PM Breaks Ground for Total Logistics Facility at Kingston Wharves

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, on October 22, broke ground for the US$20 million, (J$2.2 billion) Total Logistics Facility, at the Kingston Wharves.

This is the first major infrastructure under the National Logistics Hub Initiative.

Construction of the facility is to be completed in just under one year, and will see some 150 persons being employed indirectly and directly. Already, the project has generated employment for over 50 persons.

On completion, the facility will provide employment for more than 450 persons. Operation is set for January 2016.

“This is in time to capitalize on the post Panama Canal developments,” the Prime Minister said, while delivering the keynote address at the groundbreaking ceremony, held at Newport West, in Kingston.

She said the project marks the beginning of a new future for Kingston. “The development is part of the strategy aimed at establishing Jamaica as a premier transshipment hub of the Americas, in the post Panama expansion era,” Mrs. Simpson Miller noted.

“This represents the private sector and the public sectors working together to achieve our national growth, and development goals,” she added, while explaining that the expansion of the Panama Canal, and Jamaica’s proximity to production centres in Mexico and Brazil, can see the creation of scores of jobs for Jamaicans, as global companies do their transshipments through the country’s ports to the Americas.

With the establishment of the Total Logistics Facility, it further positions Jamaica to take advantage of the Panama expansion, based on its strategic location in the Caribbean, where it will bring increased businesses to the island, especially in transshipment.

Kingston Wharves is a listed company on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, with assets of US$119.91 million. It is the leading multi-purpose Port Terminal Operator, providing the Region’s exporters and importers with a broad range of cargo handling and logistics services and connection to over 20 international ports in the Caribbean, Latin and North America.

Jamaica’s global Logistics Hub Initiative, which is a core plank in the Government’s economic growth strategy, seeks to drive investment and create sustainable employment over the long term. It aims to take advantage of the anticipated increase in trade activities as a result of the expansion of the Panama Canal, scheduled for completion by 2015.