Holness responds to tax incentive plea from Mayor Scott

The 36-year-old conglomerate, founded by Glen and Marva Christian, opened its six billion dollar state-of-the-art warehouse hub in Bernard Lodge, Spanish Town, St Catherine.

This, the company says, will significantly reduce overheads and consolidate its warehousing and distribution from one centralized location.

It’s the latest mega company to establish a fixed footprint in the Old Capital, joining following the footsteps of GraceKennedy, Wisynco and others, which is being viewed as a renaissance of the industrialization of Spanish Town.

In light of this new thrust Spanish Town Mayor and Chairman of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation, Councillor Norman Scott called for the reintroduction of a tax incentive mechanism to encourage more investors to establish businesses in the area.

“The town’s economy was once on the industrial sector,” said the mayor in delivering his greeting. “Places like Bernard Lodge, Innswood Estate, Reckitt and Colman, Berec Battery, to name a few of the industries that Spanish Town was built around. Of course you had Pact Limited also. This was a company that did repairs to all the kind of machines in these industrialised companies. And of course a lot of persons benefited back then from the kind of apprenticeship. Spanish Town even had a rice factory. Arriguanabo was then the largest factory and employer of unskilled labour back then. Now that area is now being brought back to productivity and I welcome the company that is doing that.

“Again I want to make a special appeal to the Most Honourable Prime Minister that in case the tax incentive sir it has outlived its deed. I am asking that you once again ensure that it is brought back into operation, please sir.”

Responding to the Mayor’s appeal, Mr Holness first acknowledged that such a discussion is appropriate and must be held between them before adding some context to the discourse.

“There is no question that the tax incentive was an important part in the investment decision by Glen (Christian) to establish this wonderful facility. But the tax incentive is not only applicable here, the tax incentives are applicable in designated areas in Kingston for which very few takers have come forward.

“There is a reason why the tax incentives are not put in place permanently and usually [it comes] with a sunset clause. And that is to hasten the investment to get people to make a decision within a development horizon. Yes, the government will consider it, but the government is very seized of the fact that investments are not only made on tax breaks,” said Holness, who is also the minister of economic growth and job creation.

“Investors have to consider is trained labour to execute the functions of the business? Is the environment safe and secure? Is there an ecosystem to support the investment? In other words is there an industrial cluster that provides all the supporting services in the area? What are the fiscal and macroeconomic policies of the government? Is the investing environment stable? So yes, we will consider, but our intention is to make the investment environment such that investors are not only investing based upon a tax break.

“Our intention is to make our economy such that our taxes are low all across all sectors in all areas. And low comparative to our competitors, that our bureaucracy is efficient, so your permitting is quick, because if Glen were to tell you the story behind this he would also point out that he was dissatisfied with the pace at which this investment came to fruition.

“So my friend Mr Mayor, tax incentives play a big part yes. But if we are going to grow and develop in a rapid way we must ensure that all the variables that impact investment are such that people will want to relocate to Jamaica because it is easy to do business. And that is the intention of the government.”

During his presentation, Mr Christian, the Cari-Med Group’s CEO bemoaned a lack a human resource to meet its growing expansion. According to Mr Christian there are several vacant positions within the group that remain unfulfilled due to the current brain drain situation facing the nation as qualified persons seek better paying jobs overseas or prefer to work remotely.

To address this conundrum, Mr Christian and his wife Marva have pledged one million dollars from their personal account towards the construction of a STEM centre in Spanish Town, where 60% of its labour force comes from.