Jamaican Government News

Jamaica signed a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with Kuwait that will encourage and guide future investments into the Caribbean country. The agreement signed between Anthony Hylton, Jamaican Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce and Kuwaiti Minister of Finance, His Excellency Mustafa Al-Shemali, is part of a broader high-level Ministerial Trade Mission to the Middle East Gulf States of Kuwait, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It forms a crucial part of the Government of Jamaica’s push to create Jamaica into one of the world’s top four logistics centers.

Cutting the metaphorical ribbon for the official opening of the JSR’s new office in , Hon. L. Michael Henry, CD, MP and Jamaican Minister of Transport and Works, paid tribute to ’s position as a leader in the shipping world saying its maritime cluster embraces just about every sector of this multi‐faceted and diverse industry.  He also used the occasion to outline the Jamaican government’s plans to create the island into a global maritime centre incorporating ship registration, ship finance, shipmanagement, shipbroking, ship and container repair as well as bunkering, surveying and marine insurance.

Jamaica is seeking investors for its oil and gas exploration and has planned a second round of roadshows overseas to market the country's oil and gas exploration potential in January, according to a report on www.jamaicaobserver.com. This will be the second overseas marketing initiative of the Government, and will be conducted under the auspices of the state-owned energy company, the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ). In this round, the PCJ hopes to sell exploration licenses for the remaining 13 of 20 oil exploration blocks that make up Jamaica's prospectable area. At these roadshows, investors are introduced to information about Jamaica's oil and gas potential…

Managers of Jamaica's delayed Port Royal Development Project expect to begin construction by year-end on a cruise ship pier central to the restoration of the one-time "wickedest city on earth." Originally dubbed the Millennium Plan, it was to have been ready to receive cruise ships in June 2000, but was thrown off target by logistic difficulties. Construction is now scheduled to begin in late 2000. The developers need to raise $60 million for the first phase of the project, which will include construction of restaurants, museums and shopping facilities on the Peninsular, near the Norman Manley International Airport. Phases two and three could take the cost up to $200 million.

Managers of Jamaica's delayed Port Royal Development Project expect to begin construction by year-end on a cruise ship pier central to the restoration of the one-time "wickedest city on earth." The Caribbean port earned the dubious distinction in the 17th century, when buccaneer Henry Morgan ruled the waves and made Port Royal his base. The infamy did not last long, as much of Port Royal disappeared under the sea in a massive earthquake in 1692. Another earthquake in 1907 did further damage, leaving only a small village at the end of Jamaica's Palisadoes Peninsular, just east of the capital Kingston. Originally dubbed the Millennium Plan, it was to have been ready to receive cruise ships in June 2000, but was thrown off target by logistic difficulties.