By Daniel Molina and Francisco Fernandez Funes
As the first lights of the morning shine over Kingston, Roger Thompson smiles thinking about the passengers arriving at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA). Like every day, he gets ready for his duties as director of Kingston City Guided Tours, a small company that offers guided sightseeing experiences in and around Jamaica’s capital. Thompson, who oversees the firm’s operations, is focused on growing the business. And he has reason to be optimistic: keeping up with evolving technologies and growing passenger demands, the renovation of Kingston’s airport is bringing more and more travelers—and potential customers of Kingston City Guided Tours—to the Caribbean country.
“The improvements at the NMIA are enhancing the travel experience of the visitor to Kingston and making tour packages more appealing,” he says.
In 2018, IFC was the transaction advisor to the Government of Jamaica (GoJ) for the successful 25-year concession to operate, expand and modernize the NMIA. This project is the foundation of IFC’s Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) work in Jamaica. Despite a delay due the COVID-19 pandemic, the project has resulted in a substantial upgrade of the airport infrastructure and resulted in the creation of jobs, all while providing a revenue share of over 50 percent to the government—surpassing that of the private sector partner.
Currently, the airport—operated by PAC Kingston Airport Ltd.—serves 1.7 million passengers every year, giving a boost to the tourism industry, the country’s primary economic driver. Like Thompson, many small business owners are beginning to benefit from the renewal of the NMIA, a project that demonstrates how collaboration between the public and private sectors can address critical infrastructure needs.
This fruitful PPP motivated the GoJ to replicate the mechanism in other sectors with the objective of improving the quality of public services for the Jamaican people. But instead of going transaction-by-transaction, IFC designed a programmatic approach for PPPs to enhance efficiency and results, further enabling private capital to be invested where the needs are greatest.