Prime Minister Bruce Golding (left) makes a point to Reynold Scott, head of the Jamaica Developers Association Limited (JDA), during the pre-Christmas luncheon, held at Terra Nova All Suite Hotel, St. Andrew, yesterday. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday announced that in the near future it will take 90 days to complete all approvals for new developments once the plan has been submitted and no breaches have been found therein. He made the announcement yesterday at the pre-Christmas luncheon of the Jamaica Developers Association (JDA) at the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel in St. Andrew.
Between October 1 and November 23 of this year, the National Environmental and Planning Agency, completed the approvals for 78 per cent of the applications received, proving that efficiencies can be achieved.
In outlining how the new process would work Mr. Golding said the present system involved meeting many statutory requirements of different agencies and involving far too much bureaucracy. "It is something that we have long recognised needed to be reformed. In the past, efforts have been made to streamline the process, but I recognise those improvements have not gone far enough and most importantly, those improvements must become the subject of a new system that becomes irreversible," Mr. Golding said.
But, the Prime Minister explained that for the proposed changes to work, the entire process had to be monitored to ensure conformity. To that end, local authorities would have to be equipped with the institutional capacity to monitor compliance of applications with building and other codes, thereby making Jamaica a better place to do business.
These include:
Improvement of the land-titling process A review of the Land Titles Act; The introduction of community land tribunals to to fast-track the rightful ownership of land and subsequent issuing of titles and Starting the process of issuing titles to the approximately half of available land in Jamaica that is now untitled.
General Manager of Jamaica National Building Society, Earl Jarrett (left), shares a joke with Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee and Dr. Heather Little-White at the company's pensioners' luncheon yesterday. JNBS annually hosts members of its pensioners' association as a way to say 'thanks' for their contribution in transforming the building society into the powerful entity it has become. Twenty of the pensioners were on hand for this year's luncheon. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
