Bamboo industry lucrative for innovators and MSMEs – Hutchinson

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, the Hon. J.C. Hutchinson, has described the emerging bamboo industry as a lucrative endeavour for the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) sector.

The Minister was addressing the International Bamboo and Rattan Congress in Beijing, China, on June 25.

 “The new bamboo industry is now a potentially lucrative “playfield” for innovators and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with low risk for bankers who can now support entrepreneurs with confidence that those monies will be repaid,” Minister Hutchinson said.

He told his audience, further, that Jamaica was on a journey to use bamboo to create wealth for Jamaicans while mitigating the impact of climate change.

Minister Hutchinson also announced that Jamaica was preparing to host the Caribbean International Bamboo Symposium to be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston from November 27 to 29, 2018 under the theme ‘Bamboo: An Economic High ‘Value Chain’ Resource for the Caribbean’.

Jamaica became the 38th member of the International Organization for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) in 2012. Since then, the country has held chairmanship of the bamboo organization between November 2014 and November 2017.

Please see full text of Minister Hutchinson’s Speech attached here.