‘This is not a chaka-chaka development’

Boundbrook, East Portland

Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday broke ground to pave the way for the construction of a $4.2-billion urban centre at Boundbrook, near Bryan’s Bay, which will house government facilities and private entities.

Holness, along with other political representatives from Portland, including West Portland Member of Parliament (MP) Daryl Vaz; East Portland MP Annmarie Vaz, a team from the Factories Corporation of Jamaica, Custos of Portland Lincoln Thaxter, and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) representatives, participated in the ground-breaking ceremony, which attracted hundreds of onlookers.

The prime minister, who spoke at length about the project, which he said is to be undertaken by CHEC, told the gathering that it was “not a chaka-chaka development” and that everything was being done above board to preserve its integrity, which, according to him, has resulted in the delay to the start of the actual construction.

“So, this is not a chaka-chaka development, and I can tell you that, because we were trying to avoid chaka-chakaness, it took longer than we wanted,” said Holness.

“Portland is set for massive developments but they’re not going to be high intensity, high density development. No, we specifically want to avoid that. We are going for high value, low density development, including the development of the East Harbour into a cruise shipping port. And all of that is being planned. So we are not just doing one little development and expect that one likkle development to spark and be the catalyst for new development.

“We have a well-thought [out], coordinated plan backed by the resources to sustain long-term infrastructure investment without interruption. That is what is different with this Government. I am busy building, building. We are the Government that is building Jamaica. We understand infrastructure and this project will not be the last one. We incorporate the private sector in these plans because we believe in the democratisation of wealth,” he added.

Unsustainable projects

Holness also pointed out that, for far too long, governments of the past have implemented projects that were unsustainable, resulting in the infrastructure becoming broken down or run down, as they were unable to provide adequate maintenance over a prolonged period, because of financial instability.

Against that background, Holness declared that his Government has developed plans and policies with fiscal stability to adequately fund projects for long periods, while providing adequate maintenance.

Earlier, Lyttleton Shirley, chairman of the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ), spoke about the importance of the urban centre project, which, according to him, will on completion house government and private entities, including a business process outsourcing facility, and that it will potentially provide approximately 2,000 jobs.

For their part, the two Portland MPs spoke about the importance of the project, which, according to them, will bring all the government services and agencies under one umbrella, in one location, with meaningful economic spin-off for residents.

Funding for the project is being provided by National Commercial Bank Financial Group and Barita Investments Limited, with CIBC operating as the lending agency.

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