Holness promises young people 10,000 homes with interest-fre

Holness promises young people 10,000 homes with interest-free financing

Prime Minister Andrew Holness (left) and Leader of the Opposition, Dr Peter Phillips spar during last night's leadership debate at the Creative Production and Training Centre in Kingston.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness says if the Jamaica Labour Party forms the next government, it will be reserving 10,000 houses for young people under the age of 35 years old, and zero per cent financing to purchase the assets.

“This is a very serious commitment to the youth of Jamaica. Housing is a very important investment that young people should make at the start of their lives,” said Holness to a question from the public during last night's leadership debates about how he would address the continued brain drain.

Holness opined that young people were in search of jobs of the future.

“We are qualifying many Jamaicans for the traditional jobs but we must also seek to provide new jobs in artificial intelligence, in animation, in knowledge services, and we will do that with the creation of our tech park,” the prime minister said.

He added that he intends to increase the value of services offered by business process outsourcing centres to create diversified opportunities for young people.

Responding to the same question, People’s National Party president, Dr Peter Phillips, said he would be looking at agricultural transformation as one way of transforming the Jamaican economy to combat brain drain.

“One of the things that makes our young people and others want to leave is this overwhelming sense of insecurity that they have. The other issue is to be able to provide access to the basic necessities of life, like housing, like better jobs, higher- paying jobs, which is why we are fundamentally committed to building a new economic structure that moves beyond the traditional structures,” Phillips stated.

He also pointed to the creative industries, including music, fashion, drama and leisure, as important sectors for development to stop the brain drain.

“All told, we will prevent the brain drain when people have an opportunity to fulfil their hopes, dreams and aspirations right here in the country of their birth,” said Phillips.