Thread by @drnigelclarkeja

#Thread Yesterday, in keeping with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, I tabled an Order in Parliament that designates the Montego Bay Bypass as a National Development Project.

The Project is to be implemented by China Harbour Engineering who developed the project.

The Terms and Conditions include:

1/ Minimum of 90% of the unskilled construction labour on the project to be Jamaican labour.

2/ Minimum of 50% of technical jobs to be Jamaican jobs as long as Jamaicans are available.

3/ Training Programme to be developed with HEART for Jamaicans to be trained through apprenticeship in the technical areas in which foreigners are employed

4/ Jamaican goods and services to be used where this is feasible.

This is new, and facilitated by the “new-ish” public procurement act . We haven’t had a parliamentary order of this nature with such terms and conditions before.

The Project consists of the MoBay Bypass (14.9km), the Long Hill Bypass (10.5km), the Barnett Street/West Green Road Rehabilitation and a Drainage Study of the MoBay Bypass Area.

MoBay is an economic Mecca in Jamaica. Further growth potential, however, is constrained by an acute traffic congestion problem which this Project will resolve, providing the platform for future growth and development of this major city and western Jamaica in general.

The Long Hill Bypass will provide means by which the North and South Coast Highway will be linked in the West. The vision of a Jamaica opened and connected by highways is one step closer.

A project of this nature has been contemplated for 20 years. We are now getting it done and we will be financing it without borrowing from the China EXIM Bank as originally intended.

However, despite the change in financing plans, & remaining true to how this Project got to this stage of being implementation ready, with CHEC’s indispensable input thus far, good faith demands that we proceed as originally planned for this project, with CHEC as the implementer.

As PM Holness has said we are working to ensure that future Highway projects may not only be financed locally but can be designed and made feasible locally and therefore open to competitive tender.

We are working with partners, including the US Treasury, to build the capacity to make this possible in the future.

I should add that the 5th term & condition of this Order is that it requires CHEC to apply wage rates & conditions of employment for Jcan workers on the Project that are in accordance with the wage rates & conditions of employment determined by the Joint Industrial Council (JIC).

The JIC comprises the following unions: the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, the National Workers Union and Trade Union Congress along with the representative body of employers in the construction industry: the Incorporated Master Builders Association.

This Parliamentary Order therefore adds a much higher level of protection for Jamaican workers, on these kinds of Projects, than has existed before.