FALMOUTH, Trelawny — People’s National Party’s (PNP) recently selected standard-bearer for Trelawny Northern, former Tourism Minister Dr Wykeham McNeill, has welcomed news that the long-promised US$1-billion Harmony Cove project in the parish is back on track.

The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service recently announced that the large-scale investment by Harmony Cove Limited is expected to be a transformative project for the hospitality sector in Jamaica.

“Tavistock Group has indicated that the investment capital and start-up costs associated with the project will be approximately US$1 billion. The joint venture partners are the Government-owned Harmonisation Limited and Tavistock Group,” a release from the finance ministry said.

The release also detailed that the joint venture agreement for development of Harmony Cove has been significantly revised and updated to reflect a balance of responsibilities and interests between the Government of Jamaica and global private investors who, “bring an established track record in large-scale resort development”. The agreement now includes a defined timeline with development milestones.

“Tavistock Group and Harmonisation Limited will begin work immediately through Harmony Cove Limited — with the appointment of leading global architectural, engineering, and construction management firms to finalise and implement the agreed development plan,” the finance ministry added.

Speaking at a PNP Trelawny Northern constituency conference on Sunday at the William Knibb Memorial High School, McNeill used the opportunity to point out that the project was conceived by a PNP Government in 2006.

“I read the notice last week that Harmony Cove has restarted. I want to just say that I welcome it. How could I not welcome it because it is one of the legacy projects of the People’s National Party. Harmony Cove is a project that we signed that agreement in 2006 with Tavistock and now we are in 2024 and Harmony Cove is just being restarted,” said McNeill.

He argued that residents of Trelawny must now work at preparing themselves to take advantage of the opportunities to come from the mega project.

“The problem I have is now that Harmony Cove is going to be reopened, I don’t want the same mistakes that were made before [to reoccur]. You have to prepare because if you don’t plan then you are planning to fail. And the truth of the matter is, if you are going to prepare all jobs that are going to be created, we are going to have to find ways that are going to ensure that our children are trained, that our adults have the ability to do what they have to do,” McNeill said.

He told Comrades that long before he had any dreams of representing the Trelawny Northern constituency, during his iteration at the tourism ministry, upon foreseeing the strong tourism potential of the parish, he oversaw a $1-billion allocation for infrastructural projects to prepare the parish to realise its potential as a tourism destination.

“When I was in the Ministry of Tourism, before any of this was being thought about, I started investing in north Trelawny and the reason I did it was because it was going to be the new frontier for tourism in Jamaica. So because of that I did something. I committed $1 billion to north Trelawny and we did a streetscape, we fixed up the streets and the sidewalks; we fixed up all the markets, we built out the money for Hampden Wharf, we did all of it,” McNeill said.

He said he was dissatisfied with the returns on the $1-billion investment.

“So when I was building the streets and I was saying let’s do Hampden Wharf, and the craft market, it was because I wanted visitors to come out and tour Falmouth. Now when I go in there on a ship day its empty. So it has not achieved the results. So there is work to be done,” charged McNeill.

“Let me tell you something, having finished the work it has not shown the results I want because PNP and JLP [Jamaica Labour Party] don’t think alike. If you ask the current minister of tourism how tourism is doing, he will say it is doing well because we make how much billion dollars. He will say how many visitors come to Jamaica, but that is not what we in the PNP say. The effect of tourism depends on how it impacts the lives of the Jamaican people,” added McNeil.

He declared that if the PNP forms the next administration,”we are going to ensure that the benefits of tourism, that the benefits of business, and the benefits of agriculture can work its way that all persons in our communities can benefit from them”.