MINISTER OF Industry, Commerce and Technology, Phillip Paulwell, said the Government will set up a loan fund at an interest rate of seven per cent for private sector firms willing to develop new office space for the IT sector.
He also said the Government would donate land for construction of office space to those members of the business sector who wanted to get involved in the information technology industry.
"I say to the business sector that if you see Government land and you want to get involved in the IT industry, and you pledge to prepare office space, we will throw in the land," the Minister said.
Speaking last Friday at the opening of the Cazoumar Free Zone, a technology centre in Montego Bay, Mr. Paulwell said they would be creating 40,000 jobs in the information technology sector, as announced earlier this year.
"There is nothing far-fetched about creating 40,000 jobs, but we need approximately three million square feet of office space in the next three years and I don't think the Government can undertake that," the Minister said.
He said the Portmore Infomatics Park on which the Government has spent millions of dollars would be commissioned shortly, but more office space would be needed. It was against that background that he appealed to the private sector to get involved.
Noting that Jamaica would not be content to stay at the bottom or mid-range of the information technology sector, Mr. Paulwell said that while the Caribbean Institute of Technology (CIT) in the Montego Bay Free Zone had been training programmers, along with Excelsior Community College in Kingston, more community colleges needed to get involved in training people for the industry.
The Cazoumar Free Zone, the first privately-owned Free Zone complex in Jamaica, is the brainchild of Gordon Marzouca, his wife Phyllis and their children.
Mr. Marzouca, chairman of Cazoumar Investments, told participants during the official opening that the concept of the technology centre arose some time ago when they found that the garment factory they used to operate there was not generating the level of business they anticipated.
With the assistance of his daughter who is an architect, Mr. Marzouca said they redesigned the garment factory into the technology centre, a 65,000 square feet facility ready to accommodate a number of call centres.
Both before and during the official opening, representatives of call centre businesses already operating out of the Montego Bay Free Zone saluted Mr. Paulwell for his vision in having the telecommunications legislation amended to facilitate growth in the IT industry, while at the same time providing employment for Jamaicans.
A representative of Sharpe Communications, one of the call centres, said that company has already invested $100 million in state-of-the-art equipment in the Cazoumar Free Zone, that they would immediately be doubling their workforce to 500 and expand their facilities to provide additional jobs over the next two years.
During the function, Mr. Paulwell presented Mr. Marzouca with a V-SAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) licence to operate an earth station at the Cazoumar Free Zone.
According to Mr. Paulwell, "This week when the OUR asked me how many V-SAT licences we are prepared to issue, I said, let us start with a thousand." Here again he challenged the private sector to invest in the IT industry "and you will get a licence". However, he said the most critical element in pushing investment in the sector had to do with the availability of space.
