Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda is leading an investment and trade delegation to Shanghai, China to meet with potential investors and distributors of Jamaican products at a specially organised forum on July 16 at the World Expo Shanghai 2010. Minister Samuda will also be representing the nation at the Expo's CARICOM Day Celebrations on July 17 .

The Trade and Investment Forum, which is being hosted by JAMPRO at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Shanghai, will serve as a platform for Minister Samuda to outline existing investment and trade opportunities across various sectors in Jamaica to Chinese business interests. He will also speak to the country’s enabling business environment and attractive incentives being offered by the Government. The Forum will also feature representatives from Jamaican private sector companies, namely Seprod, Central Food Packers, CY Clothing and J&C Coffee Trading, who will benefit from JAMPRO’s facilitation of targeted business interactions with potential Chinese investors and trading partners.

Other persons slated to attend the event include Ambassador Courtney Rattray, Jamaica’s top envoy in China, an official from the China Council for the Promotion Of International Trade (CCPIT), Vivion Scully, JAMPRO’s manager for Caribbean, Latin America & Emerging Markets, and Mark Thomas, JAMPRO’s Corporate Communications Manager.

Jamaica intends to take the momentum gained from the forum into the following day as CARICOM celebrates its National Day on July 17. Jamaica will join its CARICOM neighbours in staging an official ceremony and cultural performance in the Expo Centre. The talented members of the Kurfew Band will treat the attending official delegates and guests to an authentic and unforgettable reggae music experience in the Red Conference Hall of the Expo Centre. The CARICOM National Day celebrations will conclude with a cocktail reception at the InterContinental Hotel Ball Room.

World Expo 2010 Shanghai, which started on May 1 and will end six months later on October 31, has 192 participating countries and is expected to draw a total of 70 million visitors over the 184 days. The Brand Jamaica Booth in the CARICOM Pavilion has been attracting throngs of visitors who have been exploring the rich multimedia display of culture, collecting autographs from visiting VIPs such as Olympian Shelly-Ann Fraser and Stephanie Marley, daughter of reggae legend Bob Marley, and eagerly purchasing the high quality Brand Jamaica export products on offer.

The Gift Shop in the Brand Jamaica Booth is abuzz with activity as visitors examine and purchase high quality Brand Jamaica export products.

Coffee has enjoyed the greatest demand to date, with sales being spurred on by a programme of free sampling to the tune of 2,000 cups of coffee per week on average. Paul Yao, a Chinese businessman, who has invested and settled in Jamaica, has secured contracts with three Chinese distributors at the Expo for his company J&C Coffee Trading. Sauces have been another hot sale item for visitors to the Booth.

The Brand Jamaica Booth in the CARICOM Pavilion has been attracting throngs of visitors who have been exploring the rich multimedia display of culture, collecting autographs from visiting VIPs such as Olympian Shelly-Ann Fraser and Stephanie Marley, daughter of reggae legend Bob Marley, and eagerly purchasing the high quality Brand Jamaica export products on offer.

Shelly-Ann Fraser, the reigning 100m Olympic and World Champion, poses for photos in front of the 'Great Jamaican Wall' in the Brand Jamaica Booth at World Expo 2010 Shanghai in May.

A favourite activity of visitors to the Brand Jamaica Booth at World Expo Shanghai 2010 is posing for photos against the backdrop of the 'Great Jamaican Wall' with an image of Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt.

In January of this year, JAMPRO, the lead agency coordinating Jamaica’s participation in the Expo, mobilised members of the local export community around the business opportunities that exist in the Chinese market. JAMPRO-led research determined that coffee, spices, condiments, rums, beers, art and crafts, apparel and coffee were likely to do well in China. A second shipment of Jamaican products is currently on its way to China.

Jamaica's participation in expo is a cross-ministerial effort involving the Ministries of Industry, Investment and Commerce; Youth, Culture and Sports; Tourism; and Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, among others. As its overarching objective, Jamaica will seek to use the Expo to effectively position itself as the hub of the region for culture, trade and investment.