Gleaner Editors' Forum | JCC endorses Jamaica Survey of Establishments
Published:Sunday | August 12, 2018 | 12:00 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce's (JCC) vision of supporting Jamaica's growth by facilitating its members' integration into the global economy could be further enhanced by the ongoing island-wide Jamaica Survey of Establishments (JSE), reasons JCC CEO Trevor Fearon.
Speaking during a recent Gleaner Editor's Forum at the company's offices on North Street in Kingston, he said that the survey will provide the JCC's membership with informed, data-driven options for business expansion and growth.
"We are fully in support of this survey, and we are encouraging our members to take part in it, and to the extent that we have a large reach through the parish, based chambers of commerce, we are also taking the message to them to entreat their members to participate," stated Fearon.
Data-capturing Exercise
The data-capturing exercise, now under way, is a project of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) and will collect data from businesses with three or more employees. The survey will be conducted over a period of three months and the information used to update the agency's business database.
"We consider this important because we want to be able to make informed decisions, and that means having data-driven decisions, and so, to the extent that the JSE is going out and expanding or verifying its sample frame, it gives us in the business community more information as to what some of the potential for our own marketing is concerned, and also to assist the public sector in its policy directive," Fearon noted.
"As the body that is representative of Jamaica's business sector, large and small, it is important that we give a nod of approval for this undertaking," he said.
Fearon said STATIN takes its commitment and responsibilities very seriously, noting that information gathered by the agency is protected by government statute.
"We have not heard of any case in which persons have come to say that information given to STATIN is shared. Therefore, not only is the JCC in full support, but we are using this medium to urge participation from the many businesses that are to be targeted in this survey," Fearon said.