Address at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans

on the topic of

Salutations

What an honor it is to share your hospitality and warmth in this beautiful city which resonates so much of Jamaica. This city perhaps shares more with us in Jamaica than it does with other American cities.

We have the same penchant for good and spicy foods.

New Orleans, like Jamaica, is known for its cultural heritage; for its soul; for its rhythm. We are known globally for our reggae music and you are known likewise for your jazz.

There is a Jamaican Sound and a New Orleans Sound. And don’t forget a fusion between the two!!

Jamaica has always been a welcoming society; a society that treats its visitors well. The same is true of New Orleans. There is so much that we have in common that it behooves us to aggressively explore ways of further cementing our ties. I hope that my visit here will prove to be a further step along that path. In terms of business links, we have had a long history with Louisiana. Bauxite - one of the island's foremost industries. We are eager to expand trade and investment links. Jamaica is an important gateway to the Caribbean Basin countries and our strategic importance will deepen even further with the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Jamaica is already a major transshipment port, boasting the seventh largest natural harbor in the world and in close proximity to the major sea-lanes passing through the region.

Jamaica has made substantial investments in upgrading its port facilities and today has one of the modern, sophisticated ports, which compares favorably with the most modern ports anywhere in the world.

Between 1994 and the end of this year, Jamaica would have spent some US$240 million in new port capacity. By that time, the island will have 1,220 meters of berthing space.

Between 1975 and 1999 overall throughput has grown 1,216%. The growth in cargo passing through the region has been enormous. Another expansion is planned, scheduled for completion in 2005.

For the sixth consecutive year, Jamaica achieved single digit inflation rates. In the last fiscal year the inflation rate was 6.4% moving from 8.4% the previous year. Our Net International Reserves (NIR) have moved to US$1,286 billion in December 2000.

The fastidious IMF itself has been impressed and has said of Jamaica, and here I quote, "The fiscal deficit has been broadly contained to targeted levels despite shortfalls in revenues. Monetary growth has been restrained and foreign exchange reserves have risen. The exchange rate has remained broadly stable." The Government has been highly successful in raising funds in the international capital markets, tapping both into the US dollar markets and the Euro currency markets.

Standards and Poor, while downgrading the outlook of other emerging markets, changed our outlook from "stable" to "positive." The growing confidence in Jamaica as evidenced by our success in the international capital markets would warrant the positive evaluation. Jamaica was also recently reclassified as a moderately indebted country by the World Bank in its Global Development Finance.

Jamaica’s record in terms of trade liberalization is also very impressive, by even developed country standard. A publication titled "Economic Freedom in the world 1975-1995" shows that Jamaica had made progress in every single area of economic freedom over the 20 year period.

By 1985 we scored 4.4 out of a possible 10. By 1995, we had reached 6.3 and have made even more reforms since then. Significantly, the publication ranked Jamaica 31 out of 103 countries, putting Jamaica ahead of even a number of developed countries.

The priority sectors targeted for investment promotion are information technology, tourism, film, music and cultural services, non-metallic minerals, high-value agribusiness areas such as nutraceuticals and other natural products, business services and apparel.

The Information Technology sector, however, is the one that the Government and Jampro pushing most aggressively in terms of investment promotion. The Government has launched a major human resource development program to ensure that the skill levels meet the demands.

Just a couple of weeks ago, CISCO Systems, the global leader in networking systems with annual revenues of US$12 billion, launched its training academy program in Jamaica in association with the Government’s National Training Agency.

The Jamaican Government’s target is to create 40,000 jobs in the sector over a 3-year period and we are ensuring that the training facilities exist to drive that employment program.

The mobile phone market has been liberalized and already two licenses have been granted. Each of the companies granted licenses has agreed to plough between US$150 - US$200 million in investment, primarily in infrastructural facilities.

The ending of the Cable and Wireless monopoly and the opening up of the competition has resulted in the company’s lowering its per minute rate to the United States from US 60 cents to 7-10 cents per minute for high volume customers.

Jamaica has the most modern, technologically sophisticated digiport in the region and first-rate telecommunications infrastructure.

Tourism is another service sector which offers significant investment potential. Our vibrant culture, our music, our cuisine, our exotic appeal, our flora and fauna, our Eco-tourism and nature and heritage tourism all combine to make us a very attractive destination. Last year, Jamaica had over 2,300,000 visitors who spent over US$1.3 billion.

Our indigenous hoteliers have won the most coveted international awards in the industry and are known as world-class innovators. Our name-recognition is high.