Following his trip to India, PM Andrew Holness says he aims to leverage partnerships with the Indian Institute of Technology and HEART/NSTA Trust to develop high-tech skills in Portmore's workforce. The initiative will focus on knowledge services like programming and software testing, alongside plans for infrastructure development and 15,000 new homes. Holness sees Portmore as Jamaica's future tech centre, driving regional innovation and job creation.

Portmore set to become Jamaica’s ‘Silicon Valley’ amid push for parish status

Jamaica Gleaner/28 Oct 2024/Ruddy Mathison/gleaner Writer editorial@gleanerjm.com

PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness has announced ambitious plans to transform Portmore, St Catherine, into the ‘Silicon Valley of Jamaica’ and a key technology hub for the Caribbean.

This comes alongside his renewed efforts to secure parish status for the growing city, marking a significant step towards regional innovation and job creation in digital industries.

Speaking during a political meeting at the HEART Academy in Portmore recently, Holness outlined plans to leverage the area’s young workforce and existing strengths in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector to create a modern technological ecosystem.

“We are going to make Portmore the Silicon Valley of Jamaica; we are going to make Portmore the city parish; and we are going to make Portmore the technological hub of the Caribbean,” Holness declared to the gathering.

Portmore, currently designated as a city municipality in the parish of St Catherine, has seen rapid development since gaining its status in 2003, following years of advocacy from its citizens. With the highest population ratio of any Caribbean city, the municipality is well-positioned to host new technology ventures, according to Holness. His recent visit to India was pivotal in building this vision, establishing ties with the Indian Institute of Technology in partnership with HEART Trust/ NSTA, Jamaica’s vocational training institution, to support training in high-tech and Internet-based skills.

Holness emphasised that the initiative would move beyond traditional BPO work towards what he described as “knowledge services”. He envisions roles in programming, software testing, auditing, and other high-skill areas.

“We have moved away from the BPO concept a long time, so what we are going to create is called knowledge services,” Holness explained. “The people who write the programs, the people who check and correct the programs, who do the accounting, the people who do the auditing, those who carry out legal and paralegal services, and those who read medical records and charts – all this is a new industry.”

The prime minister also highlighted physical improvements to support the area’s growth, including a $925-million redevelopment of Grange Lane into a four-lane thoroughfare, along with the construction of 15,000 homes, 3,000 of which are already completed in the Bernard Lodge housing development.

However, not everyone shares the prime minister’s vision without reservations. Waterford Councillor Fenley Douglas, himself a Portmore resident, expressed concern about focusing solely on technology. While he supports the move towards digital advancement, he worries that the Government may overlook other vital elements necessary for balanced growth.

“The prime minister declaring that Portmore will be the next Silicon Valley sounds good and well, but I would advise the prime minister to be extremely cautious, because we who are living in

Portmore are seeing things in a much different way,” Douglas asserted.

DIVERSIFIED APPROACH

Douglas advocates for a diversified approach that includes commercial and industrial expansion, particularly along Portmore’s southeastern coastline and the untouched Hellshire coastline.

“There should be a multipronged approach to development,” he explained. “We have a very good coastline, so we should be speaking to entities that are in the assembly business. There are several car companies displaying their finished products in Jamaica; why can’t we be the country that assembles the doors, that fits the rim to the tire, makes the batteries, and so on?”

Douglas also raised concern about Portmore’s long-term viability, citing potential limitations in revenue from property taxes due to restricted land availability. With rapid housing expansion and limited land, he fears the cityparish may eventually face a “state of landlock”, leaving little room for further development.

“While the prime minister is big on housing solutions, he is not building the infrastructural network to keep up with the current housing buildout,” Douglas said. Traffic congestion, he noted, is a daily issue, with “traffic snarls reaching a bottleneck at major points”.

Douglas said the multimilliondollar redevelopment of Grange Lane will not solve the traffic problem, given that only the section in the Portmore leg is currently being redeveloped. According to him, the Spanish Town leg of Grange Lane that boasts some major housing developments is left untouched, so with the traffic coming out of the Bernard Lodge development there will be major congestion on the roads.

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