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Kirk-Anthony Hamilton, founder of the Infiniti Partnership Inc. and The Visionaries’ Summit, in conversation with Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has pitched Jamaica’s post-hurricane reconstruction and growth agenda to a group of international investors representing, according to organisers, hundreds of billions of US dollars in assets under management.
Meeting with capital allocators and investment decisionmakers at the Visionaries’ Summit in Miami, Florida, earlier this week, Holness positioned the country’s massive rebuilding exercise, as an opportunity, not simply to replace what Hurricane Melissa destroyed, but to accelerate investment in infrastructure, energy, technology, and other areas critical to Jamaica’s long-term growth.
“We have built stability. Now we have to convert that stability into growth,” Holness told the gathering.
The meeting brought together investors and business leaders from several countries, some travelling from as far as Morocco for direct discussions with the prime minister on Jamaica’s investment competitiveness, post-Melissa reconstruction, artificial intelligence, energy, venture capital, and the infrastructure required to support the country’s next phase of economic development.
Kirk Anthony Hamilton, founder of Visionaries’ Summit and Tech Beach CEO, told The Gleanerthat the investment and capital allocation capacity, represented in the room, was equivalent to hundreds of billions of US dollars in assets under management.
“The gathering was deliberately constructed around capital allocators and those responsible for executing investment decisions, rather than company valuations or a concentration of technology entrepreneurs,” Hamilton said.
CANDID EXCHANGE
Holness joined Hamilton for a fireside conversation before opening the floor to questions from participants, creating what organisers described as a candid exchange between Jamaica’s political leadership and people with the capacity to direct significant international capital.
Among the issues confronting Holness was how Jamaica intends to position itself as artificial intelligence and other technologies rapidly reshape the global economy.
“There is no turning back from artificial intelligence. The question for Jamaica is not whether we participate in these technologies, but how we participate, and how we regulate them responsibly,” Holness said.
He argued that the same forward-looking approach would have to be taken towards energy, if Jamaica intends to compete for industries increasingly dependent on large amounts of reliable and competitively priced power, the same applies to energy.
“If we want to attract the industries of the future, we must open to the new energy solutions that can power them competitively,” the prime minister said. Holness has told the investors that Jamaica enters that competition with several advantages, pointing to the country’s open economy, stable democracy, absence of foreign exchange and capital controls, improving public safety, talent pool, and strategic geographic location.
His pitch effectively placed Jamaica’s reconstruction within a wider economic ambition, using the post-Melissa period to improve productivity and resilience, while creating the infrastructure necessary to support new economic activity.
SCARCITY OF VENTURE CAPITAL
The relative scarcity of venture capital in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean also emerged during the discussions, with attention turning to how innovative Jamaican businesses can access the risk capital needed to expand internationally.
Holness argued that attracting global capital should also create opportunities for Jamaican entrepreneurs, giving local companies greater access to financing, international networks, and markets.
For Hamilton, however, the objective of the Miami gathering was not to announce transactions, but to create relationships between Jamaica and pools of international capital that have traditionally had little connection with the island or the wider Caribbean.
‘We weren’t trying to create another large conference. We wanted to create the right room,” Hamilton said.
There is enormous capital and capability in the world that has very little relationship with Jamaica or the wider Caribbean. Our role is to build those bridges,” he said.
Bringing investors face to face with Holness allowed them to ask questions about Jamaica’s direction and examine the practical issues that ultimately determine where capital is deployed.
Those issues ranged from political and macroeconomic stability to public safety, energy costs, regulation, infrastructure, and the speed at which investments can move from commitment to no to execution.
No investment deals or predetermined transactions were announced from the meeting.
Instead, Hamilton said, Visionaries’ Summit and the Infinity Partnership, one of his other companies, will facilitate follow up discussions between participants, Jamaica’s leadership, and relevant investment opportunities, with the aim of converting the initial connections into longer-term commercial relationships, investments, and partnerships.
“Capital follows opportunity, but it also follows relationships and trust,” Hamilton said,
“For the Caribbean to compete for global capital, we have to be present in the networks where capital moves and deliberately build relationships with the people making those decisions.”
