JAMAICA on Thursday received a US$650,000 grant from the Japanese Government to improve infrastructure and amenities in several inner-city communities across the island.

The money was allocated under the Japanese Policy and Human Resources Development (PHRD) fund and will be used for the government’s Inner-City Basic Services for the Poor Project.

The project, which is being implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), will focus on improving access, use and quality of infrastructure, which includes the rehabilitation and construction of sanitation, drainage and water supply facilities, solid waste collection as well as lighting and rehabilitation of public space and recreation areas. In addition attention will be given to violence and crime reduction.

These activities, according to Minister of Finance Omar Davies, will embrace strong community participation to build social capital and forge trust.

Minister Davies, speaking at the signing ceremony at the Ministry of Finance in Kingston, said an assessment of infrastructure and public safety needs will be done in communities selected for the project.

The communities selected for the project include Whitfield Town, Dunkirk, Trench Town, Jones Town and Federal Gardens in Kingston and St Andrew; Tawes Pen, Africa, Detriot, Big Lane, Little Lane, Shelter Rock, Andrews Lane, Lauriston and Bog Walk in St Catherine; Bucknor/Rectory Lands in May Pen, Clarendon and Flankers in St James.

Meanwhile, Japanese Ambassador to Jamaica Hiroshi Sakurai said that it was with grave concern of a friend that Japan joined Jamaica in creating safer communities through his country’s official development assistance. He said the project underscores one of the basic facts of the world society, which states that it is only within the context of safer communities that a country can achieve prospering communities.

“Having been in this beautiful country for only a short time, I have come to understand that the issue of exclusion of inner-cities from the basic services and conditions afforded to the wider society is a cause for much concern,” he said. “It is, therefore, my opinion that the importance of this signing lies not in the stated objectives of the document but the spirit of its intention in regards to both social and economic inclusion.”

The project is expected to come on stream by March of next year. The diagnostic studies, however, are not expected to be completed until November.