. 

It comes as the company launched a new plant to increase productivity.

According to Ricardo Nuncio, managing director at Red Stripe, these improvements will result "...in some employees gaining new opportunities for growth and development through promotions, lateral moves and job enrichment. Regrettably, as part of these changes, eight roles were made redundant."

He further stated, "Red Stripe wishes to thank our eight employees who will exit the business at the end of December for their dedication and contribution to Red Stripe over the years and offer them best wishes and success for the future.” 


Nuncio added that the staff reductions are not directly related to the new plant which added 80 new jobs in the return of local manufacturing for the export market. 

“We will hire more than that as we expand towards 2020,” he said.

Red Stripe currently employs 340 persons with an additional 1,000 in Celebration Brands, its distribution joint venture with Pepsi.  

The managing director revealed that over the past two years, Red Stripe has implemented a number of changes designed to ensure it holds the right tools, systems, organization and resources that will deliver its 2020 ambition.  

"In 2017, we rolled out a new enterprise resource planning system, HEI-Core Single Client and installed a new packaging line. We also continued to seek out more efficiencies through the simplification of complex processes, job redesign and streamlining our ways of working. As part of this drive at process improvement and to increase productivity levels, Red Stripe will also reorganize our shift pattern structure from 12-hour shifts, seven days a week to 8-hour shifts, five days a week effective January 2018," Nuncio stated.

The company continues to improve efficiency levels at the island’s brewery owned by beer giant Heineken International. Red Stripe spent nearly US$18 million on its new line for the export market. 

The new line 8 will nearly triple the brewery's production to 26,000 cases per day or one million bottles of the Jamaican beer for the domestic and international markets. Also, the company now runs its plant on cheaper liquefied natural gas which powers over 90 per cent of its energy needs. 

The company's top export markets are the United States and Canada, with two million and 700,000 cases in annual shipments, respectively. As at July 2017, the company recorded 15 per cent market growth in the American focus cities of Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Atlanta.


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Government wants Chinese investors to utilize more local labour on their projects

The Government of Jamaica is currently in talks with Chinese investors about reducing the need for imported labour, so says Prime Minister Andrew Holness. The goal is to encourage the Chinese to utilize more local labour on their projects.

Prime Minister Holness said that this move would include a commitment to train Jamaicans in the skills for which the foreign firms currently import workers from their home countries, as it would be more profitable to use Jamaican workers than taking labour from China.

“We must make it such that it is unprofitable for the Chinese companies to bring their own labour here because our labour is good enough or better to do the job,” he said. He was speaking at last Saturday's (July 15, 2017) public session of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union's (BITU) Triennial General Assembly at the Wolmer's High School for Boys in Kingston.

His comments were in response to complaints which had been made by several unions, including the BITU, about conditions, primarily on construction sites operated by Chinese contractors, including a preference for workers imported from China.

The Prime Minister pointed out that with only three per cent of GDP available for programmes to generate growth, the government had no option but to seek private investments, including foreign direct investments.  He said:

“If the economy is to grow, Jamaica cannot grow on the three per cent of GDP available to us. We have to find smart ways of dealing with foreign direct investments, and one of the biggest foreign investors in Jamaica right now is China. So we have to contend with Chinese investments.” 
He however noted that the investments sometimes have conditions, including the need for Chinese labour with certain technical skills. But he asserted that this is only allowed in areas where Jamaicans do not have the skills or the competence that is needed.


“It has always been the case that when Chinese investments are being done, that it meets up to and complies with the standards set in Jamaica. And every Chinese company that comes here has to interact with the Government, if it is on a bilateral level they are doing the projects, and I am ensuring that the message goes out to them. But they point out to me, sometimes, that there may be some technical skills needed in some areas.

“So here is what I am saying to the Minister of Labour and to my Cabinet: We must make it such that it is unprofitable for the Chinese companies to bring their labour here, because our labour is good enough or better to do the job.

“It can't be that you have to fly in hundreds of workers half-way around the world, pay to keep them here and still do the job more profitably than if you were using Jamaican labour. That shouldn't be the case. So the government has a duty to ensure that our labour is trained, that our labour is certified and that our labour also not only has the competence, but the discipline,” Holness said.

He also revealed to persons at the meeting that he has been speaking with the Chinese companies, and that the government has made it clear that, in terms of projects going forward, there must be a training component.

“… If it's new technology being used, or new practices or new techniques, our workers must learn them. Our workers must come up to scratch so that the next [round] of projects the Chinese company can't say to us that the need is in this area of skill, or that area of skill, because we would have had all our workers trained in a structured way, waiting to fill the positions,” he stated.

“So being involved in foreign direct investments is inevitable. It must happen and it is going to happen it is in our interest but it is not necessary that at all times the investment has to be tied to the importation of labour.

“If our workers are working efficiently and productively it will always be more profitable to use Jamaican labour, and we are going to make it so by the efficiency, the productivity and the discipline of the workers who are hired on Chinese construction projects, or any other project for that matter,” added the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Holness also explained that the training programme being considered by the government would also entail personal and character development, and related to an understanding of punctuality and job discipline, “...and getting to the point where they understand that work is not a joke business: work is serious business.

“Once that mentality starts to pervade the labour force, then there is no investor that is going to come here and want to carry their own labour. They are going to say that Jamaican labour is the best labour,” he declared.

“I have all the confidence that we can do it because when I travel elsewhere, I visit plants where Jamaicans are working and the managers say to me, 'Jamaicans are the best workers.. If we can do it abroad, we can do it at home,” he said.

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References

Quotes obtained from: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/gov-8217-t-starts-discussions-with-chinese-investors-about-importation-of-workers_105137