TRELAWNY, Jamaica —Jamaica will be seeking to attract investments in several mega freezones and special economic zone (SEZ) developments, including Trelawny’s WEST77 Tech Park that will be unveiled at the 8th World Free Zone Organisation’s Annual International Conference (AICE2022). The conference will be held from June 13-17 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, St James.

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator Aubyn Hill, disclosed that when fully developed, WEST77 will be an internationally recognised epicentre for technology and innovation in Jamaica. He added that it will be a world-class facility with clusters of leading innovators in industry, business, and education, in a mixed-use sustainable environment.

“The Silicon Valley-type project will have an extensive range of users who will create a vibrant and unique business and educational ecosystem. These will include STEM schools, business start-ups, universities, testing labs, and multinational corporations,” Minister Hill argued.

He revealed that three other major projects are coming in Trelawny, including the proposed Olympus Sports City, which is expected to form the central point of world-class sports infrastructure on the island, with the best sporting technology and equipment for its development to nurture champions and winners in a sustainable environment.

Catering to baseball, track and field, cricket, soccer, coaches and trainers, sports fans and visitors, the state-of-the-art multisport complex, will offer international standards for the needs of amateur athletes to become champions, Minister Hill pointed out. The project will access to 694 acres of land owned by the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ).

Trelawny is also being marketed as a major location for investment in entertainment, with the proposed Xanadu SEZ to sit on 450 acres of the Long Pond Estate at Georgia in the parish.

With a vibrant and inspirational ambiance for arts and cultural societies, the proposed project is expected to be a media and creative hub that will provide advanced infrastructure to foster growth and allow the users of the zone to work in synergy and to be highly creative. It is also expected to lure large-scale movie productions, and aspiring media professionals, colleague minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange states.

Addressing journalists in Trelawny Friday morning, Hill revealed that the fourth project, Pandora, will open the door for pharmaceutical-like manufacturers to capitalise on over 300 individual medicinal plants that are particular to Jamaica.

“They can do their pharmaceutical work here, repackage and then export from Jamaica, to the Caribbean, Latin America and to the biggest market in the world, the United States,” Hill stated.

Overall, the Jamaica Special Economic Authority (JSEZA), the lead agency behind the conference and the proposed projects, have planned developments on lands situated in Hyde Hall, Long Pond, and Lottery, near the Hampden Estates and at Georgia.

AICE2022 conference delegates, many, from countries such as Panama, the Philippines, Morocco, Dubai, Curacao, Costa Rica, India, and Argentina, are expected to tour the greenfield sites during the event.