Above: Industry Minister Anthony Hylton

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica will begin work on the Caymanas Economic Zone by May of this year, Industry Minister Anthony Hylton said Friday.

The project is part of the government’s logistics hub initiative, which aims to take advantage of the planned expansion of the Panama Canal slated for completion in 2015.

“Once the evaluation process is completed, in time, a decision will be made as to which of the several persons or entities that tendered, will be selected to implement the project,” he said. “The timeline, given where we are today, and what is involved in the process, we confidently believe that…we would have named the persons by the end of February/ March, and some element of the work should begin by May.”

The CEZ, which will be developed on the land of the Caymanas Estate, will include 1,500 acres of real estate, of which 40 acres have been marked for development of the first phase of an ICT park.

The project, if completed, would be the first large-scale integrated industrial zone in the country, with a focus on manufacturing, logistics management and transshipment.

It is one of six prongs of the country’s logistics project, which Hylton has said could transform Jamaica’s economy.