The World Bank has approved a $50US million or approximately $6 billion Jamaican dollar loan to new and existing local businesses.
The loan will become repayable after twenty-nine-and-a-half years, with a grace period of five-and-a-half years.
It will be implemented by the Planning Institute of Jamaica in collaboration with the Development Bank of Jamaica and JAMPRO.
The loan will see the organizations benefitting from streamlined regulations and processes, public-private partnerships, as well as training and access to financing.
The World Bank says it has taken note of Jamaica’s rank of 23rd out of 189 countries in its latest Doing Business Report.
It says it has also taken note of the country’s rank of 168 out of 189, when it comes to paying taxes.
It says it costs 4-hundred US dollars more to ship a container to the port of Kingston in Jamaica, than to other destinations in the Caribbean.
The multilateral says the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2016 and the Jamaican government’s Logistics Hub Initiative, offer new opportunities for private sector-led growth.
The World Bank Country Director for the Caribbean, Sophie Sirtaine, says the project is an essential building block to boost Jamaica’s competitiveness and private sector development.
She says the project also provides an opportunity for small businesses to grow and large companies will be interested in making strategic investments.
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