KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – The business community in Spanish Town and other stakeholders in St Catherine are currently engaged in efforts to ensure that people in the parish are trained in order to qualify for the over 10,000 proposed jobs in the Spanish Town Free Zone.

The facility, the first phase of which is expected to be completed in June, is being made possible through a Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) US$350 million investment drive.

Read: JAMPRO facilitates US$350m free zone investment

The investment is a joint venture involving Gulfray Americas and China National Automotive Industry International Corporation.

President of the St Catherine Chamber of Commerce, Dennis Robotham, said his organisation, the St Catherine Parish Council, and the Social Development Commission (SDC) are partnering to sensitise the public on the employment potential of the investment, and to help training institutions focus on the skills needed to equip residents of the parish for the jobs.

“We are dealing with the schools, particularly the high schools (offering) vocational subjects, looking at manufacturing and the assembling of motor vehicles,” he told JIS News.

The Spanish Town Free Zone will include the refining and regeneration of petroleum products; manufacturing of composites and insulation of material; vehicle assembly; auto parts re-manufacturing and distribution; manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and nutraceutical products, as well as research and manufacturing of tobacco products.

Robotham added that with advanced work being done on the Caymanas Economic Zone, and a highway which links the parish to the major corridors of commerce in the country, Spanish Town and St Catherine will experience a much needed economic boost.

“We have the land space, and all the logistics to become one of the most viable towns and parishes in Jamaica,” he said, emphasising that investors are once again establishing businesses in the area, as crime continues to decline.