Minister Hylton Lauds Gas Pro-PIOJ Partnership to Build Communities

Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister, Hon. Anthony Hylton, has welcomed the significant public-private partnership involved in the implementation of the Gas Pro Street Style Cook Up community food festival.

The initiative is a community-based social integration programme being undertaken by cooking gas supplier, Gas Products Limited (Gas Pro), in partnership with the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), under its Community Renewal Programme (CRP), with support from other private and public sector stakeholders.

Speaking at on Wednesday, November 12, at the launch of the second staging, at the Waterhouse community centre in Western St. Andrew, Mr. Hylton said that without stakeholder involvement in the engagement, particularly by the private sector, “I don’t think we could have the kind of platform that is being rolled out today.”

He noted that communities like Waterhouse, where the event will be staged on November 29, have been shunned by some private sector interests, “because of all kinds of concerns…some real, some imagined.”

“The reality is, if we hope to grow our economy, if we hope to generate stability and realize the goal of integration of our communities… they (private sector) have to do more, they have to reach out, and they have to engage (them),” the Minister argued.

In this regard, Mr. Hylton, who is also the Western St. Andrew Member of Parliament, welcomed the partnership forged between the CRP and Gas Products Limited, and the response from other stakeholders.

“I believe the platform that the CRP has provided is ideal… because it brings together, not only the framework and government’s assistance, but creates that framework for the other participants to easily join in and participate.  I am pretty sure that street style cook-up in Waterhouse is going to be a (success),” he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director General at the PIOJ, Richard Lumsden, said the food festival’s initial staging in Parade Gardens, downtown Kingston, in May, provided a catalyst for the CRP’s full scale coordination of various other social programmes, “that will seek to address the priority issues of that community.”

Additionally, he said it also laid the platform for the initiative’s implementation in Waterhouse.

“We (PIOJ/CRP) are happy to partner with the community in this event, recognizing that development in Waterhouse will also contribute to development in neighbouring communities. It is within this context, therefore, that the PIOJ sees this initiative as an example of public-private and community partnership…to empower the lives of residents within our vulnerable and volatile communities,” Mr. Lumsden added.