Port Authority of Jamaica Groundbreaking and Project Launch of Caymanas Special Economic Zone
Keynote Address
By
Dr the Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
at the
Port Authority of Jamaica Groundbreaking and Project Launch
of
Caymanas Special Economic Zone
On
July 29, 2025
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Good afternoon, everyone.
Allow me to thank Stacy-Ann for her wonderful mastery of the ceremony.
And Pastor Rachel Thompson for invoking the presence of the Lord in our midst and blessing this venture, which we are about to undertake.
Senator the Honourable Aubyn Hill, Minister of Investment, Industry and Commerce
His Excellency Mr Antonio Sá Ricarte, the Ambassador of Brazil to Jamaica. Welcome, sir.
Mr Alok Jain, Chairman of the Port Authority of Jamaica
Professor the Honourable Gordon Shirley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Port Authority
Executive heads of public and private sector organizations, and I see a few in the audience.
Members of the media
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
I don’t know if you recall the movie Field of Dreams. Some of you may recall that movie in which Kevin Costner was the star, and he was hearing a voice in his head saying, build it, and he will come. And that voice kept haunting him and he ended up building a baseball pitch in the middle of a corn field and of course, after building the baseball pitch, all kinds of miraculous and wonderful things happened. I’m not comparing this to the movie because of course this is a cane field, and we are not proposing to build a baseball pitch. What we are proposing is far more spectacular and of far greater moment and of more serious substance so, we didn’t just call you out here in the middle of abandoned cane field to show you a dream.
Today is the end of dreaming and the beginning of visioning. Today is the start of the conversion of a dream into reality. My friend Tony is here; Tony Hilton, the Opposition Spokesperson on Industry, Investment and Commerce and he also had that dream. We share the dream. It is Jamaica’s dream to see finally a special economic zone created here on these Caymanas lands.
Sometimes when we speak to the public, we who are the opinion leaders and influencers tend to communicate to our public in such a way as to convey automaticity and instantaneous gratification. Meaning that when we articulate a dream and a vision, we tend to subliminally communicate to the public that it will come to fruition tomorrow, and that it is automatic that it will happen, and that leads to even greater frustration to the public when it doesn’t happen tomorrow.
In fact, when it doesn’t happen at all, we then lose our credibility, so I tend not to speak so much to the vision and the dream. I tend to want to position myself as the builder, meaning I come into the picture when the blocks are ready to be laid, and I found it to be necessary to do that because Jamaica is not short of brilliant people with great ideas. We are not short of dreamers who can articulate and sell the dream.
What we have been terribly short of are the people to get it done, and if we are to win back the credibility that we have lost of years of dreaming and visioning, and if we are to win back our public to have support for what their government is doing, we need to start executing and completing the things we have started. And we also have to be realistic with the public for them to understand that when you take on projects of this magnitude, you’re not going to see the transformation tomorrow. It will take time.
This project is more than 10 years in the making. I was a younger member of the cabinet of Bruce Golding at the time when the ideas, at that time, the notion was to divest the Port of Kingston and to develop a special economic zone on the Caymanas lands. We travelled to China to bring in investments and the result of that is the North-South Highway. We also engaged with other companies to develop these lands. We undertook all kinds of surveys, administration changed; this became part of what is called the Greater Logistics Hub Project, and Tony would’ve led that leg of the dream. And of course, it would’ve been very difficult to do it at that time given the economic circumstances that prevailed.
And I say that to make the point that no matter what you want to do, it can’t be done without the economy to support it, and I have to say that over and over and over again until every Jamaican citizen understands that you need to have an economy in order to do these things. If you don’t have the economy, these things can’t happen. Why I’m saying this? Because again, our public opinion leaders, our influencers have communicated to the public only one side of the story. Yes, we’re going to fix your road, we’re going to give you hospital, we’re going to give you garbage trucks, we’re going to give you everything you want, but they don’t communicate the importance of having a well-run economy.
So, today what you are seeing is not just the materialization of a dream, but you are also seeing the dividends of a well-run economy. When the two things come together, great things can be achieved. Chairman Jain and President Shirley pointed out the financial underpinnings of this, but it may have passed you without recognition.
The Port Authority is going to undertake the development turnkey of 50 acres of the 700 acres of land here. How are they going to do this? They’re going to divest themselves of certain operations that they have through our local stock market and other means, and the resources from that will be used to largely finance the development here. Some people might say, but this is not a port operation. My friends, this is exactly a port operation because the port, it is not only where the land meets the sea and the ships can dock. You can have a million ships coming here, but if they’re not being filled up after they have unloaded, you have lost half of the potential of your port.
So, you need activities around the port, not just to receive the containers, meaning we’re an importing nation, but we also need activities that we’re going to put back on those ships that will give us the money to pay for the things we are importing. See the connection? With a good economy, the Port Authority would be able to raise the financing by divesting itself of certain assets that it has and then use those financing to create a new set of assets which will help its balance sheet grow, but more than that, helps the nation to grow.
Today’s event to break ground and commence the construction of the Caymanas Special Economic Zone marks a defining moment in the continued transformation of Jamaica’s economic landscape. It has long been the ambition of the country to put all the pieces together to launch a new engine of growth in logistics and shipping. When I assumed the office in 2016, I laid out a vision for the development of Jamaica into a leading shipping and logistics centre, not just in the region, but in the world.
I articulated a vision and the accompanying strategy for its implementation organized into three phases. Phase one: the upgrading of Kingston terminals, and that first phase focused on investing in the public terminals in Kingston. With global developments including the Panama Canal expansion, it became essential for Kingston to accommodate larger post-Panamax vessels.
To this end, my administration authorized a 30-year concession agreement between the Port Authority and CMA CGM. Over us $400 million was invested in the Kingston Harbour over five years. This included dredging the access channel, rebuilding Gordon Cay, installing new terminal equipment, upgrading computer systems and implementing a new security framework.
The result, a modern terminal with a certified capacity of 3.2 million 20-foot equivalent tons or TEUs as they’re called. Cargo volumes have grown year over year since the initial round of investment was completed in 2020 surpassing 60% growth by 2025. Even amidst global disruptions like tariff wars, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in the Ukraine and Middle East instability, our port has grown.
This consistent growth highlighted the need for further expansion ushering in phase two of the vision. And Tony, you will know what phase two is because we have had the discussion as to what it is that we plan to do. Two weeks ago, I presided over the signing of a lease agreement between the Port Authority of Jamaica and CMA CGM for the Westlands immediately adjacent to the terminal and that is a US$80 million investment to develop 15 hectares with the further intention to develop another 15 hectares when this first 15 is completed.
Additionally, I have announced in parliament our decision to relocate Tinson Pen aeronautical operations to the Norman Manley International Airport and the rerouting of the existing Marcus Garvey Drive to the north of Tinson Pen releasing lands for incorporation into the port operations. This will ensure that the Port of Kingston can expand without any constraint. And believe me when I tell you, I have been on the tallest crane in the Port of Kingston and for a man in my position, I should not be afraid of heights, but it was a bit concerning standing at that height looking at the growth of the Kingston terminal.
And when they explained to me the constraints that they have, because now they’re receiving the largest ships in the world, they’re receiving the post-Panamax vessels and when one of those containers are offloaded, it will create significant congestion on the existing facility, and therefore we have to go to the Westlands but I guarantee you that within five years, the first phase of the Westlands will be taken up. And then when we do the second phase of the Westlands, you can just write that off, that’s gone already and therefore, we have to start planning to incorporate the Tinson Pen lands to ensure that our port can expand without any future restrictions.
That is the plan, but it is not just port operations that we have to consider in those areas, the entire Kingston Harbour is going to see a surge in port and shipping related investments because already we are seeing private investments in a maritime ecosystem in and around that area. We’re seeing increased investments in tug services, in bunkering, and in dry dock and vessel repairs.
In fact, we have our first ship repair facility in Jamaica, the German Ship Repair, which is doing quite well and that is going to, by itself, attract even more shipping into the harbour. So, the dream of Jamaica becoming a shipping and logistics hub is moving even closer now to being a reality, and that is because of strategic, instrumental actions of the government and also the great signs that our economy has shown to foreign investors to come in and put stake in Jamaica’s economy.
Now, we have to look at the third phase of the development of Jamaica as a logistics hub. So, today we commence the third stage, the Caymanas Special Economic Zone where logistics infrastructure will complement our world class transshipment port. With this Jamaica will transition from transshipment to becoming a fully-fledged logistics hub for the region and beyond.
In November, I announced our national pivot to growth signalling that we have achieved our objective of restoring macroeconomic stability and that our national economic strategy would now transition towards leveraging that macroeconomic stability to achieve robust levels of economic growth. I laid out our growth strategy with the call ASPIRE. The Caymanas Special Economic Zone is a key component of that national growth strategy and will impact virtually all pillars of ASPIRE
The A in ASPIRE, that is access to economic opportunity for all. The development of the Caymanas Special Economic Zone will generate thousands of new jobs, skilled and semi-skilled in logistics, manufacturing, quality assurance, tech services, pharmaceutical services, all kinds including engineering services. It will provide new career pathways for young Jamaicans, especially in Kingston, Portmore and St Catherine ensuring inclusive growth across all of these urban centres.
Friends, there is a view which is that whenever the government speaks about economic growth, it is only limited to some people. We have been accused of practicing trickledown economics and that is primarily because when we communicate, we emphasize we want to grow the economy. And persons listening will say, I see all the buildings going up, I see the new crane, but what is in it for me, how does my household grow as a result of the economy growing?
Because remember now our history has always been a history of dispossession so there is never the assumption that when the government speaks about growth, you can take it automatically that the government is also speaking about the growth of your household. And so we have been at pains to declare that when we say growth, we are talking about inclusive growth, that you have a stake in the growth of the country and you will share in the growth of the country and the fairest way to ensure that you participate in the growth is to ensure that you get employment and a good income.
There are other ways in which we ensure that Jamaicans participate in the growth. We do that through the provision of a social safety net, whether it is the PATH Programme, or what we call the Social Pension, or through the Solidarity Programme, or as you will see, through HEART training our youngsters to ensure that they can participate in the growth. So, the Partnership for Prosperity is the government will run the economy well. We will bring in private investment where public investment is not sufficient or not possible. We will work together to create industry and enterprise, and we will ensure that all our Jamaicans can participate in industry and enterprise through fair, meaningful, and rewarding employment, and that is the partnership for prosperity.
What we’re going to do here will create tens of thousands of jobs and every Jamaican who will be a part of this will be able to share in the growth and prosperity that this will deliver. The S in ASPIRE stands for safety and security. The development of the Caymanas Special Economic Zone will incorporate advanced security infrastructure and integrated law enforcement coordination to ensure a safe and orderly operating environment, embracing modern surveillance, controlled access, and digital monitoring from the outset. The zone will set new standards for secure business operations.
Moreover, the project will contribute to national security by creating economic alternatives to crime especially for at risk youth in surrounding communities, reinforcing the principle that safety and opportunity goes hand in hand. But I have a statement which I must make here as I made a few weeks ago when I opened a similar operation to this by the UDC called the Rain Tree Development. And at the Raintree Development as I did when I broke ground for the Spanish Town Hospital wing that is being built, I pointed out that no government expenditure will fund any criminal.
I am speaking straight into the camera, speaking to any of them watching. You will not get a dollar from this project if you are involved in a criminal gang or a criminal operation. In Raintree, after we broke ground, some very bold criminals went onto the site and believed that I was not serious when I was speaking. There is no smile on my face now. Don’t try it here. Those criminals who went onto the site at Raintree were properly met. And if you try it here, you will be worse properly met.
The third letter in the ASPIRE is P. The Caymanas Special Economic Zone will be a catalyst for workforce transformation driving demand for new and emerging skills set across multiple industries through partnership with the HEART Trust, local universities and technical institutions. We will equip Jamaicans with globally competitive skills in areas such as supply chain management, digital logistics, precision manufacturing, and equipment maintenance. The investment in human capital ensures that our people are not just participant in growth, but leaders in innovation and productivity.
The I in ASPIRE is for infrastructure and the special economic zone underpinned by strategic infrastructure investment, modern port facilities, road network, utility services, and digital systems; this will be upon its completion, the most modern, in terms of its infrastructure, special economic zone within the Caribbean region.
We will have to raise the site maybe about my height. Not all areas, but in areas that are prone to any kind of weather events and for strategic reasons too, for access purposes and so forth. We may have to do some amount of river training along the site and there are other considerations as well. We’re going to go underground with all our cabling so you will have a seamless view within the area, which will help with resilience in terms of hurricanes and so forth. And all the architecture will be very modern architecture using all the various environmental standards but what I like about it, is that we will also have a micro renewable grid in the development so we will be able to supply our own production with electricity.
The R in ASPIRE is for the reform of public bureaucracy, meaning improving the ease and speed of doing business. The Caymanas Special economic zone will serve as a model for streamlined business facilitation in Jamaica. It will be supported by a single window clearance system, faster permitting process, and dedicated regulatory services designed to reduce red tape and enhance investor confidence.
Now, I’m not saying that we’re going to give this economic zone any super special treatment, but let’s be clear, efficiency and the speed and ease of doing business is as attractive an incentive as tax relief. When a businessperson sits down and says, what is the cost of regulatory compliance relative to what is the benefit of a fiscal incentive? Oftentimes, the cost of regulatory compliance is higher than any fiscal incentive that a government could give, because oftentimes fiscal incentives come with a sunset.
Regulatory compliance is forever unless you get a government like ours, which is really serious about reducing the very dense and difficult regulatory environment that exists and becoming even more bureaucratic. That strong position that we have to reduce the cost of compliance, the cost of regulation, not just to businesses, but to citizens; we are very serious about that, and you would’ve seen us take some steps.
The public may not see it in the light, but that’s what it is. The steps that we have taken as it relates to the introduction of digital registration and fitness and the new rules around fitness; all that is structured to do is to make it easier for our citizens. And we’re looking at all regulations of the government, and as soon as we can where they are possible without creating confusion, we’re going to reform them so that government does not become a burden on the citizen, that’s the whole intention. We don’t want government to be a burden on the citizen, and we don’t want government to be a burden on businesses so that’s part of the growth agenda.
Of course, the E is for economic diversification, and this is what we’re doing here. We are providing a new we opportunity for new industries to emerge to create another stream of foreign exchange into our country that diversifies our dependence on tourism, remittances, agriculture, and financial services.
The Port Authority of Jamaica has been given a clear mandate to deliver this development within the shortest possible time. I’m confident in their ability to deliver as they have done consistently in the past, most notably the expansion and the concession of the Kingston Container Terminal. Now at the same time, we must confront an emerging challenge, Jamaica is now experiencing a historic low unemployment rate of just 3.3%, the lowest ever recorded.
So, while this is a clear sign of a strong and expanding economy, it also means that the pool of available skilled labour is tightening, particularly in technical and logistics related fields. Jamaica is practically at full employment and for this project to be successful, it’s not just the infrastructure that we are bragging about, it’s not the financial support that it will have, it is the people who will work here. Where are they going to come from? You can’t be in a situation where we’re going to take from the Raintree which is just down the road and is being developed, or there’s another private special economic zone which is coming up. Or are we going to take from tourism? That’s not what we want to do. We have to be strategic and instrumental in preparing the labour force to match the expansion in the economy.
As I travel Jamaica, I still see young and able-bodied persons not formally in the workforce or attached to education or any meaningful or productive activity. STATIN estimates that there are about 50,000 such persons. Essentially, that 3.3% unemployment amounts to about 50,000 Jamaicans.
Now, in any economy, you will always have a certain number of persons, even at full employment, not working and that’s because of the frictional nature of economic activities. Many of you here would have been in two or three jobs, meaning that you started out in one job and then you say I didn’t like it, so I leave that job and I went to another job, or I got a better offer but in between the time you are moving between jobs, you are unemployed, and if the survey is done and they pick you up, then you’re unemployed. But you are not unemployed because there’s no job. You’re not unemployed because there is no skill. You’re just moving between jobs so the normal operations of the economy will throw up certain level of unemployment.
I’m not concerned about that level but within the 50,000 persons seeking employment and are of the requisite age, we estimate that there are about 20 to 25,000 who are unemployed because they do not have any skills. They are a loss to our economy, and we have tasked HEART to find these 25,000. Go out into the communities, put on your training fairs, have specific agents out there doing your reconnaissance and surveillance, and finding these youngsters. Get them into your training programmes. Offer them stipends and bus fare and lunch money. But more than that, what they need, they need mentoring because oftentimes they simply do not know about the opportunities that exist. They exist on the periphery of the system, and they are skeptical of the system, and they don’t believe that the system is set up for them.
Today, I appeal to the young man and the young woman on the corner who is wanting a job but don’t know where a job is or may I have gone for a job interview and was not successful and then leaves with the opinion that there is no space for them in this growing economy. I need you. Your country needs you. Your economy needs you. The Caymanas Special Economic Zone needs you. You are a critical element in the growth of this country and this administration through the HEART Trust/ NSTA, we will find you. We will support you. We will assist you in getting trained and getting employed so that you can claim your share in the prosperity that Jamaica is experiencing.
But there will also come a time when we will have to develop flexible fit for purpose work permit and residency regimes. One that facilitates the timely engagement of specialized foreign expertise where needed, but with robust safeguards to protect Jamaican interests. These safeguards must include minimum local hiring thresholds, mandatory training and knowledge transfer, in particular knowledge transfer and this must be done in partnership with institutions such as the HEART Trust/ NSTA to rapidly scale up our local capacity. In this way, we can address short term labour constraints while ensuring that the long-term benefits of growth are anchored in Jamaican talent.
Now, Chairman Jain mentioned that Jamaica is in a special place. The British discovered this by accident. You know that they wanted Cuba, and they weren’t successful there, so they came to a lesser defended colony, and they eventually set up in Port Royal. Now, history will show that most of the ships in the Caribbean Sea going from Colombia coming all the way up were sunken by pirates sailing from Port Royal. It might surprise you that pirates from Port Royal even invaded and overtook Panama.
Why? Because as Chairman Jain pointed out, our location is central and all logical shipping routes must pass through our waters. So, while we have not yet discovered oil or natural gas, we can use our natural God-given position as an economic asset, and in fact, that is what logistics is all about. And so now we are finally doing that, taking advantage of our God-given natural asset, not to plunder bullion from ships carrying cargo of gold and other things to Europe, but this time to get them to come to our port to offload, to break bulk, to send elsewhere, but to service their needs and to take what we produce here to the rest of the world.
That is what logistics is all about and that is why logistics make sense for Jamaica but if you don’t build the logistics facilities, they won’t come and that is why the government of the day has to show that we have confidence in our own natural God-given assets to invest in it. And that is what we are doing here today, and that’s why we have called all of you here to show you what we intend to do, and not just to share with you now a dream, but to share with you the vision.
This is not one of those groundbreakings that you start and then nothing happens. Work will begin immediately after we have done this. In fact, work has already begun. The work that it takes to get here is phenomenal. Securing the land, we’re now into design phase; all of those are part of the construction. We are now well on our way and for those of you who are still disbelieving, I recall like it was yesterday when we had a similar ceremony at an abandoned factory that people said it would never happen, and now today when you pass by the Goodyear Factory, it is an entirely new urban centre.
This is the most recent purpose-built, I call it an urban centre, but it’s really a town that the government of Jamaica has built. Many of you may not know this, but the last town that the Government of Jamaica built is in St Elizabeth in a place called Louisville. How many of you know Louisville?
Louisville was built to replace another town which was flooded out in New Market in St Elizabeth and that was in the late 70s, early 80s. You should take a visit and see Louisville today, but what we have built here is far superior and it is the model and benchmark for new urban centres. This will become the model and benchmark for new special economic zone facilities, and this is just the start of even greater things to come.
Ladies and gentlemen, you have been a wonderful audience. God bless you. Thank you. And always remember, choose Jamaica.