The Jamaica Import/ Export Inspection Centre (JIEIC) has reduced turnaround time for the inspection of commercial goods coming into the country from an average of twenty-four (24) hours to an average of four hours. The
Increasing public satisfaction and Boosting GDP.
Providing better experiences for all citizens and supporting economic growth by facilitating faster movement of goods across our borders, increased value and volume of exports and shorter turnaround time from business start-up to operations.
Jamaica’s economy must grow if our society is to meet our development goals and the public sector must contribute to this growth by creating the environment for increasing the rate of trade and investment. Many potential investors use the country’s performance on the ‘Doing Business Indices’ to guide their investment decisions. Our aim is therefore to support Jamaica attaining a ranking #1 within the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region within the next 3 years. In 2015 the country was ranked 64 out of 189 countries on the international indices, and currently holds a position of 6th within the LAC region.
We are looking at the ways in which we can make it easier for our customers to do business with Public Sector institutions. The Public Sector has a responsibility to provide our citizens and their businesses with the products and services they need from us in the east burdensome way possible.
The projects under this area of the Programme address the large numbers of procedures, long delays and high transactional costs that our customers are faced with when doing business with the GoJ.
To truly boost growth, Jamaica’s Import/Export system must make it easier for users to do business and, as quickly as possible, move goods to market. The government is focused on improving Jamaica’s global competitiveness rankings. Delays caused by lack of interconnectedness between trade agencies, multi-step processes, high fees and excessive inspection have been identified as the root causes for underperformance in Jamaica’s trade competitiveness. The aim is to improve coordination between all border and regulatory agencies and to create an electronic single window for all trade transactions
In February 2016 Cabinet endorsed the proposed course of action laid out by the Trade Facilitation Task Force to harmonize all trade improvement projects under a single, less complicated programme.
The standard of service delivery is uneven across the public sector. In some places, citizens have come to expect positive customer service experiences- where services are being offered in ways and at times that are convenient to them. The culture of service excellence however, does not characterize the entire system. Users of government services still have to endure laborious processes, slow turn-around times and excessive bureaucracy. There needs to be a way of building a service delivery culture right across the public sector to avoid adhoc and limited improvements.
Customers are demanding more from government and this has forced us to strengthen the on-going customer service programme and to be more innovative and strategic in our approach The public sector is the country’s largest service provider, and any improvement in service quality will have a positive impact on our millions of citizens, residents, members of the diaspora and our investors.
As ‘getting electricity’ is one of the key indicators under the Doing Business Index, the Cabinet Office has been working closely with the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (MSTEM), to modernize and automate the processes and procedures.
In April 2014, the Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) launched the business super-form which reduced the need for applications for new business to be completed in multiple agencies.
We are developing a trade facilitation single window to provide a single entry point for all import export and transit related regulatory requirements, as a means of improving connectivity between Customs offices, port and terminal operators, other regulatory agencies and traders.
The One Stop Shop facility brings together all regulatory agencies involved in the inspection process to a single location so that all inspection processes take place in one place - eliminating overlaps in the way businesses are conducted.
