Jamaica and South Korea to Establish Land Training School

The Governments of Jamaica and South Korea will be collaborating to establish a training school for surveyors, draftsmen, readers, checkers, and other land-related professionals, excluding lawyers.

“We thank the Government and people of South Korea for signing off and funding this US$9 million project. The impact of this partnership will be enormous as the bulk of the funds will be used to invest in our people and expand the pool of available professionals,” Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development with Responsibility for Land Titling and Settlements, Hon. Robert Montague, said.

He noted that the initiative will also introduce new technologies and enhance the country’s capacity to produce a greater number of land titles.

Mr. Montague was speaking during his 2026/27 Sectoral Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (June 9).

The Minister also reported that the Government has entered into an agreement with the Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute (CCIMI) to provide advanced training and certification for professionals in the commercial real estate industry.

He noted that the CCIMI is a globally recognised professional certification offered in only 31 countries, with Jamaica now becoming the 32nd .

“It will result in more highly trained and skilled professionals in our real estate sector. We are putting on more workshops for lawyers on how to complete land applications, and these courses are accredited. We have increased our panel of referees from one to five and we intend to do more,” he stated.

Mr. Montague also informed that the Ministry will expand its public education efforts to ensure citizens understand how to obtain a land title.

In addition, the Ministry will appoint more Adjudication Committees and is exploring the possibility of referring adverse possession applications to these bodies.

“We intend to digitise all our processes, including surveys, so that we can begin, by next September, the issuing of e-Titles. This will make the process smoother, easier and more secure [and] will then allow us to do upwards of 30,000 or more e-titles per year,” Minister Montague stated.

“We now have a partnership with Fijutsu, to digitise our records and introduce new technologies into our processes to make them faster yet more secure. We intend, by next September, to begin a pilot that will recall old titles and replace them with an e-Title,” he added.

Mr. Montague advised that the e Title system will also assist landowners in monitoring their properties, providing alerts if someone applies for the title to their land.

“This will reduce the instance of persons moving to take over your land by adverse possession. There will be a fee, of course, for this property watch service,” he stated.