Companies eye growing presence in island nation

Fast-growing urbanization, English-speaking population are among the appeal of Jamaica

Attracted by Jamaica’s fastgrowing urbanization and industrialization, its English-speaking population and convenient location in the Caribbean region, more Chinese companies will expand their market presence in the country in the years ahead, said market analysts and corporate executives.

After operating in the Jamaican market for 15 years, Shenzhenbased tech giant Huawei Technologies, for instance, announced in late October that it would invest $300 million in the country, according to information released by the Chinese embassy in Jamaica.

Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Jamaica, Xue Feng, Huawei’s vice-president for the Latin American region, said the Chinese company is committed to the continued growth and development of Jamaica.

In addition to helping the Caribbean country train more information technology engineers, Huawei has facilitated the Jamaican environment to grow from GSM — global system for mobile communications — to UMTS — universal mobile telecommunications system — wireless technology. Huawei has also continued to improve Jamaica’s data penetration with long-term evaluation deployments.

To achieve its goals of selling 4 million vehicles in the global market by 2025, Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor from Baoding, Hebei province, also began to enter the market of Jamaica and a number of other economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative during the second half of 2021.

Boosted by surging overseas demand, the Chinese carmaker exported more than 20,000 vehicles in October this year, marking a record high in its history.

“With China and Jamaica continuing to deepen their economic and trade ties, continued investment in building local supporting and service facilities will be key for the company’s sustained growth in Jamaica and its neighboring markets in the long run, as consumers there are keen to buy new vehicles,” said Zhang Jiaming, vicepresident of Great Wall Motors.

Similar views were expressed by Tao Naijie, head of the Caribbean branch of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, one of the country’s largest truck manufacturers by sales revenue. He said the company will strengthen its dealership network in Jamaica and accelerate the pace of promoting new trucks, such as cold-chain trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells, electric-powered light trucks and vans, in the country soon.

“The truck market is usually seen as a barometer of the macroeconomy, since it reflects the scale of commodity flow and regional trade, as well as infrastructure development,” said Tao, who is in charge of the group’s sales in Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago.

“Besides private business owners, government procurement is another important growth channel for Chinese automobile companies. In the Caribbean region, the biggest consumer is often the local government,” he said. “If Chinese automobile companies get included in government procurement in this region, they would stand to gain a lot.”

Eager to raise their brand awareness in China, Jamaican companies have also set booths at the annual China International Import Expo in Shanghai to promote their coffee and food, as well as forming partnerships with Chinese companies to expand their sales channels in the country.

Together with 14 other countries, including France, Italy and Thailand, Jamaica was one of the countries designated as guests of honor during the second CIIE in 2019.

Apart from supporting Chinese companies in carrying out cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, digitalization, tourism and agriculture in accordance with market principles and business rules with the Jamaican side, China has been keen to import more Jamaican goods that meet market demand, and underpin exchanges and cooperation in fields such as tourism, education, sports and personnel training, said Ma Yu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.

To better shore up China’s cooperation with the Caribbean countries, China established a ChinaCaribbean Development Center in Jinan, Shandong province, in July this year.

With China and Jamaica continuing to deepen their economic and trade ties, continued investment in building local supporting and service facilities will be key for the company’s sustained growth in Jamaica ...”

Zhang Jiaming, vice-president of Great Wall Motors