The Trade Board will in a matter of days move its office downtown Kingston closer to its clientele, says assistant trade administrator Michael Laing.

By relocating, the Trade Board is conforming with a directive by Prime Minister Bruce Golding last year that government agencies should head downtown to occupy vacant office space in public buildings, Laing said.

He was unable to verify immediately whether rental charges would be cheaper, saying he needed time to check the figures.

The office uptown, at 107 Constant Spring Road, will close Thursday, January 22, and reopen four days later on Monday, January 26 in its new location on the Air Jamaica Building at 72 Harbour Street.

The building is owned by the National Insurance Scheme, the government agency that oversees and pays public pensions.

Export certification

The Trade Board is mainly in the business of export certification and import/export licensing, and its new home places it closer to the ports - both air and sea - cutting back on travel time for companies between the two transaction points.

The Government spends more than a $1b each year on property rentals. The finance ministry estimates that the bill for rentals would top $1.26 billion by fiscal year-end March 2009 - 95 per cent of which pays for office space - up from $1.06 billion in fiscal 2007/08.

The Urban Development Corporation, real estate portfolio, up to last year contained 87,585 square feet of lettable office space in downtown Kingston.

The Trade Board is the second agency to take up vacant space close to the Kingston waterfront within months.

The Jamaica Business Develop-ment Centre established its resource centre at an old factory space in the manufacturing zone on Marcus Garvey Drive, though its core operations remain on Camp Road, on the cusp of downtown.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under 30-million-yuan grant funding secured by Jamaica from the Chinese back in 2005, is also to make the trek, but no date has been set for the move.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com