Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Services
Source: JIS, March 2, 2007
North Coast
Highway Major Vehicle for Economic Transformation
Prime Minister, Portia Simpson
Miller said the value of the North Coast Highway project should be
viewed not only in terms of cost, but that consideration should be
given to the savings in travel time and money and the numerous
investment opportunities that have resulted from its construction.
Mrs. Simpson Miller was speaking
in Trelawny on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at the official opening of the
Rio Bueno bypass. The bypass forms part of Segment Two of the
highway project.
She stressed that the project had
opened up new areas of the country to investment and created more
opportunities for ordinary Jamaicans to enjoy the fruits of the
development. Also, she emphasized, the roadway was a major vehicle
for economic and social transformation and added that several
countries had lifted their most vulnerable citizens out of poverty
by investing in infrastructural development.
"Already we have seen
significant tourism investments that have created employment and
improved social development along the highway corridor," Mrs.
Simpson Miller stated.
She said the Government had adopted
an integrated approach to development and that efforts were being
made to ensure that the linkages between the tourism industry and
other sectors of the economy were strengthened in order that the
value added from tourism could be maximized.
"When the tourism sector is
booming, it is all who benefit. Our farmers, small retailers and
distributors, our taxi men, craft vendors, cosmetologists and
artisans, entertainers and small manufacturers," Mrs. Simpson
Miller said.
She said development work at the
island's air and sea ports as well as in the area of
telecommunications formed part of a deliberate and planned
strategy for development which was largely responsible for high
level of investment flows into the country. She said the people of
Jamaica were both the means and the end of the development now
taking place in the country, adding that the government had a duty
to ensure that this was done in a holistic, transformational and
environmentally friendly manner.
Mrs. Simpson Miller said that
the original scope of the design work for Segment Two of the North
Coast Highway did not include the construction of the Rio Bueno
bypass, but that the plan had to be adjusted in order to protect
and preserve the archaeological sites and historical buildings in
that area of the parish.
"This is the essence of
adopting a balanced, holistic and responsible approach to
development. It must not be at the expense of the environment and
our historical and cultural interests," the Prime Minister
said.
The North Coast Highway project
involves the construction of a single roadway from Negril to Port
Antonio. Segment One has already been completed while Segment
Three is scheduled for completion in June of next year. The
Falmouth to Ocho Rios leg of Segment Two was opened by the Prime
Minister in December of last year.
|
