Business in Jamaica worst at innovation, credit? among nearly 60 developing nations, according to a recently released World Bank study on entrepreneurship.....Less than 10 per cent of Jamaican firms under five years old have "actual and benchmarked access to credit", compared to 50 per cent in Trinidad & Tobago

Wednesday, March 26, 2014    

JAMAICA scored worst in terms of access to credit and third worst in terms of innovation among nearly 60 developing nations, according to a recently released World Bank study on entrepreneurship.

The island under-performed the rest of the Caribbean, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the study entitled "Latin American Entrepreneurs, Many Firms Little Innovation".

"The Latin American economies... tend to be above the median and in most cases near or above their predicted shares," stated the report. "Some notable exceptions are several small Caribbean economies plus Jamaica and Mexico."

Less than 10 per cent of Jamaican firms under five years old have "actual and benchmarked access to credit", compared to 50 per cent in Trinidad & Tobago, according to the study's tables.

Jamaica worst at innovation, credit?

The region, however, still under-performs that of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

"Much of the gap appears to be explained by Latin America and the Caribbean's (LAC) turbulent macro and financial history and by a shortage of promising productive projects (that is, a shortage of innovation) rather than by credit rationing and credit supply-side constraint per se," said the report.

Less than 20 per cent of Jamaican firms "introduced a new product to the market over a five-year period", according to the study. Only St Lucia and Dominica earned lower scores among a group of 57 nations within and outside the region. more