AFTER spending the last 20 years building luxury yachts and other boats in China and Turkey, Jamaican American businessman Denton Douglas decided to set up shop in Jamaica with a US$25-million investment. However, he had two concerns — red tape and the availability of skilled labour.

But those anxieties have been eased by the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce; Jampro; and Caribbean Maritime University (CMU).

“Thanks to [Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Senator] Aubyn Hill — he has been very, very good — and his department. I spoke to Jampro and they have been very, very responsive… They have been there for whatever I need to get that done,” Douglas told the Jamaica Observer as he detailed plans to bring his company, Monarch Yachts, to the country.

According to Douglas, the plan is to establish a facility to build luxury yachts, commercial boats, ferries, and military boats in Jamaica.

To do this Monarch will need a special economic zone (SEZ) designation and a site to establish a boatyard, but Douglas said that is well under sail.

“The key thing is to secure the site and get the zone set up, because we’ll be exporting. We want to bring in foreign currency and so, we want to be able to import, for now, everything; and that’s the job of Jampro,” explained Douglas.

He said the issue of a skilled workforce is also being addressed and, while Monarch will take Jamaicans to its plant in Turkey for training, it needs a facility in Jamaica to also train the myriad workers that a boatbuilding facility will need.

Douglas told the Observer that he has already initiated talks with HEART/NSTA Trust and CMU about training.

“I’m working with CMU right now to start training and having on-the-job workshops to start manufacturing right away. CMU has excellent students and one of the ideas that I have is, there are many Jamaican students who don’t have the ability to pay their way through school. And so, I spoke to the CMU team a week ago, and they’re being so responsive. I’m surprised…, extremely responsive.

“We had a conversation and in 24 hours they had a written document to do business… If you’re a student in St Elizabeth and you want to get to college, you can go to CMU, work for us 10 hours a week, and we will pay your tuition, and when you leave… CMU you have a professional experience where you can now work,” said Douglas.

He anticipates that some of those trained under the programme will find jobs beyond Jamaica’s shores.

“I expect half our employees to leave because they will be more valuable to a foreign country than to us, and they might get paid a ton more than we can pay them. And that’s good, because then there’s more room for that person to come in and feel the response.

“But CMU and HEART, we are going to need desperately to train,” added Douglas.

To bolster those efforts, he said he has already taken steps to have “one of my designers, one of the top in the world, to come and do lectures about the maritime business”.