Jamaica cannot miss the technology boat in 2025, says economist Dr Andre Haughton

WESTERN BUREAU:

Economist Dr Andre Haughton, the Opposition’s spokesman on science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship, says that Jamaica must acknowledge the importance of technology in national development in order to avoid repeating the country’s past history of missing opportunities for technological advancement.

Haughton, who was addressing the University of Technology’s (UTech) Western Jamaica Campus’ annual business conference programme at Sandals Montego Bay, in St James, on Tuesday. spoke against the background of the event’s theme, ‘Bridging the Gap: Financial Technology for Growth and Sustainability’.

“In the 1950s, many countries from Asia, North America, and Europe quickly jumped on the technological boat. China saw the need, and they began producing technological goods and began to equip their population with the right technological knowledge that they needed in order to build and operate these goods. Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States jumped on the technological boat, but Jamaica jumped on the sugar boat and the banana boat,” said Haughton,

“In 1950, technology represented zero per cent of China’s gross domestic product (GDP). Today, technology represents over 32 per cent of China’s GDP. But if I were to say to you, ‘What per cent of Jamaica’s GDP is technology?’, what would your answer be? We do not know, because it is not measured,” Haughton continued. “We have to now begin to recognise the importance of technology. We missed the technological boat in the 1950s, the 1960s the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, and the 2010s, and we cannot afford to miss it in 2025.”

Haughton further noted that financial technology, or fintech for short, must be made available to all Jamaicans, including those who currently do not have ready Internet access.

“In Jamaica, we know that we only have 55 per cent Internet coverage across the island, so that only 55 per cent of the country will be able to use that sort of technology in order to send and receive money. They may or may not necessarily need the fintech solution urgently, but they are already a part of the system,” said Haughton.

“The persons who are unbanked [not using the formal banking system], the persons at Charles Garden Market in Montego Bay, the persons who operate in the craft market, persons who operate small businesses inside our communities in Mt Salem and Catherine Hall [both in St James], they are the ones who we should market the fintech solutions to,” stated Haughton. “The first thing Jamaica has to do is to understand how to measure technology and its applications to the other industries that exist across the length and breadth of the country.”

Interestingly, Haughton noted that in 2022, Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared that Jamaica is positioned to be the technological and innovation hub of the Caribbean.

However, on the Global Innovation Index 2024, Jamaica ranks 79th out of 133 countries which are listed based on their innovation capabilities, regarding how rapidly technology is being embraced in those countries and the resulting societal impacts.

The function, which sparked much interest from the attendees, who were mostly student, was hosted by UTech’s College of Business and Management.