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The spanking new, state of the art Media Centre at the Northern Caribbean University facilitated the much anticipated televised political debate between the incumbent People’s National Party’s Member of Parliament for Central Manchester, Peter Bunting and the Jamaica Labour Party’s Danville Walker on Wednesday, December 14, which was witnessed by a full house of concerned residents, headed by the Mayor of Mandeville, Councillor Brenda Ramsay.

Mr. Bunting, in his opening remarks, gave an account of his stewardship over the past four years, pointing to his contribution to the development of sports in the constituency, the establishment of a resource centre to assist residents to improve their ICT skills and the emergence of the Mandeville Regional Hospital as a tertiary hospital, acting as the centerpiece for the delivery of healthcare in the region.

Mr. Walker for his part, cited his record of achievement at institutions which had a history of vexed problems, the Electoral Office of Jamaica and the Customs Department, noting that both entities have achieved increased levels of efficiency in service of the Jamaican people.

Mr. Bunting reminded the audience that for four and a half years he has been trying to establish a major Information Communication Centre in Mandeville which will require 100,000 square feet of space to create up to a thousand jobs to help to replace some of the jobs lost with the closure of the Kirkvine and Alpart alumina plants. Turning to the vexed issued of water, Mr. Bunting emphasized that only a massive investment by Central Government will solve the problem, once and for all, without which the growth of the parish will continue to be constrained.

Mr. Walker indicated that one his priorities would be strategies to get the youths from off the streets and while acknowledging that an ICT Centre as proposed by Mr. Bunting has the potential for job creation, noted that there were other attractive options such as agriculture and its value added opportunities using available resources in an enabling environment would also create much needed jobs in Manchester. Mr. Walker asserted that the key to the development of the constituency was the growth of the small business sector having access to affordable credit coupled with a vibrant public/private sector partnership to create the levels of investments which is required to boost economic activity.

Kudos to the team at the Northern Caribbean University for staging a professional program and Mr. Bunting and Mr. Walker for the level of civility which characterized the proceedings.