#MONTEGO BAY, Feb. 25 (JIS): Senior Director of Business Partner and Support Services at the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA), Licia Grant, says the Authority continues to implement innovative strategies in order to ensure that companies within the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) can remain competitive and operate more efficiently.

            “One of the first things that we have in mind is to have our physical business acceleration centre established in order to ensure that your business is efficiently run,” she said.

            “The second thing is providing integrated digitised services through collaboration with eGov [where] we will be providing a one-stop-shop platform in order for our SEZ entities to be able to access all the services with our partnering entities,” she added.

            Ms. Grant was speaking at a sensitisation session for SEZ developers and operators in western Jamaica at the S Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James, on February 21.

            She noted that a key objective of the JSEZA is to increase investment by speeding up the approvals process.

            “We are in the business of providing expedited services for permit approvals and certification; therefore, if it is that you wish to expand your business activities, we are here to assist you in getting the requisite permits to allow you to expand in the quickest way possible,” she said.

            Ms. Grant said that the Authority is encouraging SEZ companies to add value to the goods and services that they produce and to also ignite the creation of other businesses.

            Additionally, she said, the Authority is on the road to enabling automatic renewals of SEZ certification and is looking to forge partnerships with financial institutions to facilitate “access to funding for our SEZ entities, which may want to expand or create new zones”.