JAMAICA-BUDGET-UWI principal to chair task force on logistics hub initiative

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaica government has named the Principal of the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Gordon Shirley, to head a National Task Force (NTF) that will coordinate the critical infrastructural and labour factors regarding the logistics hub initiative. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s government has said that the initiative, which is intended to have Jamaica take advantage of the increase in the movement of goods when the expanded Panama Canal opens in 2015, is a major plank of its overall growth strategy. The government says the logistics hub has the potential to attract approximately nine million US dollar in foreign direct investment (FDI) and Prime Minister Simpson Miller told legislators during debate on the 2013-14 national budget that Cabinet had approved the establishment of the NTF, which will coordinate the work needed to ensure that the country benefits from the project.