NASSAU, The Bahamas — It may take another three months for the Government to decide how Norman Manley International Airport will be privatised.

“We hope to get Cabinet approval in the next two to three months regarding the transaction structure to start the public tender process,” said Denise Gallimore, manager public-private partnerships and privatisation at the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ).

The Government aims to have the airport, located in Kingston operate under a private management concession by 2014.

Earlier this year, Minister of Transport, Works and Housing, Omar Davies said that a 2004 capital development master plan will guide the process, as well as inform the capital development programme at the facility.

“This development will include the extension and widening of the runway and the establishment of runway end safety areas, all consistent with International Civil Aviation Organisation and Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority safety standards,” said Davies in a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) report.

So far, the DBJ — the country’s privatisation agency — has completed the business case, the second of four stages of the public-private partnership (PPP) development and implementation.

The case included checks on the economic, social and environmental viability of the project. It also served to determine if the project is best suited to be delivered as a PPP and if the model will create value for money.

If the project didn’t have those specifications, it would have been removed from the PPP list, said the Government of Jamaica Policy and Institutional Framework for the Implementation of Public Private Partnerships.

The purpose of the transaction stage is to promote competitive bidding by well qualified firms, so as to deliver value to the public.

Following the closing of the transaction, the PPP starts.

“This stage is where the Government needs to ensure that the promises in the contract are delivered, and that new events are responded to intelligently,” said the the PPP policy.

The process of privatising the assets of the government of Jamaica began in the early 1980s.

The privatisation of NMIA’s management will make it the second such undertaking by the Government, following the action taken at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.