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$200-b Caymanas Special Enterprise Zone moves forward
SAMUDA... we have successfully negotiated with the World Bank
Sunday, May 03, 2009
A conceptual master plan and a Memorandum of Understanding for the $200-billion Caymanas Special Enterprise Zone, have now been completed, Industry and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda has said.
SAMUDA... we have successfully negotiated with the World Bank
The project, first announced last year, is to be sited on 1,000 acres of prime real estate at Ferry, St Catherine and will be home to "the next great economic space for Jamaican enterprise". It is expected to create some 10,000 new jobs in the next 3-5 years at an estimated cost of US$2.5 billion or about J$200 billion, Samuda said his budget presentation last Wednesday.
"We have successfully negotiated with the World Bank to provide funding for the completion of a feasibility study. In addition, agreement has been reached on the land use plan and whether a segment of the Kingston Port is to be included in the project," added Samuda.
"We have been working with the Urban Development Corporation, the Port Authority, the Ministry of Transport and Works and the Ministry of Agriculture to complete an impact assessment and other studies looking at the provision of potable water and traffic impact.
"It is envisioned that the Tinson Pen airstrip will be relocated to a site adjacent to the economic complex.
Additionally, a railway leg will lead to the port, which is critical to the overall development," the minister told Parliament.
He said the project entailed the build-out of units that would service the ICT industry, the services industry, and provide warehousing and light manufacturing, such as agro-processing.
Discussions had been held with overseas partners, and the ministry was also engaging and seeking to attract local investors for the project, which is intended to be a joint venture between the public and private sectors, "under which the Government will provide, not sell, the land, and focus on infrastructural development...To date, a conceptual master plan has been completed and a MOU drafted and approved by the Attorney General's Department to be signed with the Investors."
He said linking the Caymanas Special Enterprise to the port of Kingston Port was integral to the port's development, as it offered "an enormous opportunity for investment, given its potential for greater utilisation and its prime locations for facilitating business and economic development". As such, an agreement had been reached on the formulation of a strategic partnership with the Kingston Port.
"In addition to all of this, the possibility exists for future expansion and to obtain even more acreage, to incorporate developments for residential and recreational purposes. Eventually, we may very well end up with an overall development in that area, of over 2,000 acres of land," said Samuda.
...Gov't, private sector partnership shaping up nicely
ENHANCED government-private sector partnership has been driving the implementation of initiatives which came out of the 2007 National Planning Summit (NPS) initiatives, geared at spurring economic growth.
Karl Samuda, the industry and commerce minister, said the NPS had provided a context and created the opportunity for intensified private/public sector dialogue, leading to the creation of a Monitoring Board and Expert Teams focusing on some seven key areas, with the objective of jump-starting the economic recovery process.
He listed the main areas of focus as:
. Job creation and investment promotion
. Balancing the budget/debt reduction
. Tax reform
. Land titling reform
. Crime and violence
. Education and training
. Governance and reducing bureaucracy
"The board monitors the progress of projects and seeks to clear any roadblocks that may hinder implementation," the minister told Parliament in his budget presentation last Wednesday.
He said that among the large-scale investment projects identified so far were the International Financial Services Centre (IFC), an ICT Park in Portmore and the Caymanas Special Enterprise Zone.
"We continue to pool our resources, expertise and experience in a very serious, focused, and constructive way towards the transformation of our country," said Samuda.
In that regards, he commended partner organisations such as the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica; the Jamaica Manufacturers Association; the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, and the Small Businesses Association of Jamaica, among others.
"Our success as a country depends on all of us at all levels of government and private sector working together," he said, and urged the Opposition to join in.
"The representatives of the Jamaican people, assembled here in Gordon House, must support the Government's plans for moving this country forward, not only in this extraordinary time in the history of our country, but in good as well as bad times. Greater collaboration is also necessary from the perspective of the private sector to ensure that the burden of price increases, wage containment, and job losses is more equitably distributed. We want to see more creativity and commitment being shown by our business community to keep prices stable and to ensure that each dollar is stretched as far as possible."
He vowed that the Consumer Affairs Commission would continue to monitor prices and to ensure that consumers were not only more informed about prices but that they also exercised greater vigilance before spending their money.
"And, very importantly, we must produce and export what we grow. Support our local producers. Build local industry. If we fail to become self-sustainable as a society, we will always be in a crisis situation. Let's prepare for the future, not merely for the short term, not merely when we have a crisis on our hands. Sustainability must become a way of life.
"We are all concerned about the effects of the global economic downturn. We are concerned about its effect on our families, our jobs, our savings, our businesses, Government and indeed, our entire country. But, I do not believe we need to become unnecessarily pre-occupied with complaining about or analysing the effects of the global economic crisis. That, for us, could be a self-defeating exercise. As a Government, we must do what it takes to keep our economy moving," said Samuda.
nice... but should be in HWY2K corridor to maximize that land use and avoid further congestion in KMA.
SAMUDA... we have successfully negotiated with the World Bank
Sunday, May 03, 2009
A conceptual master plan and a Memorandum of Understanding for the $200-billion Caymanas Special Enterprise Zone, have now been completed, Industry and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda has said.
SAMUDA... we have successfully negotiated with the World Bank The project, first announced last year, is to be sited on 1,000 acres of prime real estate at Ferry, St Catherine and will be home to "the next great economic space for Jamaican enterprise". It is expected to create some 10,000 new jobs in the next 3-5 years at an estimated cost of US$2.5 billion or about J$200 billion, Samuda said his budget presentation last Wednesday.
"We have successfully negotiated with the World Bank to provide funding for the completion of a feasibility study. In addition, agreement has been reached on the land use plan and whether a segment of the Kingston Port is to be included in the project," added Samuda.
"We have been working with the Urban Development Corporation, the Port Authority, the Ministry of Transport and Works and the Ministry of Agriculture to complete an impact assessment and other studies looking at the provision of potable water and traffic impact.
"It is envisioned that the Tinson Pen airstrip will be relocated to a site adjacent to the economic complex.
Additionally, a railway leg will lead to the port, which is critical to the overall development," the minister told Parliament.
He said the project entailed the build-out of units that would service the ICT industry, the services industry, and provide warehousing and light manufacturing, such as agro-processing.
Discussions had been held with overseas partners, and the ministry was also engaging and seeking to attract local investors for the project, which is intended to be a joint venture between the public and private sectors, "under which the Government will provide, not sell, the land, and focus on infrastructural development...To date, a conceptual master plan has been completed and a MOU drafted and approved by the Attorney General's Department to be signed with the Investors."
He said linking the Caymanas Special Enterprise to the port of Kingston Port was integral to the port's development, as it offered "an enormous opportunity for investment, given its potential for greater utilisation and its prime locations for facilitating business and economic development". As such, an agreement had been reached on the formulation of a strategic partnership with the Kingston Port.
"In addition to all of this, the possibility exists for future expansion and to obtain even more acreage, to incorporate developments for residential and recreational purposes. Eventually, we may very well end up with an overall development in that area, of over 2,000 acres of land," said Samuda.
...Gov't, private sector partnership shaping up nicely
ENHANCED government-private sector partnership has been driving the implementation of initiatives which came out of the 2007 National Planning Summit (NPS) initiatives, geared at spurring economic growth.
Karl Samuda, the industry and commerce minister, said the NPS had provided a context and created the opportunity for intensified private/public sector dialogue, leading to the creation of a Monitoring Board and Expert Teams focusing on some seven key areas, with the objective of jump-starting the economic recovery process.
He listed the main areas of focus as:
. Job creation and investment promotion
. Balancing the budget/debt reduction
. Tax reform
. Land titling reform
. Crime and violence
. Education and training
. Governance and reducing bureaucracy
"The board monitors the progress of projects and seeks to clear any roadblocks that may hinder implementation," the minister told Parliament in his budget presentation last Wednesday.
He said that among the large-scale investment projects identified so far were the International Financial Services Centre (IFC), an ICT Park in Portmore and the Caymanas Special Enterprise Zone.
"We continue to pool our resources, expertise and experience in a very serious, focused, and constructive way towards the transformation of our country," said Samuda.
In that regards, he commended partner organisations such as the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica; the Jamaica Manufacturers Association; the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, and the Small Businesses Association of Jamaica, among others.
"Our success as a country depends on all of us at all levels of government and private sector working together," he said, and urged the Opposition to join in.
"The representatives of the Jamaican people, assembled here in Gordon House, must support the Government's plans for moving this country forward, not only in this extraordinary time in the history of our country, but in good as well as bad times. Greater collaboration is also necessary from the perspective of the private sector to ensure that the burden of price increases, wage containment, and job losses is more equitably distributed. We want to see more creativity and commitment being shown by our business community to keep prices stable and to ensure that each dollar is stretched as far as possible."
He vowed that the Consumer Affairs Commission would continue to monitor prices and to ensure that consumers were not only more informed about prices but that they also exercised greater vigilance before spending their money.
"And, very importantly, we must produce and export what we grow. Support our local producers. Build local industry. If we fail to become self-sustainable as a society, we will always be in a crisis situation. Let's prepare for the future, not merely for the short term, not merely when we have a crisis on our hands. Sustainability must become a way of life.
"We are all concerned about the effects of the global economic downturn. We are concerned about its effect on our families, our jobs, our savings, our businesses, Government and indeed, our entire country. But, I do not believe we need to become unnecessarily pre-occupied with complaining about or analysing the effects of the global economic crisis. That, for us, could be a self-defeating exercise. As a Government, we must do what it takes to keep our economy moving," said Samuda.
nice... but should be in HWY2K corridor to maximize that land use and avoid further congestion in KMA.
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