Billions To Be Spent On Hard Infrastructure This Year

The Government is to spend $31 billion on hard infrastructure this year, in a bid to boost climate resilience on the island, says Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda.

“We are going to ensure that the roads that connect us to our transport hubs are the sort of roads that can withstand significant climatic and weather events that will allow the sector to get back up much faster,” he emphasised.

Senator Samuda was speaking at the Regional Ministers of Tourism Summit 2022, held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James, on Wednesday (June 15).

The summit formed part of the World Free Zones Organization (World FZO) AICE Conference 2022, staged under the theme ‘Zones: 2022 Your Partner for Resilience, Sustainability and Prosperity’.

Senator Samuda said that focus will also be placed on “nature-based solutions that we know are critical to our survival”.

“We have an assessment, which is going on now, for things like our mangrove population right across the island, to ensure that we do protect our coastline, not just for tourists but certainly for our residents. We have 70 per cent of our residents living within five kilometres of the coast; that puts a lot of pressure on the coast, but we simultaneously must put a lot of investment into protecting that coast that, in turn, protects us,” he added.

The Minister said that as it relates to climate change, the island will be commissioning its own doppler radar later this year, which will create some amount of predictability for the investments needed, “and will give exact information that we know is critical to the travel industry if they are to know exactly what the likely weather impacts are going to be.”

Senator Samuda noted that the Government is taking a systematic approach to building the country’s resilience and protecting the island.

Also speaking at the summit were Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett; Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, Hon. Floyd Green, and Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr.

The theme for the summit was ‘Building resilience for global sustainability; accelerating recovery and prosperity’.

The World FZO 2022 AICE conference, which ends on June 17, is being hosted by the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA).