Can someone tell us what are the plans for Goat Island ?

How can any serious debate take place on whether or not the Goat Island are suitable for the location of the much talked about logistics hub ?

I hate to participate in any discussions without the availability of data, otherwise those discussions are void of any real substance and thus becomes one with pure emotions mixed with a tinge of political flavour .

The people of the country should be divided between using of not using Goat Island and the putting up of one group against another.

The debate at this stage should be about getting answers to the following questions.

1. What exactly are the development plans for goat island
2. What are the specific set of development that is being proposed for the islands.
3. Will it be strictly commercial or will it be a mixture of residential and commercial interest.
4. Would it include its own power plant.
5. Will there be a independent water supply facility ie a desalination plant.
6. What are the plans for sewage, will that be sent back to the mainland or will a plant be developed on the island
7. What are the plans for Garbage disposal ?
8. If there will be a power plant, will there be a fuel storage facility on site of will that be on the mainland and piped to the offshore site.
9. Will there be just movement of Cargo on the site or will the site contain assembling facilities.
10. There was a discussion about building a causeway to link the island(s) to the mainland. The closest point to the mainland is one mile, so is it reasonable to assume that a 1 mile bridge is to be constructed.
11. What kind of arrangement would exist between the government of Jamaica and the Government of China is terms of the lands in question. Will this be on a lease basis and how much is being proposed for the annual lease and what is the length of the proposed lease.
12. Given the entire funding will be done by the Chinese what tax concessions are being offered to them and for what period.
13. Will there be a limit to the number of Chinese Nationals or minimum level of Jamaican nationals that must be employed to the site and will this be tied to the level of tax breaks to be approved.
14. Will the Chinese Nationals employed on the island be subjected to local income and other taxes.
15. What about security on the island, apart from the private security arrangement.  will the local cops have jurisdiction over the islands.
16. What systems will be put in place to ensure it does not become a state within a state. Recall gunmen controlled TG for over 30 yrs and our cops could not venture into that area and this was on the mainland.
17. How is this development like to impact the following proposed developments

• The Fort Augusta KCT expansion
• The Caymanas Logistics Hub/Industrial and Commercial development

Can the Government of Jamaica provide details on the few questions I have asked about, so we can begin to have serious dialogue about the Goat Island development

We cannot just say well its US$1.5B and we must just run with it, without having more information on what it intends to bring into the country.

We  have seen many projects never achieving the stated objective because there were no guarantees built into the contract on the behalf of the Jamaican people.

Frankly I do not trust Robert Pickersgill ability to negotiate and sign any large contracts, given what I saw what he did with the Highway 2000 NROCC agreement, where he signed away our ability to rehabilitate Mandela High and  the rail service .

I am therefore asking that the conversation be focused on not so much if its Goat Island, Jackson Bay or wherever, but instead on the actual plans that have already been developed for the area.

Can we therefore more the level of discourse in this direction, given that we have focused and wasted so much time already on the emotional aspect of the project ?