Well-thinking Jamaicans are being encouraged to play their part in stemming lawlessness across the country.
Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, who made the appeal, said this is imperative, as crime and violence are making the job of marketing Jamaica as an ideal visitor and investment destination a difficult one.
“This confidence that we are seeing in business, is being deeply undermined by the antisocial behaviour of [some of] our people. It’s not an easy call for a tourism minister to market a destination with these issues. It’s not an easy call for an investment minister to bring investment in,” he pointed out.
Bartlett maintained that these challenges “are not foreign issues” but are generated locally.
“It is our [collective] responsibility, not one man’s responsibility, not an agency’s responsibility, not even a government’s responsibility …… it is our responsibility, brothers and sisters all, to stem this tide of lawlessness, insecurity, crime and instability that is facing us,” he underscored.
The minister was speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for a new US$100-million luxury mixed resort-style residential development, to be undertaken in Montego Bay, St James, on October 21.
Bartlett said an investment of this magnitude would be for naught, if the issue of crime and violence is not dealt with.
The project is a joint venture between C and H Property Development Company and MoneyMasters Real Estate and Infrastructure Investment Limited.
The partners have established Vista Montego Bay Resorts Development Limited as a special purpose vehicle for the project, phased construction of which will be undertaken over 48 months.
Phase one will include the development of 30 units, comprising one- and two-bedroom suites, lofts, and penthouses.
