International infrastructure giant China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) will open an office in George Town after initialing agreement with local officials, likely this month, for a series of construction projects.

The new office, to be a sub-branch of CHEC’s Kingston, Jamaica operation, will oversee the new agreement, which will include a 49-year concession to the Beijing-owned company to operate the new George Town cruise port and a contract to share between CHEC and the Cayman Islands Government, the fees levied by cruise lines on all passengers landing at the new port.

The agreement stipulates that CHEC will design, build and operate transfer finger piers in both George Town and West Bay’s Cayman Turtle Farm. The company, on 15 July, advanced $3 million to government anticipating upgrades at the foul-weather Spotts Jetty landing.

According to a 13 June memorandum of understanding between the company and the Cayman Islands, if contracts regarding construction of both the cruise-ship and turtle-farm docks are not signed by the end of November, CHEC “will be reimbursed through the Ministry of Finance of the Cayman Islands for all funds advanced by CHEC on the Spotts Jetty project to that date.”

CHEC has agreed to finance the projects, starting work no later then the end of this month.

Next week, on 9 and 10 November, a nine-member or 10-member Cayman delegation, including four members of the Chamber of Commerce, will visit CHEC’s Kingston office, touring the company’s $400 million Jamaica Infrastructure Development Programme and the $65 million Jamaica Airport Highway Project.

Kingston’s Ministry of Transport and Works has contracted with CHEC to widen road corridors in both Kingston and St Andrew, surface main and parochial roads, rebuild and realign highways, build new bypass roads, replace bridges nationwide and build retaining walls for flood control

The airport-highway project will improve and expand road links to the Kingston Airport, rendered impassable in the face of high tides and storms.

CHEC has invited Cayman’s Chamber of Commerce President James O’Neill, President-Elect David Kirkaldy, Secretary Colin Reid and CEO Wil Pineau to visit the Palisadoes Shoreline Protection and Rehabilitation Works, the Christiana Development Road Project and the Rio Grande Bridge Project.

Mr O”Neill said China Harbour had “asked to meet with the Chamber executive during a recent trip to Grand Cayman. They discussed the MOU with government and provided general details about their proposed projects here. There were many questions raised during the meetings and the China Harbour representatives felt it would be best for the Chamber to be included in a delegation from the Cayman Islands to tour the CHEC projects that are under construction there.”

He said the group would “prepare a report upon our return’”, releasing it to chamber membership

“We made it abundantly clear to the China Harbour representatives that we will only accept the invitation if we are allowed to write an independent report that is shared with the Chamber membership,” Mr O’neill said. “The development of a cruise-berthing facility is of utmost importance to the cruise-ship industry and infrastructural development as confirmed in the Future of Cayman Strategic Report.”

The visit – and imminent signing — comes in the wake of the last week’s attendance by a seven-member Cayman Islands delegation, led by Mr Bush, to Shanghai’s two–day “ChIna Offshore Global Summit” conference and a side meeting with CHEC and its Jamaica-based Business Adviser Bindley Sangster.

Meanwhile Jennifer Ormond, spokesman for CHEC in Jamaica, said the company was “committed to hiring as much iocal labour as possible”, countering allegations that imported Chinese workers were set to overwhelm indigenous employees.

“We have, let’s say, 100 Chinese here [in Jamaica] and 1,000 Jamaicans.  If we have two Chinese working on something, they are teaching 20 Jamaicans how to build a retaining wall, how to weld a bridge, how to construct a road. We have 9,000 employees here and most of them are local,” she said.