JAMPRO webinar positions Jamaica as nearshore partner for digital outsourcing growth

The Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) held a webinar on growth partnerships in Jamaica’s global digital services sector, drawing panelists from the investment promotion agency, industry advisers and major operators.

Conrad Robinson, JAMPRO’s manager for global digital services, said Jamaica ranks among the Caribbean’s leading outsourcing destinations. With roughly 2.7 million people, about 1.47 million in the labour force and an 88% literacy rate up to 2024, the island is the third largest English-speaking country in the Americas. Robinson outlined three pillars: business process outsourcing across customer service, finance, HR and technical support; knowledge process outsourcing drawing graduates in law, medicine, computing and engineering; and information technology outsourcing, including software development and data science. He cited Jamaican student wins at a March 2018 United Nations World Summit on Information Technology global hackathon and an April 2018 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers software competition.

Peter Ryan of Ryan Advisory, who has advised JAMPRO and the Global Services Association of Jamaica for more than 15 years, said Jamaica’s proximity to North America—flights of up to about four and a half hours to Kingston or Montego Bay—matters to buyers and vendors. He pointed to strong government understanding of outsourcing, cultural alignment with US and Canadian business practice, and quality over scale. Ryan said a buyer-favourability study for Canada and the United States was due for release the following week.

Wayne Sinclair, president of the Global Services Association of Jamaica and managing director of National Credit Adjusters, said the association helped keep operations running through COVID-19 curfews and, after Hurricane Melissa, had half his staff back in office by the following Monday. NCA marked 10 years in Jamaica this month after six years in a GSAJ incubator before moving to a 10,000-square-foot site. Jake Becker, country manager for Teleperformance Jamaica, said the global firm employs more than 400,000 people worldwide; Jamaica operations began through Alliance One in 1998 and grew into a collections centre of excellence, with agent tenure averaging 3.5 years and leadership at 11.2 years.

Panelists said Montego Bay remains the core of Jamaica’s BPO sector, with Kingston and Portmore offering alternate and incubator space. JAMPRO said it guides investors from planning through registration, staffing, approvals and special economic zone incentives. On artificial intelligence, speakers said firms already use tools to improve efficiency and agent support rather than replace skilled work, with training institutions also incorporating AI into curricula.