IT seems the battle of the beauty pageants is officially under way.

Within hours of the Miss Universe Jamaica organisers announcing their plans for this year’s contest, their Miss Jamaica World counterparts laid out plans for its 2013 pageant.

At the launch in St Andrew on Wednesday, new Miss Jamaica World franchise holder Laura Butler announced a raft of initiatives for the pageant which has seen three local representatives cop the international title — Carole Joan Crawford, 1963; Cindy Breakspeare, 1976 and Lisa Hanna in 1993.

Chief among them is a prize package worth $15 million. This includes a 2013 Suzuki Kizashi motorcar courtesy of Stewarts Auto Sales; a $5 million scholarship from the University College of the Caribbean and participation in the Miss World pageant which will be held in Indonesia on September 28.

It was also disclosed that the coronation, slated for July 21, will be held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James, a first for the local pageant which has always crowned its queen in Kingston.

According to Butler, this year’s competition is going for a level never seen in Jamaica.

“The finals has been in Kingston for so long that we wanted to give the show the level of production that it deserves. The Montego Bay Convention Centre is such a wonderful, under-utilised space that we wanted to take full advantage of.”

Eliminations to select the 20 finalists will be held on June 15. This year will also see the return of the county competition. Winners of the Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey contests will automatically make it into the finals.

In addition to being broadcast on local television, Miss Jamaica World 2013 will also be seen in 25 countries, courtesy of a partnership with cable station SportsMax.