Major int’l conference for MoBay in June
Published:Tuesday | April 19, 2022 | 12:10 AM
More than 1,000 persons are expected to arrive in June for the island’s first major conference in two years after event restrictions were lifted last month as the number of COVID-19 cases in the island decreases.
The Annual International Conference & Exhibition (AICE) will be staged between June 13 and 17 in Montego Bay, St James.
Hosted by the Jamaica Special Economic Authority with the participation of members of the World Free Zones Organization in Montego Bay, St James, the 2022 edition will be held under the theme ‘Zones: Your Partner for Resilience, Prosperity and Sustainability’.
At the press conference on April 13 at AC Hotel in Kingston, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett expressed “joy and pleasure” at Jamaica’s hosting of another mega global conference in “the tourism capital of the Caribbean” during the time of disruption caused by the pandemic.
“This conference is happening at a very critical stage in global history ... . This conference, then, is not going to be an ordinary conference. Bringing together the free zone practitioners and investors from across the world, it must be a conference in which we look at how the future will emerge and how we’re going to respond to this disruption ... . Jamaica is the centre of that and we’re excited to be the place where the world is going to consider what that future looks like,” Bartlett said.
“We see this conference as a game changer and we thank you for allowing Jamaica to be the space for this,” he added.
For her part, Olivia Grange, minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, noted that AICE 2022 comes during Jamaica’s diamond jubilee year.
“We are celebrating 60 years of Independence, and with its theme also complementing the Jamaica 60th celebration –our theme ‘Reigniting A Nation For Greatness’ – ... the AICE 2022 will serve to stimulate economic growth while recognising and relying on the hard work and creative genius of our Jamaican people,” she said.
AICE 2022 is positioned to be the largest annual international conference and exhibition of its kind. It will attract free zone, SEZ, supply chain and logistics representatives. It has been held for the past two years virtually, attracting more than 4,000 virtual participants.
The last in-person event in this region was held in Colombia in 2018 and attracted more than 1,000 attendees representing over 127 countries and 500 different companies and the estimated attendance in Jamaica for AICE 2022 is expected to be even greater.