Prime Minister P.J. Patterson (left) chats with Hong Kong investors, Joseph Chang (centre) and Gary Ho of Asian Information Resources. The occasion was the Harmony Cove Investors Reception held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay on Thursday.
-Claudine Housen
Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THERE APPEARS to be a lot of interest being shown by overseas investors in the US$1 billion Harmony Cove development, which Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced for the parish of Trelawny in April.
"I think the Harmony Cove development is a very exciting project which has a lot of potential for the people of Jamaica," said Colin Croasdale, chief executive officer of the Ontario, Canada-based, 809 Investment Group Ltd. "I am very excited to be here and I am looking forward to coming to Jamaica to do additional business with the Harmony Cove project."
Speaking about the new development at an investors conference earlier this week, Kingsley Thomas, chairman of Harmonisation Ltd., the group in charge of the Harmony Cove development, expressed pleasure at the number of interested overseas investors.
"There has been a greater level of interest from overseas investors, especially because of their financial capability," said Mr. Thomas, who noted that there was an 80/20 ratio in favour of foreign investors.
Mr. Thomas also disclosed that there was a consortium of about eight participants who would like to take over the entire project.
"Currently I have eight people who want to take over the whole thing (as a consortium) but I still have individuals who want individual parcels," Thomas said.
POTENTIAL INVESTORS
Potential investors are from Jamaica, the United States, Canada, France, Britain and Asia. "There are a number of Chinese people here representing major investors from Asia," Thomas said.
"It is a very good presentation," said Raymond Lo, director of the Hong Kong-based, Asian Information Resources (AIR). "It (the investors conference) gave me the background for the project and the tourism potential. We would like to get into more details regarding the proposal."
Having assigned a deadline for the formal request of proposals for January 2005, Mr. Thomas is confident that they will receive "a number of robust proposals."
