Jamaica Trade Information Portal Project Launched

(From left) Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Andrene Collings, along with Senior Public Sector Specialist, World Bank Group, Joanna Watkins; Chairman, Trade Facilitation Task Force, Patricia Francis; and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFA&FT), Hon. Kamina Johnson-Smith; Minister of State, MFA&FT, Pearnel P. Charles Jr; and Permanent Secretary, MFA&FT, Marcia Gilbert-Roberts, at the launch of the National Foreign Trade Policy and Consultancy for The National Trade Information Portal at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, on Thursday, October 4, 2018. The MFA&FT and MICAF jointly launched the National Foreign Trade Policy and the Consultancy for Jamaica’s National Trade Information Portal Project as part of the country’s trade facilitation programme aimed at improving the ease of doing business in Jamaica.

In a joint ceremony involving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT) and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries (MICAF), Government in a ceremony held at the Pegasus hotel in Kingston on Thursday, October 4, launched the National Trade Policy along with a consultancy for the development of the Jamaica Trade Information Portal, which is scheduled to go live in mid-2019.

The launch of both initiatives was described by Industry Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, as “a step towards modernizing our trade infrastructure to respond effectively to the fast-paced international trading landscape and to improve the ease of doing business in Jamaica”.
Minister Shaw said, further, that successful international businesses required and expected rapid access to information in order to remain competitive and that systems had to be quick and agile in order for businesses to compete globally.
“The Jamaica Trade Information Portal (JTIP),” Minister Shaw said, “will seek to provide Jamaican export and import businesses with the commercial responsiveness and agility they need to become more competitive in the global market.”
With the portal, to be managed by the Trade Board Limited, Jamaica will have a single, authoritative trade information source for businesses to easily access information they need when they need it.
In her address, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith, described the revised Foreign Trade Policy as a comprehensive and modern blueprint for Jamaica’s trading relationship with the rest of the world, which takes into consideration the rapidly evolving trading arena, while being sensitive to Jamaica’s National Development Plan- Vision 2030.
The Trade Policy will better enable the business community by providing a one-stop shop to get information on import-export regulations and procedures.

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