The Editor, Sir:

The words of Michael Archer, the president of the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association, must be taken seriously and acted upon. He suggested that the construction of 20,000 affordable houses between Ocho Rios and Westmoreland by Government would ensure the reduction of the squatter communities now becoming a feature of urban life in modern Jamaica.

Many Jamaicans will not recognise that Mr. Archer is regarded as a highly respected professional of international standing. On a visit to South Africa in 2000, I met a highly placed individual who worked with an international agency. When this person realised that I was a Jamaican, he asked me if I knew Mr. Archer, whom he described as a phenomenal person who had made a great contibution to various development projects in South Africa. He had made such an impression that they wished that he would remain there.

We have expertise in the country and overseas which we are ignoring to our peril. We have to balance the development in the hospitality infrastrucure with the development of the social infrastruture. I realise that some of the same mistakes made in the past are being made in the present and the results will continue to be disastrous. Dr. Pauline McHardy, another Jamaican who is highly regarded overseas, bemoaned the inadequacy of the planning process in a recent report.

A Barbadian academic recently raised a related issue at a conference on human resource management; it was the building and construction workforce coming out of China and working in the region. It is necessary for appropriate regional and national policies to be devised to ensure that the competition with this workforce is fair.

We need to have the most skilled and knowledgeable people working to ensure that our nation and region have the best chances of survival.

We need to listen and benefit from their experiences overseas, we need to discuss these matters outside of the poisoned partisan platform.

I am, etc.,

HILARY HICKLING

hilary.hickling@gmail.com