Above: Kingston (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s Ministry of Industry, Investment Commerce plans to conduct a series of island-wide public consultations on the government’s plans for a logistics hub in Kingston, Minister Anthony Hylton announced.

The government is developing the project to capitalize on the expansion of the Panama Canal, which is slated for completion in 2015.

The project will have six elements, inculding the dredging of the Kingston Harbour; expanding the port facility at Fort Augusta and Gordon Cay; establishing a Dry Dock facility at Jackson Bay, Clarendon; establishing a transshipment commodity port facility near Yallahs, St Thomas; developing the Caymanas Economic Zone and developing an air cargo and passenger facility at Vernamfield.

“The recent Cabinet retreat has resolved that the project represents the centrepiece 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. “It is our opportunity to leverage the radical shift in the geography of global trade to build and anchor an engine of growth that will generate sustained growth and jobs for years to come.”

Hylton was speaking on Friday at a two-day logistics hub retreat, the first in a series of events targeting stakeholdres in Jamaica who will be involved in the hub’s planning and implementation process.

The Minister has said previously that the government is modeling the project on similar hubs in Dubai and Singapore.