Kingston port on track for logistics business boom

Professor Gordon Shirley, chairman of the Port Authority of Jamaica, says the country remains on track to prepare its port facilities in time to attract logistics business when the expansion of the Panama Canal is completed in early 2015.

He told Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee Thursday that dredging of the Kingston Harbour would be necessary to accommodate the larger vessels that would be coming to Jamaica.

Shirley told the parliamentary oversight committee that dredging was expected to begin by June 2014.

He said with current plans to privatise the Kingston Container Terminal, the Government was seeking to enter into a concession agreement with an international firm to operate the Port of Kingston for a 30- to 35-year period.

THREE SHORTLISTED

To date, three firms have been shortlisted. They are Dubia Ports World; Singapore Port Authority; and a consortium made up of CMA CGM, one of the world's largest container shipping companies, and China Merchant Marine, a major carrier, along with some other firms.

Shirley told the committee that an operator would be selected by June next year.

He explained that the Government was exploring the option of allowing the concessionaire to finance the dredging operations to relieve it of that exercise.

The Port Authority of Jamaica head is also advising that a framework agreement between China Harbour Engineering Company Limited and the Government on developing a logistics hub at Goat Islands should be completed shortly.

He said the agreement would define in greater details the activity that would take place on Goat Islands and the backlands in Old Harbour Bay.

It would also provide information on the extent of work to be carried out during each phase of the project.

"That is essential before we can submit to NEPA (National Environment and Planning Agency) for the environmental impact study to be done. Once we get, from NEPA, the things that would have to be done in the study, then it would be implemented," he said, adding that that should be taking place during the first half of 2014.

Asked about the creation of jobs at the end of the project, Shirley said an estimated 10,000 jobs would be created, with the greater percentage expected to go to Jamaicans.