TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INCOMING OPPORTUNITIES, JAMAICANS ARE URGED TO BECOME FLUENT IN SPANISH!

 Dr Peter Phillips—

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Jamaicans are being encouraged  to become fluent in speaking, reading and writing Spanish, in order to take advantage of opportunities which are set to open up shortly.

Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Peter Phillips, addressing students of the Montego Bay Community College in St James, on October 22, said that opportunities in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and tourism sectors are set to open up “in a very big way”, especially in western Jamaica.

“I think one of the most exciting set of developments is taking place in call centres or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). One of the things we need to do collectively is to train more people to go into that sector. There is a great demand for bi-lingual Spanish-English operators. They receive more pay, because half of North America is now Spanish speaking and they want persons answering the calls to be fluent in Spanish as they are in English,” Dr Phillips said.

He also pointed to employment opportunities which are set to come on stream in the hospitality and agricultural sectors.

“Jamaica will continue for a long time to be a leader in the (hospitality) sector. Over the course of the next few months, there will be at least 2,000 plus jobs coming on stream between Negril and Trelawny in this sector, and there is more to come. Agriculture will continue for a long time, and we are working to make our agriculture more competitive.”

Dr Phillips emphasised that Government will continue its economic policies, which he said are aimed at encouraging growth.

“It is economic growth that will answer the main concern that I think every student in school has, which is where will I get a job when I am finished. Part of what we have to do is to identify the economic policies to be followed, so that people want to invest and the economy can expand,” he said.