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Big 'no' to relaxing laws for foreign investors
What is the Newsletter's problem? Did anyone suggest for a minute that laws should be relaxed for anyone? Even the poll question is biased. Clearly, Riu is giving some people some sleepless nights.
Observer online poll: Big 'no' to relaxing laws for foreign investors
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A large majority of persons who responded to an Observer online poll rejected the notion that local laws should be relaxed to suit overseas investors.
From a sample of 3,405 people, 70.3 per cent replied 'no' to the question: Should local laws be relaxed to accommodate large foreign investors such as RIU Hotel and Resorts?
Spanish-owned RIU Hotel and Resorts has been forced to demolish fourth floors it illegally constructed on some of its buildings at Mahoe Bay near Montego Bay, St James, after admitting it had breached its building permit.
The hotel chain has asked the Government to accept a revised plan allowing it to build four floors, against the three floors approved by the St James Parish Council, The National Environment and Planning Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority. In rejecting an earlier request by RIU to build six storeys, the state agencies noted that the hotel was being built in the flight path to the Sangster International Airport.
A small 18.4 per cent of those polled agreed that the laws should be relaxed for foreign investors, while 2.3 per cent was undecided.
The discovery of RIU's illegal action in Montego Bay raised the issue of how much should small developing countries bend over backward to accommodate large investors who bring much needed jobs and a boost to the economy.
RIU and several other Spanish-owned hotel chains have earned the wrath of environmental watchdog groups here who accuse them of flouting local laws at will, because they believe Jamaica needs the money badly.
Some local tourist interests have argued that the hotels do not bring high quality jobs and will repatriate most of their earnings, leaving unimpressive net earnings to the country.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has insisted that all must obey Jamaican laws. In the case of RIU, he has instructed that the Police Fraud Squad be asked to investigate how the hotel's revised building plan came to be signed and stamped by a functionary of the St James Parish Council, without going before the council or paying the requisite fees.
Observer online poll: Big 'no' to relaxing laws for foreign investors
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A large majority of persons who responded to an Observer online poll rejected the notion that local laws should be relaxed to suit overseas investors.
From a sample of 3,405 people, 70.3 per cent replied 'no' to the question: Should local laws be relaxed to accommodate large foreign investors such as RIU Hotel and Resorts?
Spanish-owned RIU Hotel and Resorts has been forced to demolish fourth floors it illegally constructed on some of its buildings at Mahoe Bay near Montego Bay, St James, after admitting it had breached its building permit.
The hotel chain has asked the Government to accept a revised plan allowing it to build four floors, against the three floors approved by the St James Parish Council, The National Environment and Planning Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority. In rejecting an earlier request by RIU to build six storeys, the state agencies noted that the hotel was being built in the flight path to the Sangster International Airport.
A small 18.4 per cent of those polled agreed that the laws should be relaxed for foreign investors, while 2.3 per cent was undecided.
The discovery of RIU's illegal action in Montego Bay raised the issue of how much should small developing countries bend over backward to accommodate large investors who bring much needed jobs and a boost to the economy.
RIU and several other Spanish-owned hotel chains have earned the wrath of environmental watchdog groups here who accuse them of flouting local laws at will, because they believe Jamaica needs the money badly.
Some local tourist interests have argued that the hotels do not bring high quality jobs and will repatriate most of their earnings, leaving unimpressive net earnings to the country.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has insisted that all must obey Jamaican laws. In the case of RIU, he has instructed that the Police Fraud Squad be asked to investigate how the hotel's revised building plan came to be signed and stamped by a functionary of the St James Parish Council, without going before the council or paying the requisite fees.
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