The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) is suggesting that the Downtown Kingston Redevelopment Project will have limited success if crime and indiscipline are not curtailed.
Focusing on the issue of indiscipline, Chief Executive Officer of the JCC Trevor Fearon says informal sellers have taken over the streets and sidewalks.
Fearon who was speaking at the RJR News Forum this week said businesses have been complaining that, as a result, they have been losing revenue.
He says the businesses have been calling for a more concerted action to deal with the problems.
According to him, if this is not done, the commercial centre will continue to be stifled.
“So on the one hand, legitimate businesses that have been in these areas for a long time, have found that they cannot do business as the streets have all been taken over by imformal sellers. This adds to the inability to police properly…..” Fearon said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and several agencies of the United Nations are to to join Digicel in setting up offices in downtown, Kingston, while Grace Kennedy is building a new corporate headquarters on the waterfront as part of the redevelopment project.
Meanwhile, President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Larry Watson says a comprehensive plan has to be followed to ensure the success of the redevelopment project.
“That plan will only become a reality when there is profit in it and when we take the profit out of crime,” he said.
.jpg)
All feeds
