JAMAICA has begun talks into the development of the Caribbean island as a global logistics hub for the Americas to rival world trading hubs
Jamaica sees itself as Americas' shipping hub to rival top 3 in 10 years
JAMAICA has begun talks into the development of the Caribbean island as a global logistics hub for the Americas to rival world trading hubs of Singapore, Dubai and Rotterdam.
Foreign investment talks are underway to discuss the development of vast areas of land to accommodate increasing air and ocean cargo volumes, by the country's Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce with a decade timeline at estimated cost of US$8 billion.
The projects under discussion include the development of a dedicated freight airport and expansion at its existing port of Kingston to increase container throughput and large scale ship repair dry docks.
Additionally, it is considering a new commodity port to handle petroleum products, coal, minerals and grain and special economic zones to be conceived by domestic and overseas investors.
"Large corporations and logistics service providers will be enticed to set up operations, control towers, headquarters and BPOs [business process outsourcing] in Jamaica," said the government, according to Lloyd's Loading List.
Preliminary projects such as the Caymanas Special Economic Zone (CEZ) are part of a broader plan to include the development of the island's link construction started in December 2012 to provide access points near port of Kingston and the island's Norman Manley International Airport.
The development of the Caymanas estate that covers a vast area of 10,000 acres is under way through the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ).
Jamaica needs to build up bilateral collaborations in order to encourage investment from the private sector and finance from private-public partnerships (PPPs), said chairman of the Logistics Task Force Eric Deans.
Jamaica has access to markets of the US and Brazil on its doorstep and can benefit from key trade opportunities which will "burst wide open" in the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2015 and Brazil's World Cup in 2014 and Olympics 2016, Mr Deans added.
