‘Moving to the beat of the dream, and it’s not Nesbeth’: Joe Issa comments on Current Initiatives Spurred by PM

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Joe Issa, head of the successfully branded Cool Group of companies that are being leveraged internationally, says there are opportunities for synergy in the quest by the authorities to achieve some major objectives that are consistent with the Prime Minister’s latest call to expedite economic and structural reform.
 
Joseph Issa
Issa was commenting on a number of initiatives, including the move by the sports ministry to tap into the sports goods market. Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, reportedly said, “Jamaica should consider carving out a niche market in the sports goods industry, which includes items such as equipment, accessories, and apparel.”

Speaking at a recent two-day Inter-Regional Conference on the Strategic Use of Intellectual Property in Sport in Kingston, she said that “Jamaica could also consider marketing itself as a Sports Destination Country similar to Dubai.”

Issa explains that “the synergy is the increase in efficiency and effectiveness that will result by the authorities in sport and commerce working together on the one hand and with the intellectual property agency on the other.”

He adds that “by working together they can strengthen sports brands and ultimately, Brand Jamaica with the increase in efficiencies and effectiveness achieved. This means they are not only doing things right, they are also doing the right things.”
What he says happens is that “when the ‘chemistry’ of each party is mixed it creates something bigger than the total of the individual contributions of the parties,” noting, “In this case, it is Brand Jamaica.”
Issa said the country brand – which is estimated to have a value of US$35 billion annually – is more important than all the individual brands on the island put together, yet it is the brand most vulnerable to being tarnished by companies outside the learning curve of the significance of intellectual property in the brand development.
In addition to the National ID card initiative, Issa also cited the move to repeal the Agricultural Credit Board (ACB) Act as consistent with the kind of reforms being pushed by the Prime Minister.
The ABC Act will make new provisions and arrangements for agricultural credit. It was recently passed by the House of Representatives and is to be debated in the Senate in short order.
Piloted by the Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Karl Samuda, the move is said to come out of “the decision to modernise the agricultural sector to meet the demands of increased food security and agricultural productivity,” the Jamaica Observer wrote.

The modernisation process – which involves some streamlining of certain functions performed by the board to promote efficiency – will require the ACB to be dissolved and its monitoring and inspection functions were taken over by the Registrar of Co-operative Societies.

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