Monique Hepburn, Staff Reporter
Kingsley Thomas (right), chairman of the National Housing Trust and a director of Harmonisation Limited, makes a point during the Gleaner Editors' Forum in Falmouth yesterday. Fay Pickersgill, consultant on the Falmouth Redevelopment Project, looks on. - PHOTO BY ADRIAN FRATER
WESTERN BUREAU:
KINGSLEY THOMAS, chairman of the National Housing Trust, is dismissing the late scurry by sugar interests to head off the European Union's (E.U.) bid to end preferential treatment to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, contending that Jamaica was warned from as early as 1996 of the impending situation.
At the same time, a spokesman for the Trelawny community is proposing the replacement of the sugar industry in the parish with tourism, drawing on the example of Cuba.
"We have to face reality. We were warned from way before 1996 of what is coming now," said Mr. Thomas, while speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum held at the Glistening Waters Restaurant in Falmouth yesterday. The forum was held to examine the status of the numerous development projects taking place in the parish such as Harmony Cove, Greenfield Stadium and the restoration of Falmouth.
"We were given the mandate to try to reduce our production costs per tonne which would put us in a competitive position," said Mr. Thomas, who is also a director of Harmonisation Limited, developers of the multibillion-dollar-Harmony Cove Resort in Trelawny.
The parish boasts two major sugar factories, Long Pond and Hampden, which could be adversely affected by the proposed 39 per cent cut in the price of sugar sold into the European market.
"If we were committed to doing the critical things in terms of management, labour and practices, which we did not do, we could scream till thy kingdom come but the E.U. warned us. Certain critical things were not done," said Mr. Thomas.
LACK OF COMMITMENT
He added that there was a general lack of commitment to efficiency on the part of the players in the industry. Agreeing with Mr. Thomas, Chairman of the Southern Trelawny Environmental Agency, (STEA) Hugh Dixon, said workers in the sugar industry were ignorant of the shifts in world trade that were endangering there livelihood. He said sugar workers believed their unions could save them.
According to Mr. Dixon, the sugar industry can be absorbed into other sectors should there be a fallout. He noted that the phased conversion of cane- producing lands could begin as soon as possible.
"Cane lands need to be considered for alternative crops ..." said Mr. Dixon. "I think we have the brain power here and we need to begin to look at the alternatives. There is a the need to look at the size of the workforce as well and what localised training programmes are required."
He cited Cuba, which depended on sugar, but with the turn of fortunes of the former Soviet Union, converted its economy into primarily tourism within 10 years, using an educated population.
