TCL Group’s Ja­maican sub­sidiary, Caribbean Ce­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (CC­CL) has suc­cess­ful­ly com­mis­sioned its US$42 mil­lion de­bot­tle­neck project at its Rock­fort fa­cil­i­ty in East Kingston. 

At a rib­bon-cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny on Thurs­day, Prime Min­is­ter of Ja­maica, Dr An­drew Hol­ness re­ferred to the ex­pan­sion as the link be­tween in­dus­tri­al­i­sa­tion and so­cial trans­for­ma­tion.

“When we in­vest in our fac­to­ries, we in­vest in our fam­i­lies. When we strength­en our pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty, we strength­en our na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.” He added, “This project does more than sup­port hous­ing. It sup­ports jobs. The ex­pand­ed kiln will en­able high­er through­put, greater ef­fi­cien­cies, and po­ten­tial­ly more sta­ble em­ploy­ment for hun­dreds of work­ers.”  

He went on to say that the project will al­so fa­cil­i­tate ex­ports.

“In­stead of im­port­ing, we will be ex­port­ing. In­stead of con­sum­ing val­ue-added goods, we will be pro­duc­ing them. This is the shift from de­pen­den­cy to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.” 

Al­so speak­ing at the cer­e­mo­ny was Ja­maica’s Min­is­ter of In­dus­try, In­vest­ment, and Com­merce, Aubyn Hill, who com­mend­ed the com­pa­ny for help­ing the Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica to build eco­nom­ic in­de­pen­dence.

“Every­where you go, ce­ment is be­ing used, and Carib Ce­ment is do­ing a great job! We want every bag of ce­ment used in Ja­maica to be made here be­cause, for every bag that we im­port, we send jobs over­seas. Our job in Ja­maica is to keep jobs here.” 

Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of CC­CL, Jorge Mar­tinez ex­tend­ed his grat­i­tude to the Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica, recog­nis­ing Prime Min­is­ter Hol­ness, and Min­is­ter Hill for their lead­er­ship in fos­ter­ing a pol­i­cy en­vi­ron­ment con­ducive to in­vest­ment, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. 

Ale­jan­dro Ramirez, re­gion­al pres­i­dent for South, Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, and the Caribbean at Ce­mex, the par­ent com­pa­ny of TCL Group, reaf­firmed the com­pa­ny’s com­mit­ment to Ja­maica and the re­gion. “With this project, we are not on­ly in­creas­ing our pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty but are ac­tive­ly con­tribut­ing to the long-term growth of the con­struc­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tors. We be­lieve in the po­ten­tial of this re­gion and are proud to be a cat­a­lyst for its con­tin­ued progress and de­vel­op­ment,” he said. 

Speak­ing af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny, Chair­man of the TCL Group, David In­gle­field, praised the col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­forts that brought the project to fruition, high­light­ing the Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica and Hill’s cru­cial sup­port.

He al­so em­pha­sised the ded­i­ca­tion and ex­per­tise of every­one in­volved, from em­ploy­ees and lo­cal con­trac­tors to the par­ent com­pa­ny, Ce­mex, say­ing, “It re­flects our com­mit­ment to dri­ving in­no­va­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty and is a re­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the strength of our re­gion and its peo­ple when we come to­geth­er to build a bet­ter fu­ture.” 

The de­bot­tle­neck project is a key de­vel­op­ment for the TCL Group, and its par­ent com­pa­ny Ce­mex, in its ef­forts to en­hance ef­fi­cien­cy and sus­tain­abil­i­ty in ce­ment pro­duc­tion, con­tribut­ing to the sta­bil­i­ty and growth of the re­gion’s in­fra­struc­ture and econ­o­my.