Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
REID
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE NEWLY-ELECTED president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pauline Reid, says lobbying for a Montego Bay Convention Centre will be among the top priorities on her agenda for the coming year.
"The convention centre is something that I want us to promote not only as a Chamber but as a community," Ms. Reid said. "Now is the time when we have to act because if we do not act now we are going to lose out to our Caribbean partners."
The first female to be elected president of the 75 year-old Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Reid was speaking during her inaugural address following her election at the Chamber's annual general meeting last week. She succeeds Mark Kerr-Jarrett who, citing personal reasons, as well as a desire to give way to the "younger generation" opted not to seek re-election.
According to Ms. Reid, Montego Bay and, by extension, Jamaica, has been hampered by the absence of a convention centre and has had to miss out on very lucrative business opportunities in the past.
"Last January, following Caribbean Market Place, Virgin Atlantic Holidays wanted to sponsor the convention in Jamaica for the next five years but because we did not have the proper facility they had to go elsewhere," she noted. "That was a big loss for Jamaica ... we need to get that convention centre here.
"I want to see this city in the long run become not only the model for Jamaica but also the Caribbean and I know we can do it. It is the tourism Mecca. If we put enough pressure it is going to happen, we are going to demand our fair share."
The president said she will also be lobbying for the island's universities to establish full programmes in Western Jamaica.
