The North Coast Highway development has led to further investment in the hotel industry.

Upgraded roads and ports and the increased accessibilty this offers is attracting the interest of international investors and improving daily life for residents.

In 1999 the government announced the Millennium Projects Program, a multi-year infrastructure development plan which had as its centerpiece the construction of the massive Highway 2000. Since then Jamaica has gone on to upgrade its airports, public transport systems, ports and, most importantly, its highways. Other Millennium projects included the construction of four industrial parks, a major cargo facility at Vernamfield on Jamaica’s south coast and the establishment of a new population center in the middle of the island. Today, Jamaica is on the receiving end of the many benefits of these investments, As progress continues on all fronts, continuing growth in the island’s infrastructure is leading to an economy surging with a fresh influx of foreign investment that this new capacity has enabled. The Ministry of Transport and Works continues to be the driving force behind the bold steps changing the face of Jamaica.

ROBERT PICKERSGILL Minister of Transport and Works

In January of this year completed segments of Highway 2000 were already registering daily use far exceeding original estimates and, as the previously arduous and lengthy task of traversing the mountainous interior of the island was gradually replaced with the ease and speed the highway provides, the secondary effects on Jamaica’s development were beginning to change the face of the island. “We believed that the road to development was the development of roads,” says Minister of Transport and Works Robert Pickersgill, who adds that the development of the North Coast Highway, a spin-off of Highway 2000, has opened up a whole range of new possibilities. “Many hotel investors were awaiting infrastructure improvements there, and once it became clear that it was going to happen, there has been a steady flow of investment. We just had a visit from the Spanish Ambassador and he spoke of 10,000 new hotel rooms in the next five years, and this is all because of the development in roads.” For Jamaicans, says Minister Pickersgill, the reduction of commuting times from surrounding towns to Kingston has been cut from hours to practically minutes, and this contributes to a rise in quality of life that makes the small tolls on the highway seem insignificant.

‘Jamaica is on the verge of a major take-off in terms of becoming the Dubai of the Caribbean, and a major commercial center’

The Port of Kingston, which is the seventh largest natural harbor in the world, is now entering its fifth stage of expansion, and it is looking to expand its commercial free zone facilities to provide logistics services for companies worldwide. Also, new distribution centers on the island such as Tinson Pen have been equally as exciting. The Port of Kingston has been undergoing rapid and major expansion throughout the last few years and the Port Authority is aiming to convert Jamaica into a major logistics and distribution hub for the Americas. Ongoing talks with China, as well as recent agreements with international shipping companies such as Israeli-ZIM Lines, are boosting the Port’s stature and pointing to a major turning point in the country’s importance as a major international logistics center. “Our thinking in terms of the future development of Jamaica is as the main distribution hub, as well as the commercial center of the Caribbean region,” states Vice-President of the Port Authority of Jamaica Robert Stephens. “We are one of the few ports that have the capacity to handle the big shipping lines, and there are few ports in the region that can take a ship that is in excess of 8,000 TEU’s (twenty-foot equivalent units). Certainly, from the perspective of investors and the people involved in the shipping industry worldwide, Jamaica is on the verge of a major take-off in terms of becoming the Dubai of the Caribbean.”