Keynote Address
by
Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
at the
Opening of the Caenwood SPARK Road, Hope Bay, Portland
On
July 3, 2026
__________________________________________________________________________
Thank you. The beautiful people of Portland, specifically Western Portland, who came out to greet me and in particular those two young ladies who gave me such a loving embrace. It is indicative of the warmth of the people of this lovely, lovely parish. As I drove in on your main thoroughfare, your main road here, I reflected on the fact that road would be now close to 15 years old, and it is one of those roads that we consider to be very well built. Rarely is there a pothole or a failure of the surface. All the retaining walls are held up. It is an example to local and international contractors of the quality of work that Jamaica needs to improve its infrastructure, but it also shows that roads can be well built in Jamaica, and that is an example of a well-built road.
Indeed, the road that we open today is designed to last a minimum of seven years without need for rehabilitation. But every road, regardless of how well built, will need to be rehabilitated at some point. The better the road is built, the longer the period before rehabilitation, and the less there will be a need for rehabilitation. As we enter a new phase in the development of roads in Jamaica, we must have the institutional framework and capacity to properly supervise and invigilate the quality of work that is being done. Too often, contractors, engineers, and the people who put the project together may very well be well-meaning, but they don’t always do well, and the quality of work has been called into question, justifiably so, many times.
Under the SPARK Programme, we took a different approach. We had one major contractor, and that one major contractor, we call them the enterprise contractor. They are responsible for the proper planning of the works. Before any asphalt is laid, before any ground is broken, the technical planning work must be done, and that requires a lot of engineers, geoscientists, and people who understand the technical nature of how roads are built. It also requires equipment; it requires a balance sheet to support the work. So, we have a large enterprise contractor in China Harbour to manage this 45-billion-dollar project. The work, obviously, is subcontracted with smaller contractors, and that creates some dilution of the level of supervision that is required. Nonetheless, the main contractor is responsible for quality of the work that is done.
In Jamaica, we have a challenge. Yesterday, I launched the main road aspect of the SPARK Programme, and I dealt with several issues. One of them was the need for the Government to have a partnership with local contractors to support their development because there is no way that we are going to be able to build Jamaica without having a strong local contracting class.
We need good, strong, solid contractors. We need to totally dispense with the view that the contractor is a man with a little bag, and he might have maybe a truck and a little backhoe there, and they can take on massive, complex work like the SPARK Programme. We need to change that. We need our contractors to move up to a level of enterprise and corporate thinking, where they are investing in their business, they are getting technical skills, and they are building the balance sheet to be able to properly execute the level of work that the Government is coming with.
Never, and I can say this without fear of contradiction, never has any Government in Jamaica been in the position to spend as much as this Government will be spending, or has spent, on infrastructure. So, we solved the problem, technically, of finding the resources to build the roads. The big challenge now is ensuring that, when the resources are allocated, we get the best out of it. That is the big problem right now. So, we are contemplating ways in which we can work to support the emergence of a new generation of contractors who see themselves reflected in the work that they put out, who believe that the infrastructure is a reflection of their pride and dignity. When some of you travel abroad and you see those lovely highways, those well-built bridges, and sometimes you marvel at how they are built, we need some of our contractors now to start thinking in this way, to see themselves in the work that they deliver as part of the dignity and the ambitions of the people. So, you don’t just do the road, throw the leftovers on the side, and leave it there. As a contractor, you must say, “that is infra dig; that is disrespectful to me as a person. I would never, ever do that.” But not all of them think that way. So, we need the emergence of a new contracting class that fits the ambition of the infrastructure we are trying to build.
I understand the frustration of every single Jamaican about the road conditions. We will improve all the roads. It will take some time, but we are building out the plan. I explained yesterday that, if we were to fix every road in Jamaica, not even to the quality of your main road there, but to this quality, it would take us between five and seven trillion dollars, meaning we would have to take the national budget for five years thereabout and do nothing else but fix roads. Of course, that is impossible. But even if we did that, if we didn’t have good contractors who could bring the work on budget and on time, it wouldn’t take five years. It would take us a decade or more to fix all our roads. That is the reality we face. I am not asking for patience. I am not asking for any understanding, essentially. Citizens will put pressure on their Governments to respond, without question. That is the process of our democracy. But I want there to be a greater appreciation for the magnitude of the problems that the country faces. This is not necessarily a political issue. This is an issue relating to finance, economics, technical competence, and abilities.
The Government is working towards ensuring that both elements of the problem are addressed, to make sure the economics and the finance are being dealt with while improving the technical competence and know-how of the people who will take the funds and actually convert it into roads. So, I want to give you the assurance, give the Jamaican people the assurance, that your Government is paying full attention to improving your roads.
God bless you and thank you.
