Prime Minister Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness says the Government is entering a new phase of national development focused on accelerating economic growth through the strategic utilization of Jamaica’s assets, particularly land, supported by modernized land administration systems and expanded land titling.
Speaking yesterday during the Inception Ceremony for the Land Administration Capacity Enhancement Project (LACEP), Prime Minister Holness said Jamaica’s years of fiscal discipline must now translate into stronger economic productivity, investment expansion, and more efficient use of national resources.
“We are entering into a new phase of our development. We have, over the last decade and a half, greatly sacrificed to achieve fiscal stability. The next phase must now be robust, sustained economic growth,” the Prime Minister stated.
The Prime Minister identified proper land administration as one of the key pillars required to unlock that growth, noting that Jamaica cannot fully utilize its land resources without comprehensive land registration, modern cadastre systems, and clear ownership records.
“We want to ensure that people who want to use the land for productive purposes can get access. We want to ensure that land, which is a natural asset, can also become a financial asset by acting as collateral for financing,” he said.
Prime Minister Holness emphasized that underutilized land represents unrealized economic potential and said the Government’s policy direction is to accelerate the productive use of assets across the country.
Importantly, the Prime Minister said land must move beyond passive ownership and speculation to active economic participation capable of supporting housing, agriculture, manufacturing, investment, and environmental management.
“If we are to develop, we cannot have land idle only for rent or for capital gains. That’s not a realized economic benefit. We have to realize the economic benefit of the land, and you only realize it when you’re reaping from it, you have a factory on it, you have developed housing on it, or you have protected it for an environmental asset,” he said.
Prime Minister Holness said the Government has already made significant progress through systematic land registration reforms, implemented with support from Jamaica’s Korean partners and financing support from the National Housing Trust (NHT).
The Prime Minister highlighted that Jamaica has nearly achieved its target of issuing 20,000 land titles under the systematic registration programme, with substantially more titles processed under that framework than through the traditional voluntary registration process.
Prime Minister Holness said it is not impossible for Jamaica to have every single parcel of land titled within the next decade or two.
“Once you start to have titles, and you know about every square inch of land, then we can have a proper system of addresses, which we now don’t have. It becomes easier to sell and transfer land. We have a better system of estimating the value of land and your land market.”
The Land Administration Capacity Enhancement Project is being implemented through partnership with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and is intended to strengthen Jamaica’s institutional and technical capacity for modern, efficient, and transparent land administration.
