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PM: More visionaries, risk-takers needed to advance Jamaica

Published:Tuesday | August 23, 2022 | 12:05 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness has said Jamaica is in need of more visionaries and entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks towards advancing the country’s development agenda.

Holness said he has admired with great interest the entrepreneurial pursuits of Anthony ‘Tony’ Hart, the late business mogul of Montego Bay who single-handedly developed the Montego Freeport area.

“(Hart) believed in business and was a believer in putting capital to work towards achieving progress and making things better than they are,” the prime minister said.

“It is unfortunate that somehow it has crept into our culture to devalue entrepreneurship, to devalue the risk-taker and the businessman, and it is quite unfortunate,” Holness said.

Holness made that observation on Saturday while delivering the keynote address at the St James Municipal Corporation’s road-renaming ceremony, which saw the Southern Cross Boulevard being renamed the Anthony Hart Boulevard, in the Freeport area of Montego Bay.

The decision to rename the roadway resulted from a motion in 2018 by Dwight Crawford, councillor for the Spring Gardens Division, and seconded by Councillor Charles Sinclair, at a meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

The Tony Hart Boulevard starts at the first roundabout heading into Montego Freeport and ends at Secrets Hotel.

“Societies are not going to progress without having this special creature called the entrepreneur, the innovator, the risk-taker, the visionary. So we were lucky to have someone like Tony, and can you imagine if we had 100 more Tony’s in our society, how great our society would be?” Holness argued.

Hart was primarily responsible for the development of the Freeport area of Montego Bay, a project consisting of 350 acres of land and four berths for ships, and today it is at the heart of the development of the resort city.

Leeroy Williams, mayor of Montego Bay and chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation, described Hart as the quintessential man in every sphere of his life, a true visionary who did not look at what is, but rather what should be done.

“I use this occasion to encourage the citizens of St James to emulate the work of this visionary, humanitarian, astute businessman and nation-builder,” he urged.

“I am confident that the matriarch of the Hart family traverses Anthony Hart Boulevard with a great sense of pride and accomplishment,” Williams added.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com