Jamaica Urging Developers to Relaunch Construction Projects
Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness is urging developers to relaunch their construction projects with “speed and alacrity,” he said this week.
Many projects were put on hold in Jamaica as a result of the pandemic, particularly in the country’s booming hotel sector.
The country’s government recently gave the “go-ahead” to developers to resume construction activities, part of a broader phased reopening of the island’s economy.
He also sought to assuage concerns by developers and those “uncertain about what the future may hold.”
“The right approach is to see what you can do now,” he said. “Make the investment plans that you have materialize now. Bring forward some of the investment plans that you have.”
Jamaica’s largest hotel construction project, Karisma Hotels and Resorts’ $1 billion Sugarcane Bay Jamaica, had just broken ground in early March as the pandemic hit.
It was part of a massive number of hotel and resort construction projects put on hold due to the pandemic, as CJI reported.
Regional construction industries are beginning to open up, however, most recently Turks and Caicos, which kicked off the construction industry’s relaunch on May 11, as did The Bahamas.
— CJI