The proposed logistics hub has, over the past months, occupied a huge proportion of media time in Jamaica and the Diaspora, and with good reason. According to the market intelligence report posted on www.theglobalmatters.com, “The construction of a platform to convert Jamaica into a global logistics hub is a cornerstone of the country’s long-term growth strategy. Jamaica’s location, with relation to east/west and north/south trade routes, positions it to leverage the expansion of the Panama Canal to become a centre for shipment and trans-shipment activity.” The webpage goes on to detail the scope of the project and the implicit benefits to Jamaica.

Without question, the success of this project could provide the fillip needed by the island to once and for all deliver the long-needed turnaround in our economic fortunes and change the trajectory of our current development path. If the governing People’s National Party (PNP) ever needed a miracle, this would be more than a bushel. Economically, it would serve to set us straight, and politically, it would set the PNP up as the proverbial Moses leading the children out of the biblical Egypt.

It is fair to say, therefore, that no Jamaican, regardless of political stripe, would wish for anything else other than the project meeting success. That notwithstanding, any well-thinking Jamaicans would be intimately aware that, among other things, Jamaica’s endemic corruption reputation wasn’t earned overnight, and as a consequence any announcement of a project with an US$8-billion price tag must attract tremendous attention.

That is why when Industry and Commerce Minister Anthony Hylton announced the decision to engage the services of Krauck Systems and Anchor Finance Group LLC to partner with the Government in funding and implementing the project it immediately sent US$5-billion worth of red flags swirling around our heads. That the minister would later discount the report of a globally known rating agency such as Dunn & Bradstreet, who raised serious questions over the companies’ ability to deliver such a project was even more worrisome. It made me wonder even more, why the minister would have announced such a project in the first place, as clearly there was nothing in place that merited announcing. Was this another of the minister’s grandstanding acts? Was this another attempt to suck in media air and to look good in the eyes of the prime minister and party leader?

It would be interesting to see the details of the report presented to Cabinet from the Professor Gordon Shirley-led National Logistics Council, which has highlighted serious problems in the deal. We await the presentation of those findings to the nation and what decision the honourable prime minister will take regarding Minister Anthony Hylton’s continued tenure as a member of the Cabinet and the minister with responsibility for the critical industry and commerce portfolio. Minister Hylton, to my mind, has virtually “shot his bolt” and, in the process, more than demonstrated his incapacity for such a crucial ministerial position which requires action rather than “pretty talk.”

richardhblackford@gmail.com