Growth & Jobs | Additional land to be acquired to build micro business park at Morant Bay Urban Centre

THE FACTORIES Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) says it has received instructions from Prime Minister, Dr Andrew Holness, to acquire 10 additional acres of land to build a micro business park at the Morant Bay Urban Centre in St Thomas.

Speaking during a stakeholder engagement session at the facility on November 13, FCJ Chairman Lyttleton Shirley, said the venture will be one of the first of its kind in Jamaica.

“It’s going to be something that you have never seen before. It’s going to have a farmers’ market, farm supply and equipment store, sports bar and grill pavilion, 12 mini warehouses, 30 micro business facilities to support small businesses, such as shoemakers, locksmiths and hairdressers. What we have been instructed to do by the prime minister is to help them in acquiring their equipment [and] roll it over into the rent over a longer period, so that small businesses can overcome that startup gap,” he said.

Providing further updates on the overall project, Shirley indicated that the urban centre will also house “the most modern courthouse to be built in the Caribbean”, with cutting-edge facilities to safeguard citizens’ rights.

There will also be two large greenhouses for farmers and four cold storage facilities, “so that when the small farmers produce and have their displays, whatever does not sell, they put it in cold storage, so it doesn’t have to spoil,” he added.

Shirley also confirmed that travel service providers, Knutsford Express, will be based at the centre, which is another first for the eastern parish.

Additionally, he said there will be a “large” business process outsourcing entity, which will employ around 2,000 to 3,000 persons.

Shirley also outlined upgrades slated for St Thomas’ new Women’s Centre, which will be based at the urban centre.

“It is going to have, for the first time, a five-bedroom dormitory, so that when the young students, unfortunately, get led astray and get pregnant, when they leave school they can go there, have their child, get on the educational programme, get back on track and right back where their lives will not be destroyed. That is the brainchild of our prime minister,” the chairman said.

Holness, in his address, said the Morant Bay Urban Centre will essentially create “the new economy of St Thomas”.

“We’re not going to create a secluded zone where the people of St Thomas are excluded from it. This is about creating an atmosphere where every Jamaican and everybody from St Thomas can come and do business, can live and raise their families [and] can earn an income. That is what we are building here, without having to contend with overcrowded streets [and] congestion, as how it is in the town right now ,it is inconvenient,” Dr Holness said.

The prime minister further noted that the development sends a strong message to the rest of the world, “that through our own resources, through our own initiative, through our own agency, we can build our parish, and we can build our country. It’s about showing that we can be an economically independent people.”

The Morant Bay Urban Centre project is set to be completed by December/January, according to the FCJ.