GOVERNMENT is to activate a company, formed by the previous People’s National Party administration, to operate the controversial US$30-million Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium.

Minister of Industry, Commerce and Investments, Karl Samuda, says that the company – North Coast Sports and Entertainment Complex Limited – was formed to operate the facility but was not activated to take up the responsibility.

“It is the intention to operationalise, or to formalise this company and to appoint a board of directors. This company will be charged with the responsibility of managing the facility, as soon as the administrative requirements are fulfilled,” Samuda said.

He added that, in the interim, the stadium will be managed by Independence Park Limited which falls under the Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports which is headed by Olivia Grange.

He said that Jamaica Trade and Invest/JAMPRO had $9 million left over from the legacy of Cricket World Cup 2007, which the Government would add to a $9-million grant from the National Housing Trust (NHT) to finance the maintenance of the stadium up to March 2008, at a cost of approximately $3 million per month.

He said that Cabinet on Monday instructed that the facility should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports and managed by Independence Park Limited in the interim.

A sub-committee of the Cabinet chaired by Samuda, and including Grange and Minister Without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, James Robertson, along with appropriate members of staff and persons engaged in its development will work out the details of the transfer to the new company.

Samuda said that it is also to be decided whether the facility will remain fully government-owned, partially government-owned or be divested.

He noted, however, that it was built with a US$30 million loan from the People’s Republic of China which, although granted on very concessionary terms, will have to be repaid.

“This is a very, very expensive facility that ought properly to be managed in the same way that a company is managed,” Samuda said.