JAMAICA: Research funds to finance entrepreneurial activities

#Kingston, July 12, 2019 – Jamaica – The $200 million allocated by the Government for research is expected to be used to finance business and entrepreneurial programmes at tertiary institutions taking up the offer.

The funds, earmarked in the 2019/20 Budget, are part of the Administration’s thrust to drive entrepreneurship through research and development.

“We will rely on you (tertiary institutions) to run the transparent research application processes,” said Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke.

“We will allocate those funds across the university space in a way that is transparent… and leave it to the universities [supported by] a Memorandum of Understanding [with the Ministry] that is very general,” he added.

He was speaking during the opening ceremony for the Mona School of Business and Management’s (MSBM) fourth business and management conference at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday (July 10).           

Dr. Clarke noted that entrepreneurship is central to the programmes and activities of several countries whose administrations are focused on enhancing the welfare of their citizens through sustainable economic growth.

Acknowledging Jamaica’s macroeconomic stability and progress to date, he said the Administration is keen on generating high value-added economic activity that is underpinned by innovation that causes “disturbance”.

“This [disturbance] is where somebody is seeing a gap in the market and providing a good or service in a way that is delivering significant value [that], more often than not, comes out of some kind of research,” he noted.

Dr. Clarke said it is against this background that the Administration has earmarked funding for research by tertiary institutions that will spur innovation, thereby driving entrepreneurship.

“That is because we recognise the role research plays in entrepreneurship and development and that we have to have a vision for where we want to get,” he added.

The MSBM’s three-day conference is being held from July 10 to 12 under the theme ‘Delivering on the Promise of Entrepreneurship: Critical Perspectives on Research, Practice and Thinking in the Fourth Economy’.

Contact: Douglas McIntosh

Release: JIS

Photo Caption: Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon, Nigel Clarke (right), is in discussion with University of the West Indies (UWI) Pro-Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs, Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal (left), following the opening ceremony for the Mona School of Business and Management’s (MSBM) three-day business and management conference, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday (July 10). Listening (from second left) are Country Managing Partner and Tax Partner, Ernst and Young Jamaica, Allison Peart; Conference Chair, Dr. Indianna Minto-Coy; and Special Advisor to the UWI’s Vice Chancellor on Resource Development, Minna Israel. 

Mark Bell Photo