THE Government is moving to stimulate thousands of jobs, especially through construction activities, to compensate for massive employment losses linked to prevailing economic conditions.

VAZ... says an estimated 70 development projects have been identified for fast-tracking

Junior minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Daryl Vaz who has been assigned the task of spearheading the job thrust, has launched a two-pronged approach he hopes will create job opportunities for Jamaicans expected to lose their employment in the coming months.

Vaz commissioned a parish-by-parish breakdown of development projects awaiting government decision for start-up as one means of job creation. So far, an estimated 70 development projects, most of them labour-intensive and in the construction industry, have been identified for fast-tracking.

There were another 200 potential projects in the pipeline, he added.

In a companion measure, Vaz, the minister of state with responsibility for project implementation and service delivery, has taken an inventory of state-owned lands - 5,000 acres already identified - to be made available at affordable rates to interested and qualified housing developers.

"We are being very proactive about job creation and not waiting for the losses in employment which are most likely to hit us as a fallout from the global economic crisis," Vaz told the Sunday Observer in an interview.

His disclosure came just ahead of a national broadcast scheduled for tonight by Prime Minister Bruce Golding who will unveil an economic stimulus package, in direct response to the grim economic news.

Vaz said he had been given a commitment by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to convene its board and its technical review committee for more meetings than usually programmed, in order to aggressively push development projects through the system.

NEPA is the state agency which receives approved projects from the island's parish councils to vet them for environmental soundness. Over the years, businesses have complained they were forced to abandon plans, and lose money, due to long waits for the agency's vaunted seal of approval.

The junior minister said he was well on the way to achieving the 90-day processing timeline for projects his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) had promised on the election campaign trail when it had also vowed to create 'jobs, jobs and more jobs'.

He said the 70 development projects already in the fast lane were awaiting decision by the NEPA technical review committee, or its board or the town planner.

"This approach makes sense because we provide jobs and at the same time have an impact on crime because people have gainful employment. That is why the emphasis on the construction industry which captures a significant amount of the unskilled labour," Vaz noted.

At the same time, Vaz urged developers who were not satisfied they were getting adequate attention from any government agency, to contact him immediately for speedy resolution.

"I encourage them to contact me and I assure them that I will do everything I can to resolve their situation in the shortest time possible," Vaz pledged.

He gave as example an unnamed housing developer who had a 2000-unit project in Trelawny turned down on the basis that the site was zoned for agriculture.

"We got everyone together at the site and after going through the matter thoroughly, we all agreed that the project could go ahead with a rezoning of the land, with no loss to agriculture.

"What it sometimes takes is a new approach and not the one where someone sits in an office and says 'that can't be done'. In the end it might still be a 'no' but we have to make the effort first," he added.

On the question of affordable land especially for housing, Vaz noted that the growth in hotel construction on the island's north coast had not been accompanied by adequate housing solutions.

That had spurred squatting on prime public and private lands.
"The question of affordable housing has always been uppermost in the mind of this government. We are going to have to look at these properties to see where we can make an impact by making land available at affordable prices," he said.

The state minister emphasised that the government lands to which he was referring were those under the Commissioner of Lands and not those owned by entities such as the National Housing Trust, the Urban Development Corporation or the National Housing Agency, formerly the National Housing Development Corporation.

He noted that the 5,000 acres of land so far identified ranged from a low of 20 acres to 800 acres and were to be found from Portland in the east to Hanover in the west.

Vaz said the employment being targeted would be for both the skilled and unskilled but emphasis would be on the unskilled, who were likely to be most affected by the economic fallout.

Asked if he was experiencing any resistance in his effort to prod government agencies along, Vaz said he was mostly pleased with the response.

"I don't take the heavy-handed approach and I find that people prefer the way I do it. They want to help too and they know what I am trying to do.

In the rare case when it is necessary, I unfortunately have to use the big stick, but it is definitely a last resort".