WE are aware that many factors can affect negotiations between the Government and business entities wishing to set operations here.
Those factors can range from complex to the most minute detail. Either way, they most times lead to start-up delays that frustrate all parties involved.
With that in mind, we hope that the Government and Russian firm UC Rusal, owners of Alpart, can sign off on a reopening date for the alumina plant as quickly as possible. Ideally, we wouldn’t mind if that agreement could be reached before the middle of this month, as was projected by an official of the mining and energy ministry and reported in last week’s edition of the Jamaica Observer Central.
According to the ministry official, “the discussions are continuing and they are very productive, but they are at a delicate stage”.
The mid-January date offered by the official followed on a promise by Mining and Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, in November, for word on the plant’s reopening by the end of last year.
That word cannot come too soon for the people of St Elizabeth, particularly those in the south-eastern section of the parish. In fact, the entire Jamaica, we believe, will welcome the reopening of Alpart, so too the Kirkvine plant