By Andrew Clunis
The people of St. Thomas have many reasons to be excited and hopeful.
They have a brand new highway that is opening up many opportunities for growth and development.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has laid out a comprehensive plan for the parish that will see increases in housing stock and tourism for what was once the forgotten parish.
At a ceremony to name a section of the new highway in honour of national hero Paul Bogle, the Prime Minister painted a picture of paradise for the eastern parish.
Among the plans are the building of an aggregate/cruise shipping pier, the creation of an eco corridor that will run through to Portland and a museum. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
But are the people adequately prepared to capitalise on the infrastructure development that the parish is experiencing? This is the question that now hangs in the air because if the people do not possess the necessary skills to make good on the opportunities, they will be left behind.
Safe to say there needs to be major emphasis on skills training to ensure that St Thomas can retain its brightest and best who can help the parish realise its true potential. To demonstrate that focus is being placed on human capital development an arm of the national training institution HEART/NSTA should be established with a focus on tourism and agriculture.
One of the vexing issues that the people face is that of land ownership. It was good to see the minister with responsibility for land titling at the ceremony because land in St Thomas is now fetching premium prices and there is fear that locals will be driven from lands their families have occupied for generations.
With the new road there is ease of travel and many persons who work in Kingston can now choose to live in St. Thomas.
While the flashy new highway is welcome, the hinterlands are crying out for attention. St Thomas still has some of the worst roads in Jamaica and the water situation is at crisis level.
Unemployment remains high and the traditional sector for economic development, agriculture, has dwindled badly.
The old sugar lands in the eastern section of the parish need to be put into new modern agricultural production.
There is need for the development of cottage industries that can give regular people opportunity to earn a meaningful living because in the end the people must realise the benefits.
The Prime Minister can do so much but it will now be down to the local representatives, MP’s and councillors to ensure that there is a trickle down effect.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out politically because even with the new Morant Bay Urban Centre and the new road, the government lost Eastern St Thomas in the last elections.
If the government follows through on its plans surely the people will speak in its favour.