Adrian Frater, News Editor WESTERN BUREAU: MONTEGO BAY opened its door to a major investment for the second time in three weeks when ground was broken last Friday for the new US$850 million Iberostar Resort and Spa, a joint venture between Rose Hall Development Limited and the Spanish hotel chain Grupo Iberostar.
"Investment, particularly foreign investment, is of critical importance to us in Montego Bay," said Montego Bay's Mayor, Councillor Noel Donaldson, in welcoming the new entity to the western city. "This new development will add diversity to our tourist product and is in many respects an expression of the confidence in our city as the tourism capital of Jamaica."
INVESTOR FRIENDLY
In explaining the rationale behind the project, which will see construction taking place in three 18-month phases with the first 350 rooms slated to be completed by next winter, Spanish investor Don Miguel Fluxa, the chairman of Grupo Iberostar, said he found Jamaica to be investor friendly and was confident that Iberostar will be an integral part of the island's landscape.
"I am impressed by Jamaica's beauty and its investor friendliness," noted Mr. Fluxa, whose 70-year-old organisation operates in 23 countries and generates over US1.5 billion in annual revenue last year. "In tourism, the two most important things are having good people and a good product and I believe Jamaica has both."
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who hailed the new project as a positive investment, noted that in addition to providing approximately 1,000 jobs initially, the new development falls squarely into Jamaica's master plan for tourism, which is seeking to increase the room stock in the hotel sector by 12,000 rooms by 2005.
3,000 NEW ROOMS
"After considering all the factors, we set a target of 3,000 new rooms for the Montego Bay area, which has a rightful claim to be acknowledged as Jamaica's tourism capital," Mr. Patterson said. "We just broke ground for the first phase of this project, which will see the building of 1000 of the 3000 rooms."
As part of ensuring that Jamaica
provides the workforce that is needed, Mr. Fluxa said that Iberostar will be investing in the education of the
workers who will be employed to the company, as a means of ensuring the organisation has quality workers. According to him, "We plan to teach a man to fish, not to give him the fishes."
In signalling Jamaica's readiness to have properly trained workers to meet the new investment, Prime Minister Patterson said that the HEART/NTA has been mandated to prepare a 21st century workforce, which he said was a critical need if the nation is to forge a competitive advantage for our economy in industries such as tourism.
