Red Stripe move sends a positive signal - Phillips

Dr. Peter Phillips, Jamaica's Finance Minister, has cited Red Stripe's decision to return production of  up to two million cases of  beer annually for the North American market to its facility in Kingston as a signal that the country's economic reform programme is working.

 

The company had moved the production for North American consumers to the USA several years ago, in a bid to take advantage of better incentives there.

  
Dr Phillips was speaking at the announcement ceremony on Wednesday, in which Red Stripe explained that producing its beer for North America in Jamaica will create up to three thousand jobs, including 170 at Red Stripe.

He highlighted a number of factors which influenced the decision, including "the tax reform arrangements, particularly including what has been done to remove duties of inputs into the production process for everyone."

He added that "as a small country, what what we need to do is to incentivise people to bring their productive operation here."

 

The latest

Red Stripe is the latest in a line of  manufacturers which have returned operations to Jamaica as economic conditions improve.

  
Just recently, Jamaica was named as the best place in the Caribbean to do business.

  
But Dr Phillips said he was not satisfied with that distinction in the Caribbean; instead he wants Jamaica to be the best to do business in the world.

"We're not content at being at 50 or 38; we aim to be number one, because we are number one in track - men and women, we're number one in music, and we can be number one in business and economic matters as well," he asserted.