Much of the discussion about Jamaica’s favourable prospects of becoming the 4th global logistics hub, emphasize the country’s physical attributes and natural endowments. Jamaica enjoys an advantageous geographical position in close proximity to the Panama Canal and is astride the major East-West container shipping lanes. T he country also benefits from several deep, large natural harbours with short channels to open seas. Kingston ranked at 70th in the international ports in the world and 6th in the Caribbean and South America in 2012. The Caribbean Maritime Institute, located in Kingston was certified and included on the International Maritime Organisation’s White List of approved training institutions as early as 2000 and enjoys a high reputation for quality.

Little reference, however, is made to a glaring deficiency in the quality of ship-related and logistics services in Jamaica. The 2012 rankings for logistics performance, as compiled by the World Bank, shows Jamaica ranking 124th overall from 155 countries for several services ranging from Customs, to timeliness, logistics quality and competence, and other indicators as shown in Table I. These rankings are based on the assessment of international shippers and provide a sobering reality check on our vision of achieving world-class standing in logistics.

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About the Authors

Sydney Innis

DBA Candidate

Maurice McNaughton

 Maurice McNaughton is the Director of the Centre of Excellence for IT Innovation at Mona School of Business, UWI.