The House of Representatives on Tuesday affirmed an order facilitating cooperation between the Jamaican Government and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in handling procurement for major infrastructure works.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, who piloted the Order (Public Procurement (Amendment of First Schedule) Order through the House, said that the Order will mean that Jamaica “will now be moving to another level, in terms of infrastructure procurement”.

“This is something for us to celebrate, as a country, that we are going to be opening up a market based process for the procurement of large scale infrastructure,” he told members.

The minister recalled that when he initially made the announcement that in terms of the Montego Bay Perimeter Road project, the Government would be financing it from its own resources, he also made a commitment that, “future major highways would go even further.”

“We would use an open, transparent and competitive process for the procurement of the construction services,” he added, noting that responses would be accommodated from contractors in any country.

He noted that Jamaica is already a shareholder of the IFC, which is a World Bank Group (WBG) operation, which has considerable experience in advising member governments on the development of infrastructure procurement processes through Public Private Partnerships (PPP), including major highways.

He said that, in the meantime, the Government, acting through the National Road Operating and Construction Company (NROCC) has identified the need for expansion, improvement and maintenance of four road segments: Mammee Bay-Salem, comprising 12.3 kilometres of flat terrain; Seacastles-Greenwood, comprising 6.8 kilometres of flat terrain; and Greenwood-Discovery Bay comprising 40.7 kilometres of undulating terrain.

He said that with the help of the IFC’s “vast knowledge of the system”, Jamaica will be able to go to the market and specify what it wants to procure, specifically, “and invite firms from around the world to make their proposals under the structure of the PPP arrangement with the ability to select the best bids that come forward”.

“It’s a great day in Jamaica when we actually get that done,” he said, pointing out that the project stands to be the largest government infrastructure project in Jamaica”.

He said that, at this stage, it looks as if it could be in the region of over US$600 million, or nearly J$100 billion, and will have a second phase that could take it to J$120 billion.

“But, we need the IFC’s advisory services to get us to the level that we can actually launch such a tender process and get serious interests from around the world,” he cautioned.

-Balford Henry