PROVEN Properties Ltd Official Groundbreaking for Kingsway Gateway Warehouse Complex
Keynote Address
By
Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
At
PROVEN Properties Ltd Official Groundbreaking
for
Kingsway Gateway Warehouse Complex
On
April 11, 2025
______________________________________________________________
Thank you, Mr Master of Ceremony, for your efficient conduct of the proceedings so far. I’m sure everybody has been more than adequately acknowledged but allow me nevertheless to do the formalities and start with acknowledging my good friend, Mr Tony Hylton, the wanna be baby father for logistics.
But Tony is my good friend, and we share with no mean spiritedness or whatever because aside from being good friends, we are also neighbours. My constituency adjoins him, and I join with his comments in welcoming this development to the area because when we see these developments, the first thing that comes to our mind is that people in our constituency will be employed and so we are very, very happy for that. But in all fairness, acknowledgement must be given to Tony for being a visionary in this regard, regarding logistics and for being a consistent supporter in government and outside of government for logistics, so Tony is a credible spokesperson in these matters.
May I acknowledge Ambassador Askola, our ambassador from the European Union, one of our strongest development partners. Good to see you, Ambassador. I’m very happy to hear that you are going to be participating with the Shipping Association of Jamaica to do some developments within the Newport West area. And I know I see certain persons smiling when Newport West is mentioned because it is an area that has suffered from neglect; unfortunately, that is the case and it cannot be overlooked. The truth is that at one point in time, that area when it was being developed would’ve given the country as much hope as this development now is giving but with the passage of time, the infrastructure in that area degraded, and like the story for much of Jamaica as it relates to infrastructure, it was not maintained over a long period of time.
Tony and I, we have this debate back and forth in Parliament regarding a phenomenon which we call the orphan roads. Again, we go back to paternity. These are roads that are not on any particular gazette or register. They were built probably on development estates as was the case for Newport West, which was an industrial estate that was developed. The roads should have been turned over to the local authorities. There’s a dispute as to whether maybe mayor, you could inform me what the true position is, whether or not the KSAC owns those roads or not but nevertheless Newport West is a national asset, and the government has an interest in it and so we have directed the NWA to dedicate some resources along with the other partners in Newport West. I know that there is a group collaborating presently to work out the details of how the resources will be mobilized. So yes, for those persons here who have an interest in Newport West, there will be, if they haven’t started already, some movement towards the proper repair of the road infrastructure in that area, which would only complement the development of this area for logistics.
Let me again acknowledge His Worship, the Mayor, Andrew Swaby and other members of the Municipal Corporation who may be here.
Mr Christopher Nakash of Proven Properties
Mr Kim Clarke, Chairman of Kingston Gateway Warehouses and SAJE Logistics Infrastructure Limited.
I made a note of Aisha’s presentation, and in her presentation, she said that visions that are not actioned remain a dream. I thought it was very instructive. I don’t know if she was throwing words at Tony but thank you for those comments. You will see that I pay very keen attention to all the words said on the platform.
So, today it is with great pride and optimism that I stand before you today at this groundbreaking of what will soon become a landmark development, not just for Kingston but for the entire logistics and commercial ecosystem of Jamaica, the Kingston Gateway. And by the way, I like the name. Technically, you are right there, right at the gateway.
We take this project as a physical symbol of confidence in Jamaica’s growth trajectory, confidence in resilience and innovation of our private sector, and confidence in partnerships, public and private, that are shaping a modern, prosperous future for our country.
Let me first commend the vision of the Shipping Association of Jamaica and Logistics Infrastructure Limited, PROVEN Properties Limited. This joint venture stands as an exemplary model of what is possible when Jamaican businesses leverage their collective strength, marry logistics with real estate 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. It is about unlocking value, economic value, logistical value, and community value.
As was already stated, the project will comprise 21 units and it will have direct access to Marcus Garvey Drive and proximity to the Port of Kingston, a mere few minutes from the Norman Manley International Airport. This facility places its tenants at the very nerve center 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.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jamaica is in a new phase of its development. We are not where we were 10 years ago. The macroeconomic stability that we have fought hard to secure is now bearing fruit in the form of increased investor confidence, both local and foreign. Today, projects like Kingston Gateway are not exceptions. They are becoming the norm. And let me be clear, 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 through fiscal discipline, public sector modernization, resilience building, and now we are on the path towards the reduction of inefficiency and bureaucracy that is stifling growth. And I want to repeat that here to this gathering because when you hear these words, you can immediately identify with the challenges you face in your own business operations and we get the message, and believe me, every politician will tell you. Some won’t say it publicly, but when I just entered the Parliament, at the time I entered in opposition so it would’ve been a government member who was a minister, we were in the lunchroom and we were having a conversation and he was explaining how difficult his job was, that he had all of these great ideas, but he couldn’t get them executed because though he would be told yes, minister, it just didn’t happen. So, he was giving me some advice, and he was saying, you’re going to get there one day, which I eventually did, and you’re going to see that it is not for want of getting things done. It’s not for a lack of vision. It is that we have created a very dense and unyielding bureaucracy that is self-indulgent.
Ronald Reagan, in one of his speeches said that the creation of government bureaucracy is the closest thing to an eternal organism. Meaning that once you create it, it tends to proliferate and live forever on the government’s budget, and this is not to be disparaging to bureaucrats and technocrats. They themselves, who are in the forest, can only see the trees, but they don’t see what is actually created and every economy is facing this.
If you listen to Keir Starmer in the United Kingdom, it would be as if he were repeating the words that I had said when I launched the PIVOT. If you listen to, well, let me not say DOGE, but if you follow what is happening in the United States, it’s the same thing. 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 rethink bureaucracy and what it is meant to do. Bureaucracy is not a bad thing but in its present state and form, it poses a challenge to our growth, and we have to think about it even more as a small country because, like it or not, prepared or not, the world is changing. The global order is changing.
There are those who view it with great fear because there’s great uncertainty as to where it will land. There are those who want to maintain the status quo because it has served us well for the last 70 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. So whilst we look on with some fear, even trepidation of as to what may happen, we are also being prospecting and we’re looking for what opportunities that may present themselves so that means we must put ourselves in a position to withstand and absorb shocks but also be agile enough to move when the opportunities present themselves. And that is why it is so critical that we have a bureaucracy, meaning the mobilization of public resources for regulation and administration to be able to respond swiftly when opportunities present themselves and that is the next phase of the change that we will bring to Jamaica.
Let’s be realistic, Jamaica wants to be a logistics hub. Tony had this notion that we are going to be the fourth node in the global logistics hub, and it is a dream I share. It is a vision that I’m trying to bring to reality. I’m a good godfather to this as I am to many other projects in terms of being at the helm and bringing them to fruition. Things that have been dreamed of and thought of it has been my honour, actually, to bring them to fruition primarily because I took the advice of that minister who, by the way, passed away a few days ago. I believe it was yesterday, Errol Ennis.
We have said we want to be the fourth node in the Global Logistics Network. Now, everything in economics in a sense it’s about arbitrage and when countries decide that I’m going to move up the production ladder and I’m going take on more technology-driven and higher-value services, I can pass on the production of lower-value services because there’s a labour arbitrage, lower price. And I can pass on more complicated and challenging production to other areas because there is a regulatory arbitrage. I’m not going to go into details with that. Those of you who understand what I’m saying, you’ll figure it out, and so the global production system is structured in that companies are looking for areas where their costs can go down, where the regulation is not so difficult and the production value is high.
If Jamaica wants to participate in this, we must not only have the labour component as our productive edge and our competitive edge, but we must also have a regulatory environment that is a competitive edge for business. As I said, I’m not going into too much detail, but the people who applaud, they get it. They understand what I’m saying, which is why it is so critical to reform the public bureaucracy that we have. You can’t talk about becoming a 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-oriented instead of process-oriented, it’s critical.
Tony, this infrastructure is important to logistics, but if we are going to be really serious players, we have to remove the obstacles that dull our competitive edge. So the ease and speed of doing business dulls our competitive edge because just up the road, the Dominican Republic is almost equally positioned as Jamaica with a market that is two or three times the size of Jamaica with a greater landmass and they too recognize that bureaucracy is a problem and they’re working overtime to reduce their bureaucracy so don’t believe that we are the only ones in the region. We must do it. It is an absolute imperative.
I just wanted to say, Tony, that you are correct. Both political parties believe that Jamaica can be a critical node in the global logistics system, but we have to work assiduously now to do what is necessary to ensure that we can actually fulfill that dream and there are several things. The first is to give the investors who will come here the confidence that the economy is stable, and I believe we can check that box.
The second thing is to give the investors who will come here the confidence that the politics is stable, that they don’t have a political risk, and I think that we can also check that box.
The third thing is to establish a part of the regulatory system, which is the incentive system, and I believe we can say we are 90% there with the establishment of the Omnibus legislation and the special economic zone system, so we can check that box.
The fourth thing is the infrastructure. I’m gonna break up infrastructure into two parts, one is the public infrastructure. If I decide to operate in Jamaica, can I be guaranteed of a high uptime in electricity and water? And can I move from the port to my near port locations quickly, and is there enough security there? I think we are more than 50% of the way there, and we are improving every day. Certainly, the highways that we have put in makes a tremendous difference.
The other part of the infrastructure would be the actual port and logistics-related infrastructure. For example, do you have enough space on your ports to clear the containers? What’s the throughput time on your port? How fast is the port moving? I think that what we have done with the divestment of the Port of Kingston and the investments that the concession operator has made, we are more than 50% of the way there, but we are still constrained and I’m happy to see Professor Shirley is here from the Port Authority and we have done some great visioning. It’s time to implement, which is to actually get the Westlands into operation to expand the port. There is a plan to kind of shift Marcus Garvey Drive and have a merger with the existing Spanish Town Road and to take up those. What I’m saying is that people who understand it will immediately get it.
It’s difficult to say these things by just throwing them out because somebody’s going to pick it up and somebody’s going to make an uninformed criticism and then you end up in an argument and the public gets confused without actually knowing, because these kinds of things require deeper explanation as to why we have to do them, which is usually the case when we start to have these kinds of conversations. But it’s important to be said, particularly to this audience, that we recognize that if we’re going to be serious, we’re going to have to expand the act, particularly the near shore and near port operations of the port and we need more land in order to do that. We have a plan for the Westlands and we also have to look at what we’re gonna do with Tinson Pen and the lands between Spanish Town Road and Marcus Garvey Drive, which we’re gonna have to address.
And then there are other issues, of course, telecommunications and cybersecurity. All of those things are critically important and then we have to look at what are our special trade arrangements, what are the special provisions that we have with major trading partners and so Jamaica has to make sure that it is in a position to negotiate the best deals for itself and indeed as we are an important part of CARICOM for CARICOM.
We are very serious about making Jamaica the fourth node in the logistics hub and as you can see, we are working on all of the critical areas. One area of infrastructure that I wanted to point out, I was reluctant in doing it because it is really PROVEN and SAJE’s day, but I think I can say it. Very shortly, the Port Authority, which I announced in my budget presentation, will be breaking ground for the long-talked-about Caymanas Special Economic Zone. It’s a large project. We’ve been talking about it now for more than 10 years, Tony. We have done a World Bank study on it, all kinds of initiatives; it has not happened. The Port Authority has been tasked to de-risk the project, and to take on the development risk for the project and to develop the first 50 acres of the project and to find an anchor tenant. Jamaica will have its first true special economic zone. And Prof, my diary says that it is within the next two months. I’m giving you two months, but I know it’ll be before two months that we will be able to break ground.
Additionally, just across the road, the UDC in another couple of days’ time, will be breaking ground for another massive project. It won’t necessarily be a special economic zone but the people who purchased lands there could probably seek to have their own SEZ certification and that project is going to add significant warehouse capacity to Jamaica, over 40 lots, I gather, averaging about an acre or a little bit more than that will be up for purchase.
So, the government is doing its part in creating the real estate capacity to support special economic zones. I also mentioned that for the Caymanas special economic zone, we’re considering a direct link to the port, which would avoid even though the highway is there, and the roadway is there. Many years ago, we laid a train line, which runs very close to the port and passes the Caymanas lands and so we are going to consider how we can rehabilitate that and create a direct link into the port, especially if we were to connect the Port of Kingston across Marcus Garvey Drive and into the Tinson Pen field lands.
There are many things that the government is doing, and I want to give you the assurance, Tony and others, that we have made significant advances. And with the global uncertainties regarding tariffs and all the other issues that would make us very concerned about what the new global order is, Jamaica is putting itself in a position to both meet crisis and opportunity, and that is how as a small country, we will nimbly survive the challenges that we are faced with. In everything, I believe in choosing Jamaica. I urge all of you here to make that choice to choose Jamaica.
God bless you and again, congratulations to the developers, SAJE and PROVEN and of course, commendations to First Global for financing. God bless you all and thank you.