Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
GOLDING
If elected into government, Leader of the Opposition Bruce Golding says that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will revive a masterplan by his predecessor Edward Seaga to redevelop the city of Kingston, also to include Port Royal.
Reintegrating uptown St. Andrew and downtown Kingston would be the "redeeming of Kingston", Mr. Golding told the audience at the Port Royal Rotary Club at Morgans Harbour Hotel on Monday night.
He said the city had been abandoned by "uptowners" and with the end of manufacturing had also lost its economic base which has not been adequately replaced by the services and financial sector.
Cowardly act
Mr. Golding referred to the abandonment of downtown as "cowardly" and said that under the JLP all government ministries would be returned to the area. He referred to the recent regeneration of Harlem in New York, led in parts by the decision of former United States President Bill Clinton to locate his offices there.
"We are not going to be able to address the problems of the inner cities, the decaying inner cities ... the unemployment, the lack of income, the unavailability of services and so on unless we are able to create some new economic dynamic within the Corporate Area and it is something that I believe we need to tackle as a matter of urgency," said Mr. Golding, himself the Member of Parliament for the inner-city constituency of West Kingston.
Long term plan
He acknowledged Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's announcement of a six-month $635 million islandwide cleanup ahead of Cricket World Cup 2007. But arguing that something more long term was needed he questioned what would happen to the 12,000 jobs after the cleanup, when Mrs. Simpson Miller has said it will be reviewed.
In commissioning a masterplan upon an election victory he said the JLP would look to encourage private sector investment, also to stimulate light assembly manufacturing to take advantage of the increasing flow of goods from China which already use Kingston harbour as a transshipment point.
