The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce is planning a series of islandwide public consultations to sensitize citizens about the Government’s plans for a logistics hub.

That is according to Minister Anthony Hylton, who said the activities will begin with a meeting with the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce next Wednesday, January 23.

Hylton was addressing the opening ceremony of a logistics hub retreat at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston earlier today.

Development of the proposed trans-shipment and logistics hub is being undertaken by the Government in a bid to position Jamaica to take advantage of the anticipated increased maritime activities, expected to result from the expansion of the Panama Canal, by 2015.

The project will have six separate but complementary elements: dredging of the Kingston Harbour; expansion of port facilities at Fort Augusta and Gordon Cay; establishing a dry dock at Jackson Bay, Clarendon; establishing a trans-shipment commodity port near Yallahs, St Thomas; developing the Caymanas Economic Zone, and developing an air cargo and passenger facility at Vernamfield, Clarendon.

Hylton said the Government, in signalling its full support for the project has elevated it to the status of national priority, pointing out that the logistics hub initiative must be viewed as a flagship project, according to a release from the Jamaica Information Service.

“The recent Cabinet retreat has resolved that the project represents the centre-piece of the country’s economic growth strategy, and is therefore a major initiative to drive the development and growth of the Jamaican economy,” he said.

The two-day retreat, organised by the logistics task force, is designed to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to fine-tune strategies to be employed to successfully establish a global logistic hub in Jamaica.

The wider policy framework within which the hub will operate, is also to be examined.

business@gleanerjm.com