Peter Bunting is convinced that Mandeville can become a business hub for central Jamaica and is urging the Government to support planned investments in health and education which, he says, will be critical if the town is to continue attracting investors.

Bunting made the appeal during his 2015-2016 State of the Constituency presentation in Parliament recently, as he pointed to the fact that Mandeville, which sits in his Manchester Central constituency, is seeing an influx of job seekers, many of whom are encouraged by opportunities in the booming business process outsourcing (BPO) sector and the reviving bauxite/alumina industry.

“As early as 2008, I articulated a vision for central Manchester to become a centre of excellence for the knowledge-based industries, and set about persuading stakeholders to buy into the vision. That vision was to be founded primarily on three sectors: ICT/BPO, education, and health care,” he pointed out.

“Central Manchester was well positioned to compete for investment in the business process outsourcing sector on account of its quality high schools ­— Northern Caribbean University, Church Teachers’ College and the Catholic College. The constituency had a ready pool of educated and trainable young people that could be employed across the value chain of the growing, knowledge-based industry,” Bunting said.

The background to the decision, he explained, arose from the collapse of the bauxite/alumina sector, long the main economic driver in the area, within a year or so after he became Member of Parliament in September 2007.

The experience, he said, forced him back to the drawing board to analyse the relative strengths of the available opportunities. The outcome was that a development consultant was engaged to “prepare a long-term constituency development plan and, following wide-ranging consultations with constituents ­— including the local business sector, with JAMPRO, and with financial institutions, it was determined that if there was to be life after bauxite/alumina, which in any event is a finite resource, it would best be in the services sector”, he stated.

The upshot was that a world leader in BPO, Sutherland Global, went to Mandeville and currently employs 1,300 people at various points of the BPO value chain, while supporting the studies of many of its recruits.

Bunting also said he recognised that having good health care services would be critical, therefore plans were put in motion to upgrade Mandeville Regional Hospital into a premier, Type A facility from its current Type B status, enabling the hospital to serve all of central Jamaica.

“We secured space for expansion through acquiring the old PWD (Public Works Department) building and adjacent lands, and I want to acknowledge the then minister, Dr Omar Davies, for facilitating the transfer of these lands,” the MP noted. He also commended the Opposition People’s National Party, of which he is a member, for committing to the upgrade in its 2011 manifesto.

“This will enable the hospital to increase the range of services offered, including diagnostic and surgical procedures now done only in Kingston, and to be more convenient for the residents of Mandeville and surrounding parishes. This hospital could also serve as a training facility for nurses,” Bunting pointed out.

Expanding on the educational achievements in the town, Bunting said it was based on the need to supply the knowledge-based industries in the constituency with a ready supply of educated and trainable employees who can be deployed at various levels. So, long-term success was contingent on continued investment in the educational infrastructure at all levels.

He said that in 2012, he and the parish’s councillors had a consultation with then Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites about the chronic overcrowding in the constituency’s schools.

“There had been a long-standing plan to build a new high school at a cost of $800 million, to accommodate 1,000 students. There were insufficient funds in the budget, so we all developed and agreed on a way forward that would achieve even more than what was planned and that would cost less,” he pointed out.

Among the achievements, he said, was the conversion of Belair High School, which was struggling financially as a private institution, to a grant-aided school. That, Bunting said, included the construction of 16 new classroom blocks; creation of 1,000 new, public secondary student spaces; the establishment of Mount St Joseph High School in partnership with the Catholic diocese; provision of another 1,000 classroom spaces for students from Manchester and central Jamaica; a new $76-million facility at Mandeville Primary School and doing away with the shift system there; as well as the building of six other new primary and basic schools overall.

Bunting noted that what was taking place in Manchester Central could not have happened without the innovation and support of various stakeholders, including Government, in transforming what could have been an economic basket case into a success.

“I believe that the approach that has worked in central Manchester can work in other parts of the country,” he said. “We will continue to be a driver of development in Central Jamaica; let us continue the march forward, together as one nation.”