PSOJ

Jamaican experts participate in workshop on SME business ethics hosted by the IIC

Washington, D.C.- The Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) is hosting a workshop in Washington, D.C., from August 16 – 27, 2010, on business ethics for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). This workshop is funded by the Korea-IIC SME Development Trust Fund and is being managed in partnership with the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. ITA has pioneered similar events in business ethics issues, especially in Central and South America.
This workshop has brought together 16 professionals from Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago who represent different organizations of their private sector communities, and who have demonstrated experience in issues of transparency and business ethics. Six Jamaicans are part of the group: Sandra Glasgow, CEO of The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), Greta Bogues, General Manager Corporate Affairs Division, Wray & Nephew Limited, Dr. Noel Cowell, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at UWI Mona, Suzette Hudson, Manager, Business Analysis & Research, JAMPRO, Sherone Lobban, CEO, DPM International and Deanna McFarlane, CEO, EDMA Solutions

THE BUSINESS OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) has been looking at issues relating to energy and the environment in light of the critical impact on competitiveness.

The PSOJ believes that energy efficiency has to be improved, because of the adverse effects on the country’s balance of payments. Oil is consuming an increasing percentage of the country’s earnings – oil and petroleum products imports account for over 30 percent of the total value of imports and over 100 percent of total export earnings.

There was about 1,000 years of family business experience in the Conference Room of the Club Riu Ocho Rios as 30 small and medium sized family businesses drawn from across the island met in a 2 ½ day workshop from July 29 to August 1, hosted by The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ). The residential workshop was the second component of the IDB-funded “Fambiz” project, “Improving the competitiveness of Jamaican family businesses through Corporate Governance”.

Ms. Anya Schnoor, Executive Vice President, Scotiabank Group and Chief Executive Officer of Scotia DBG Investment, was unanimously elected to serve a fourth term as President of the Jamaica Securities Dealers (JSDA). The Association’s members expressed their vote of confidence in Ms. Schnoor at the JSDA’s Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at the offices of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ).

Ms. Minna Israel, President and Country Head of RBTT Bank Jamaica Ltd., was unanimously re-elected as the President of the Jamaica Bankers Association (JBA) at the JBA’s Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday, July 28, 2010. Also re-elected at that forum were Vice President & Treasurer, Mr. Philip Armstrong, Managing Director, PanCaribbeanBank Ltd. and Secretary, Mrs. Pamela Smith, General Manager, MF&G Trust and Finance Ltd.

A new regional alliance working to improve the lives and prospects of vulnerable youth across Central and South America and the Caribbean was the centrepiece of high level meetings in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala from July 21 to 24 that included the US Ambassador to Guatemala, top representatives from USAID, and leaders from the public, private, and NGO sectors in the Region. The event, hosted by the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and Institute DEMOS, a leading Guatemalan civil society organisation, highlighted progress to date in the Obra programme and promoted ways to strengthen and expand regional alliances committed to improving education and employment prospects among highly vulnerable youth.

The Association Presidents and their representatives expressed great concern about the events that unfolded in our Parliament on the afternoon of July 20, and which resulted in the defeat of the Government’s motion for the extension, at the request of the Security Forces, of the State of Emergency in the Corporate Area and in St. Catherine.

“In recent times, our country has been shaken by events that are unprecedented in our history…events which must force every well thinking Jamaican to take stock of where we are as a country and what road we must take if we are to turn our back on dark times.

I wish to share with you my thoughts on these troubling events, and to offer some ideas on how we can seize the moment to rebuild our country into a place in which we will be happy to live and raise our families.”

Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.
On behalf of the Officers of The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our third PSOJ Chairman’s Club Breakfast Forum for 2010. We are very pleased, with the invaluable support of our generous sponsors LIME and the National Commercial Bank, that we have the opportunity of occasions such as this to discuss matters of national interest, and which are also critical to all of us in the private sector.