Susan Gordon, Staff Reporter
SILVA
THE PIÑERO Group's hotel project has not been stopped because it will cause environmental damage, says Ambassador of Spain, Jesus Silva.
Pinpointing that the Group's investment in Jamaica will add some 10,000 hotel rooms to the country's current stock of 21,000 and create 40,000 jobs, Mr. Silva said he disagreed with the groups which were trying to stop the development of the Bahia Principe Hotel on the basis that the construction would be harmful to the environment.
He said the Piñero Group, constructors of the Bahia Principe Hotel, has a long-standing record of receiving awards worldwide for its environmental awareness. In fact, Mr. Silva said no private group has ever funded an environmental project in Jamaica on the scale that the Piñero Group has.
Altogether, investments in Jamaica by Spanish investors is approaching US$1.5billion in total, Mr. Silva told the Financial Gleaner.
"The judge has not said that the project itself is causing any damage or threatening the environment. The ruling deals with procedures and not the project itself," Ambassador Silva said.
"The exact wording of the decision refers to procedural error in which some legal requirements were not dealt with appropriately by the relevant local authorities," he added.
ACTION TAKEN
Environmental groups namely the Jamaica Environmental Trust (JET), and the Northern Jamaica Conservation Association brought action against the National Environmental Planning Agency (NEPA) challenging its decision to grant a permit for Piñero Group to construct.
Last week, media reports stated that the Supreme Court under order of Judge Bryan Sykes gave a ruling that the construction of the Bahia Principe hotel would have been halted but that the judge granted a 21-day stay of his order.
Justice Sykes said he found that NEPA failed to consult with the relevant government departments and agencies and also failed to circulate the marine ecology report to the public according to law. The judge granted a declaration that NEPA breached its own standards of consultation because it withheld the marine ecology report and, therefore, caused the public to deliberate on a document that was not completed.
"What is amazing is that we as a third party are the most affected," said project manager for the Bahia project Jesus Castellanos who told the Financial Gleaner that 80 per cent of the project has been completed.
"There is nothing wrong with the environment. The problem is something maybe with the procedure inside the environmental agency," he reiterated. He said NEPA had not submitted all their requirements initially. When the Financial Gleaner contacted NEPA, public education and corporate communications officer Zadie Neufville said she would be in a better position to respond today.
"Based on the 53 page judgment handed down by Mr. Sykes, we want to see where the gaps are and submit additional evidence for our case" she said. She admitted that not all the government agencies were present at the trial.
Mr. Silva said the Pinero Group has made plans to have the indigenous turtle population of the area placed under the guardianship for a future tourists attraction, Furthermore he said much of the coastline would be enlarged and restored.
Mr. Castellanos said more than U$60 million have already been invested in the project which employs 2,500 workers, 90 per cent of which are Jamaican. He said the project is expected to be completed by November 1 this year if they are not stopped.
"I hope that the recent advent of higher fees and longer processing time for permits, leading to supplementary costs will not cause a damage to the country's image as competitive and a foreign -investment friendly as it was made clear when the Spanish investors were first invited," said Mr. Silva.
