Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Jamaica Special Economic Zones Authority (JSEZA), Dr. Eric Deans (right), greets JSEZA’s Senior Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Chantal Bennett (left), following a sensitisation session hosted by the Authority, on February 21, at the S Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James. Sharing in the moment is Director, Regulations, Policy, Enforcement and Monitoring, JSEZA, Ainsley Brown.
#MONTEGO BAY, Feb. 24 (JIS): The Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA) is reporting that there are 131 entities operating in the country’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs), with a total investment of more than US$1 billion.
The Authority says since
the SEZ Act was passed in 2016, it has successfully transitioned more than 106
entities from free zones to SEZs, and has added a number of new companies.
Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of the JSEZA, Dr. Eric Deans, told JIS
News that the Authority continues the push to heighten stakeholder interest
in the SEZ to catalyse further economic development.
“So, by any measure,
this is quite a substantial economic space. We expect that all these numbers
will grow substantially. It is quite a diverse industry and our intention is to
have further diversification in the sector,” he said.
Dr. Deans was speaking
at a JSEZA sensitisation session on February 21, held at the S Hotel in Montego
Bay, St. James.
The session focused on
the importance of regulation and monitoring by JSEZA and the roles of Tax
Administration Jamaica (TAJ) and Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) in the operation
of free zones, now referred to as ‘zones’.
“The goal of the SEZ
regime is not to have a big stick over entities seeking to conduct their
business. Like Singapore, the purpose of the regulations is to create a regime
that will facilitate business, while fostering economic growth,” Dr. Deans
pointed out.
He stressed that regulations are
important when monitoring developers and occupants, because SEZ incentives are
primarily tax benefits.
“A Special Economic Zone
is a preferential tax agreement. As such, it provides considerable fiscal
incentives to the entities… and as such, getting those benefits comes with
certain responsibilities,” he said.
“We want to ensure that,
going forward, every entity that was in this space that became a part of this
family had a proper gazette, had proper operating procedures and had proper
safety and security procedures and would feel secure in their operating
certificate,” Dr. Deans added.
He said the Authority
will continue to facilitate opportunities for value-added industries within the
SEZ.
“Having put in place
this new Act, our job is to facilitate developers and occupants to build world-class
facilities. We are moving towards larger zones, based on the interest that we
have been seeing. The intention for the regime is to facilitate heavy and light
industry, the global services sector (GSS) and other commercial activities and
ensuring that where these sites are selected, that the proper offsite
infrastructure is supported,” Dr. Deans highlighted.