Overview

Jamaica is a small open economy, critically dependent on international trade.  The small size of the economy and the traditional reliance on exports of a few primary commodities has constrained economic development.  In recent years, service exports have increased in importance due to a combination of a declining performance of goods exports and continuous growth of service exports, chiefly tourism.  Past efforts to diversify the economy have not been fully successful.  High rates of unemployment continue, particularly among the young, and crime has increased associated with this growing unemployment.  Jamaica realizes that there is a need to increase competitiveness and employment, and greater use of ICT can play an important role in achieving this.  The facts and figures for how much is spent on IT can not be located.  Tourism remains the big money maker for Jamaica.

 

Domestic Market

Jamaica’s Tourism industry provides direct employment for approximately 26,000 Jamaican’s and indirectly employs another 17,000.  From the Jamaican workforce of 1.2 million, 47% are in the service sector.  (25)

Jamaica spends approximately 6.5% of their GDP on telecommunication services.  Other countries spend about 3.4% of their GDP on their services.  (27)

Jamaica’s Population has a majority of young people ranging from 20-35 and they are becoming more focused on learning information technology.  The government has started to invest in their people.  By incorporating a few guidelines:

·          Greater investment in primary and secondary education so as to develop literate and numerate workers

·          Industry specific vocational training and tertiary level technical skills, particularly in mathematics, science, engineering and information technology.

·          Formal employee training via the provision of continuous investment by firms. (28)

Employees as well as employers must realize that it is in their best interest to retrain and retool themselves and their companies for the New World.  No longer is it possible to graduate from school with one skill and work a lifetime without upgrading these skills.