ST JAMES, Jamaica (JIS) — Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Karl Samuda, has commended the European Union (EU) for its support to Jamaica through the Sugar Transformation Programme.

Samuda was speaking during a familiarisation tour of the Clarks Town Branch Library in Trelawny on November 2, accompanied by members of the European Union Delegation, including Head of Delegation, Ambassador Malgorzata Wasilewska.

“Everything that the European Union has sought to achieve for us has been absolutely transformational, and I want to thank them most sincerely,” the minister said.

The Clarks Town Library was built at a cost of $18 million under the Sugar Transformation Programme, in collaboration with the Jamaica Library Service, and was officially opened in 2015. The multipurpose facility comprises a computer room, research centre, meeting room, an office, lunch room and bathrooms.

The facility also offers other modern services, including free computer and Internet access, as well as adult literacy programmes, computer training and the High School Equivalency Diploma Programme, through the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning.

Turning to the issue of sugar production, Samuda said the ministry was working assiduously to facilitate operators of the Long Pond Sugar Factory in the community to ensure the facility becomes fully operational once again.

“As minister of Agriculture with responsibility for the sugar industry, I know what the Everglades Long Pond factory means to the community in terms of employment. I know what it means in terms of giving the community the opportunity to enjoy a better quality of life,” the minister said.

“So, we will be working as hard as possible to bring about a reopening of the factory, so that we are not only planting cane and reaping cane, and have to send it away to be milled. We will be able to mill it right here in Clarks Town at Long Pond,” he added.

In her address, Ambassador Wasilewska said the European Union is pleased to see the impact that the library is having on the deep-rural community.

“I congratulate you on the initiative, because it is nothing better than being able to fund something that comes from the community, and a library is always a special place in the life of a village or town,” she said.