LAUDERHILL – In an effort to strengthen ties with Jamaica and Florida, a team of business persons and City officials from the City of Lauderhill heads to Falmouth, on Wednesday (April 29) to begin a four-day visit.
Headed by Commissioner Dale Holness of the City of Lauderhill, the team of seven will observe interest areas relating to arts and culture, sports, tourism and business in Falmouth and Montego Bay. The group will also interact with their Jamaican counterparts in looking at potential business opportunities between both regions.
Commissioner Dale Holness
Commissioner Holness, also a Jamaican national, told JIS News that both Falmouth and Lauderhill already share a relationship as twinned cities since September 2006, under the International Sister Cities program. The objective, he said, was to lay the foundation for continuing business relationships with Jamaica.
According to Commissioner Holness, strong ties already exist between both regions in the area of sports – cricket and soccer – with team games played at the newly-built 5,000 seat sport facility, the Lauderhill Central Park. He expressed that he would like to further the relationship through exchange programs in this regard, especially as those projects relate to education and youth development.
Among the whirlwind of activities over the four-day visit, the team will also meet with the Mayors of both Cities, tour Northcoast hotel properties and the newly-constructed Falmouth Stadium, observe several tourist attractions as well as meet with potential business interests.
On Friday, (May 1), the team will travel to Kingston where they will also meet with officials of Jamaica Trade and Invest before returning on Sunday (May 3).
Lauderhill, a suburb of the Fort Lauderdale metropolis, is home to a large number of Jamaicans. The city has a population of almost 70,000, one-third of whom are Jamaican nationals.
The tri-county South Florida region – Dade, Broward and Palm Beach – holds the largest group of independent entrepreneurs in the Jamaican Diaspora here in the USA, the greater number in Lauderhill, according to Commissioner Holness.
Commissioner Holness is one of six Jamaican nationals serving in elected public office in Florida State.
