THE Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) could be in for a US$5-million windfall if it is able to win the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge 2016 for Latin Amercia and the Caribbean aimed at “generating bold new ideas that solve urban challenges and improve city life”.

Kingston Mayor Angela Brown Burke told Tuesday’s monthly council meeting that the KSAC, with the assistance of a number of government agencies, would be making a submission for the competition by the March 15, 2016 deadline.

She said that innovative, cutting edge solutions would be submitted for three of the major challenges facing the municipality — unemployment, maintaining public order and reducing crime.

“Even if we do not win the competition, we hope to create solutions in a bold way and have people invest in the ideas,” the mayor said.

Brown Burke said that Kingston’s designation by UNESCO as a Creative City of Music in December 2015 in Japan could be a useful aid to the submission for the mayors’ competition.

The agencies that have been mapping strategies in conjunction with the KSAC since February include Jampro, the Ministry of Tourism, Social Development Commission, the University of the West Indies, Planning Institute of Jamaica, Caribbean Maritime Institute, and the Jamaica Association of Reggae Artists.

According to the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge 2016 website, in order to be successful ideas have to be new or unexpected and allow the city to experiment with a different approach to solving a tough problem. They should solve major social or economic issues in the local area; improve customer service for citizens or businesses; create government efficiencies; or improve citizen engagement.

“Ideas must do one of these four things very well, but the best ideas will likely create impact in more than one area,” the guideline states.

In addition to the grand prize of US$5 million, four cities will win prizes of US$1 million “to bring their ideas to life”.

European cities which have in the past won prizes in the competition include Barcelona, Athens and Warsaw. Winning US cities have included Chicago and Houston.

The competition is organised by Bloomberg Philanthropies under the auspices of the former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.