ST JAMES, Jamaica — Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has insisted that despite the continued development taking place in Jamaica, the country should not lose sight of its identity.

Speaking during a topping out ceremony for Tower One at the Pinnacle Development, he made it clear that Jamaica’s appeal lies not in mimicking other global destinations but in its irreplaceable uniqueness.

“You don’t want the tourists to come here and say, oh, I feel like I’m in Manhattan. Nobody is going to take a plane from Manhattan to come to Manhattan,” he said.

“You want to be in Jamaica, so you must preserve the things that make us distinctly Jamaican,” he insisted.

His comments come as Jamaica continues to transform as large-scale projects like the Pinnacle Towers come on stream.

However, he sought to explain that with Jamaica so highly dependent of tourism, they should ensure that they maintain that balance so as to maintain what Jamaica is despite the developments.

“Yes, we must improve and enhance the quality of our buildings, we must bring them into modern times. We must give great facades to them, we must bring them out of the sixties and fifties and build them forward and future-proof them and therefore, I endorse this, I admire this, I like this because it is projecting Jamaica into the future,” he said.

“But we are not going to leave behind the core of who we are, the natural assets that define us, but more importantly, distinguish us,” he declared.

He further indicated that another area of focus has been how to keep that fine balance with the protection of the environment with all these developments coming on stream, such as the Pinnacle.

“I had long discussions with the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to ensure that everything that is being done here was sustainable and that it would enhance the value of what is being developed in the city of Montego Bay, but that it would also protect, preserve and enhance our environmental assets,” he said.

“Because at the end of the day, the mystique and aura around Montego Bay, it is not high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, it is… sun, sea, sand,” he said.

The Pinnacle is being built along the Montego Bay coastline and is in proximity to mangroves and fishing habitat, which raised concerns when the plans were announced.

However, despite his call to maintain a level of Jamaicaness in how things are done, there are some things that need to be removed if the country needs to move forward.

“I say very quickly, however, that there are some things that make us Jamaicans that we must dispense with, such as ensuring that our streets are clean,” he said.

“Ensuring that our frontage is well kept and in a tourism environment, and as I was driving through, you could see that some people are trying to keep their frontage looking beautiful and welcoming, and others are not,” he lamented.

While he insisted that this is a municipal matter, in most cases, he insisted that there needs to be greater attention paid to the frontage of the properties, whether they are private or public, because they are selling a unified product.

“You can’t have a hotel here looking very lovely, and then two doors down there is another property where it’s just chaos,” he said.

“That’s a part of what is becoming Jamaica, chaka-chaka, which we need to remove from our culture and experience. The tourism product does require a certain level of order,” he said.

While he admitted that it cannot be totally sanitised, there has to be a certain standard about the product and he was pleased with what he saw from the Pinnacle development.

“I see the effort being made by the LCH group to ensure that the properties that they develop, and especially this one, meet that standard of orderliness and seamlessness,” he declared.