KENDAL, MANCHESTER:

The rich human capital of Manchester was event at the Kendal Conference centre last Tuesday when scores of stockholders in the Manchester Parish Development Committee (MPDC) attended the launch of its 2030 development plan for the parish.

The MPDC was founded in February 1999 with John 'Jacky' Minnott as the head with members drawn from the public and private sectors, civil society and service clubs, in conjunction with the Manchester Parish Council.

"Today's forum is the last step before the completion of the sustainable development plan for the parish towards the year 2030. It also marks the launch of the MPDC website," said Jacky Minnott.

The forum, which began at 12:00 p.m., continued until 5:00 p.m., during which participant heard from representatives of The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), The Jamaica Bauxite Institute, The Manchester Chamber of Commerce (MCOC), The Jamaica Library Service, The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, The National Environment Planning Agency, The United States Agency for International Development, and The Canadian International Development Agency. The guest speaker was business magnate Dr. Michael 'Lee' Chin.

Lagging way behind

In an instructive contribution, Leila Palmer, national development planning director at the PIOJ, told the audience that for more than 30 years, Jamaica has been lagging way behind Barbados and Singapore with only marginal economic growth at an average of just over one per cent per annum.

Palmer continued that for the institute's national development plan, mandated by the Government, to realise first world status by the year 2020, the input at community and parish levels were needed.

Michael Lee Chin advised the MPDC to adopt the mantra of his parent company AIC 'Buy, Keep and Prosper'.

Lee Chin congratulated the MPDC's target of sustained development, which he said, along with the parish's climate, will lead to Manchester becoming a vacation destination and the seat of learning after bauxite runs out.

Winston Lawson, president of the MCOC, spoke of the Chambers 'closed to crime' initiative, using training in entrepreneurship as the tool.

Lawson also advanced a theory for investment. That theory involves starting a culture of performance related pay, as well as the teaching of entrepreneurship at the secondary school level.

- Byron McDaniel