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May Pen to Williamsfield highway comes in at US$188 million

The Andrew Holness led administration has placed emphasis on vastly improving Jamaica’s infrastructure in particular its road network and highways.

The Prime Minister was in a  celebratory mood today at the opening ceremony for the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP) Part A, May Pen to Williamsfield leg. This 28-kilometre road is now completed and is open to the public.

The Jamaican Government negotiated a design and build contract for US$188 million but saw the project undergo an expansion of its scope of work. 

Prime Minister Andrew Holness explained: “I know some people will take that and say overrun. I’m being deliberately clear because these days there are people who take what you say and twist it, contort it into things that are not true. There was no overrun.

“We try to accommodate our stakeholders. We ended up creating a modern interchange to replace the roundabout that was there. We did many changes including fixing some of the neighbouring roads. We eased the traffic flow. We increased the project’s scope. We got more for the value of the money spent.”

 Chinese connection 

The project was funded by a loan from the Government of China and the contractor was China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).

Speaking about working with the Chinese and the bad rap they get, the Prime Minister had this to say: “ I want to take the opportunity to dispel quite unfortunate perceptions carried by some, that somehow Jamaica is being overrun by Chinese interests. It may shock you to know that even with the loan from China, Jamaica’s debt to China is 4.5 per cent of our total debt. Our debt to China is small relative to what we owe to the rest of the world. We are not engaged in an exploitative development project relationship here with our Chinese partners. It is a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship.”

“Jamaica has taken a strategic approach to the development of its infrastructure and we partner with those who want to help us. We are willing to partner with all countries in the world that want to assist our development. We are ensuring that when we partner with these countries, Jamaica gets the benefit. There is no one who can say this road is not beneficial to them.

“In the past traveling from May Pen to Mandeville meant experiencing major challenges. Those days are now gone. It will take you just 15 minutes. We are connecting Jamaica, we are making it a smaller place in terms of  the time it takes to travel.”

The project engaged 48 engineers of which 18 are Jamaican. In total 754 workers were employed, with 603 being Jamaican.

 Need more skilled workers and engineers

The Prime Minister took the opportunity to point out that Jamaica needs more skilled workers and more engineers. “On this SCHIP Part A leg, there were just 18 Jamaican engineers. That tells a story. I want you to appreciate the point, it is not that the project is structured to employ non-Jamaicans engineers. If we had them we would have done it. We do not have enough engineers. The Government is paying serious attention to improving the things that matter and can make a difference to our lives.

That means improving our education system not in the way commonly understood, but our education must move to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). It is imperative Jamaica’s infrastructure development is to continue and be indigenously driven by local talent and skills.”

The Way the Prime Minister sees it, good infrastructure enables trade, and drives businesses. It connects workers to their jobs and creates opportunities. Without good infrastructure, it is difficult to attract investment, create jobs or grow the economy.

“This road is a step in improving the quality of life for all Jamaicans. A step in improving the productivity of all Jamaicans and you can easily measure the productivity of this road by the productivity lost in traffic, discomfort and aggression caused by driving on bad roads. It not only connects workers to jobs but also improves the response time of our security forces. It improves the delivery of our agricultural output to the market. In so many ways, building your infrastructure improves well-being.”

 Undeniable performance, undeniable facts 

Prime Minister Andrew Holness turned his attention to the Government’s performance since 2016, reeling off a litany of accomplishments that have placed the country on a path to prosperity.

“From 2016, when my administration took office, I articulated a clear vision with an aspiration for Jamaica’s development in terms of economic growth and job creation. At that time, economic growth and job creation were a dream. I can say that without fear of contest. There was no economic growth and there was no job creation. Many Jamaicans thought “ That will never happen”. 

“What do we have today? We have economic growth and job creation. There are those who find it hard to accept things are changing because they have a negative outlook but we confront them with the facts. I’m not saying everything is glorious but everything is not bad in Jamaica. There is a lot of good going on in Jamaica.

“In spite of the worst global health disaster in 100 years which precipitated economic collapse around the world, Jamaica’s economy recovered and performed better than before. We have experienced 9 consecutive quarters of economic growth since the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, we had 19 consecutive quarters of economic growth. Our Net International Reserves (NIR) now stand at US$4.4 Billion as at August 31st, 2023, the highest in our history. When we changed our economic policy to a flexible free-floating exchange rate, we were criticised. Today, the dollar is stable but we don’t get the credit for that. For the first time in a long time, we can report an increase in export earnings-up 55 per cent for the first quarter of 2023. Jamaica continues to pay down its debt. Our debt to GDP ratio is now at 78 per cent moving from a high of 150 per cent of GDP. By the end of this fiscal year, the debt-to-GDP ratio should come down to 74 per cent. We have a historically low unemployment of 4.5 per cent.

“These are the facts. There are those who are going to say, ‘Look at him being arrogant’. At the end of this term, this government will build and repair more roads than any other government in modern Jamaica’s history. I confront disbelievers with facts. I’m not here with beautiful speaking. I’m here with facts.”