Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that establishment of the Kingston Gateway Commercial and Warehouse Complex project is a landmark development, not just for Kingston, but for the entire logistics and commercial ecosystem of Jamaica.

Holness said that this project is a physical symbol of confidence in Jamaica’s growth trajectory, confidence in the resilience and innovation of the private sector and confidence in partnerships, public and private, that are shaping a modern, prosperous future for the country.

This initiative, which is a joint venture between PROVEN Properties and SAJE Logistics Infrastructure Limited, and other key partners will have direct access to the Port of Kingston and the Norman Manley International Airport.

“This joint venture stands as an exemplary model of what is possible when Jamaican businesses leverage their collective strengths, marry logistics with real estate and expertise, and invest boldly in our development potential. Kingston Gateway, situated strategically at the entrance to Port Bustamante, is not only about concrete, steel, and glass; it is about connectivity, it is about enabling commerce, and it is about unlocking economic value, logistical value, and community value,” Holness said during the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kingston Gateway at Marcus Garvey Drive, in Kingston on Friday.

Holness also said that this facility places its tenants at the very nerve centre of Jamaica’s trade infrastructure. “This is a development that makes sense economically, spatially, and strategically, but it also makes sense in terms of the policy direction that my government has been pursuing with clear intention over the past several years. Jamaica is in a new phase of its development. We are not where we were 10 years ago, when we packed the economic stability that we have fought hard to secure is now bearing fruit in the form of increased investor confidence, both local and foreign.”

He expressed that projects like Kingston Gateway highlight that it is becoming the norm for investors to implement businesses on the island.

“It did not happen by accident, it was by deliberate, instrumental, strategic, well-thought-out actions. Our administration has made a priority of the creation of an enabling environment for fiscal discipline, public sector modernisation, and resilience building, and now we are on the path towards the reduction of inefficiency and bureaucracy that is stifling growth.”

Holness further noted that in order to develop exponentially, the country has to rethink bureaucracy and what it is meant to be. “Bureaucracy is not a bad thing. But in its present state and form, it poses a challenge to our growth. Right up the road from us in the Dominican Republic, they have launched the same thing. They call it zero bureaucracy because all governments are facing this. We have to think about bureaucracy even more as a small country because, like it or not, prepared or not, the world is changing. The global order is changing.”

Holness said while there are individuals who view change with great fear because of uncertainty, as small-island developing states, there is a need to be strategic. “There are those who want to maintain the status quo because it has served us well for the last 50 years, since the last global status quo was established, particularly in trade and the international monetary system.

“However, as a small country, we are price takers in everything, essentially, and our strategy is, yes, we must always add our voice to preserving the multilateral system because it is the only system that gives a voice to small countries like Jamaica, but we must also be strategic and seek to find the opportunities that may exist in disruptive states. We have to position ourselves to be able to take advantage of the repositioning of global supply chains that is inevitable and imminent in happening,” he continued.

Holness said for Jamaica to become the fourth node in the global logistics network, the country must not only have the labour component as our productive edge and our competitive edge but must also have a regulatory environment that is a competitive edge for business. “Which is why it is so critical to reform the public bureaucracy that we have. You can’t talk about becoming logistics if it is going to take you an inordinate period of time to get anything approved and if the people who serve the bureaucracy don’t understand that they have to be outcome-orientated instead of process-orientated,” he added.