Government officials are hopeful Alpart refinery will bring development in Jamaica

While everybody is happy about the reopening of the Alpart refinery in 2016, parliamentarians Michael Peart and Richard Parchment say that this should not be seen as just an employment opportunity but a vehicle for overall development, especially in the most affected regions of South Manchester and South-Eastern St Elizabeth.

In 1974, a Capital Development Fund was set up that would draw in the levies charged from the bauxite mining companies and use the sums to fund development. However, the Fund ended up supporting the government that was struggling at the time to make ends meet.

This time the Fund would be used to serve its original purpose says Peart, who is a Member of Parliament for South Manchester.

Parchment, representing South-East St Elizabeth, on the other hand points out to the need to provide clean water to the people of the region, a project that can be funded using the bauxite/alumina earnings.

Peart even hopes that besides the Capital Development Fund, a sovereign wealth fund could also be set up much like Norway did when they started the oil trade in 1994. Using the bauxite/alumina earnings a similar set-up can be created considering that Norway’s wealth fund is now worth an excess of a trillion US dollars.