ST ANN, Jamaica — Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness is calling for a change in the mindset of voters to focus on long-term economic growth over immediate, as well as unsustainable demands.

Holness made the call as he specifically outlined significant infrastructure and investment plans for St Ann, specifically targeting Drax Hall and returning Ocho Rios into a “charming tourism” town.

“It really requires the average Jamaican who’s in the market, [or] who’s in the taxi, to appreciate that you can’t expect the government to operate as you expected them to do 50 years ago. The governments that you voted for 50 years ago that created the problems that lasted now, that kind of government action can’t solve the problems of today,” he insisted.

“We need a different kind of voter who thinks differently, [and] understands that it is about the economy and getting the economy working, because the government understands that it is also about your social development and social justice as well, and if you get those two things right, we can have a long period of growth and development, and that’s what I am trying to get into this country – stability, resilience, resurgence – fairly distributed, equitably distributed for everyone,” Holness stated.

Addressing the St Ann Chamber of Commerce awards banquet at the Cardiff Hotel and Spa in Runaway Bay, St Ann on Sunday night, Holness said the Drax Hall and Mammee Bay stretch has become one of “the most rapidly developing commercial zones” in Jamaica.

Describing it as a success story, he said the North Coast Highway’s capacity has been exceeded by the very growth it aided in generating there.

Noting that traffic snarls plague the area during the staging of entertainment events in the area, hampering productivity as a result, the prime minister said a special plan is in the pipeline for that corridor.

“Feasibility studies are being completed for the North-South Highway extension project – two segments branching from a new grade separated interchange near Mammee Bay westward to Discovery Bay in St Ann, and eastward to Tower Isle in St Mary,” Holness annouced.

He shared that, effectively, the eastward leg will be a bypass for the resort town of Ocho Rios.

“Strategically, it will give Ocho Rios the opportunity to be reorganised, [or] to be decluttered, because right now everything is taking place there [in Ocho Rios]; all of the back of operations take place there – you know your… markets, everything,” Holness explained.

Admitting that Ocho Rios has grown much faster than the government could plan it, Holness warned that the town could “collapse” onto itself if the situation is not addressed.

“So we have to do the strategic things to rescue Ocho Rios, but to also strategically allow for the development of Drax Hall into a modern urban space,” the prime minister shared.

This high-speed toll alternative, Holness said, will dramatically reduce travel time, while unlocking added tourism potential for the north coast.

“Once that extension is sufficiently advanced, we will begin the North Coast Highway Improvement Project, upgrading and dualising key sections along the existing alignment from Montego Bay [in St James] to Drax Hall [in St Ann], based on traffic volumes and safety requirements.

“So, essentially, that corridor going through Drax Hall will become a boulevard with all the necessary safety and traffic efficiency provisions to ensure traffic can move…, because it is clear that corridor will become the centre of economic activity for St Ann,” he informed.

After outlining this “new energy for St Ann”, Holness posited that his Administration would be in power “forever” if Jamaicans adopted voting like investors who understand that economic growth requires strategic infrastructure projects that generate revenue without raising taxes.

“You know people don’t take up millions of dollars and build some of the buildings that I’m seeing there [in Drax Hall] without confidence in the future, and that confidence in the future comes from present stability and past actions of the Government,” Dr Holness argued.

“You know I put it to you this way; if the Jamaican people voted like investors, this government would be in government forvever… But it would be an error for the government to think that people vote like investors, and we understand that,” he said.

According to Holness, while his presentation at the banquet may seem investor-friendly, “the average Jamaican should never have to worry about where the heart of this government lies, and it lies in your best interest, [and] how to make it easier for you.”

He explained that sometimes when he “sits as the steward of your resources”, the choices are not easy, pointing to the calls from citizens on radio talk shows to fix specific community roads.

“That kind of political pressure can lead governments to make bad decisions, because in order to satisfy this person whose calling on the radio programme – essentially embarrassing the government that the government isn’t doing anything and instigating the MP (Member of Parliament) to apply pressure – and then the prime minister, caving into the pressure, could make a bad decision about the expenditure,” Holness said.

“And, in any one year, we could decide, ‘Alright, we gonna take 70 per cent of the budget and fix all the roads. Would we be able to do that again? And would that put us in a problem where having done that, we can’t generate anymore revenues, and when we can’t generate anymore revenues, we end up having to either tax or borrow, and when we come to say, ‘We have to put on tax’, the people say, ‘No, wicked government, wicked government!’, and so, what we end up doing? Borrowing,” he added.

If the government should be faced with such a situation of having to borrow funds, Holness stressed that interest will have to be paid, which means less money to spend by the country.

While pointing to the average person who wants their community roads to be fixed immediately, the prime minister said the only way for that to be accomplished is to

“build that highway and fix that road where industry is going to come, where business is going to operate so we don’t have to put on new tax, [and] we just get more taxes from people doing more business.”

In addition to that, Holness said those taxes will be taken and spent on community roads like what is currently being done through the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement (SPARK) road rehabilitation programme.

“You don’t have to worry about… the inefficiency of government costing you more. So that’s my commitment to the people; make the right economic decision, and for this parish [St Ann], we’re investing in the engine of growth.

“We see that people want people to invest here, they are putting down the buildings…, and we’re going to support that and the dividends from that we then take and invest into Brown’s Town Clinic [in St Ann], which is being built, and fix up the St Ann’s Bay Hospital, which I get a lot of complaints [about],” Holness stated.