Speaking Notes
Desmond Malcolm
General Manager
Urban Development Coporation
GSAT Awards Function 2015
Caymanas Golf and Country Club
Chairpersons- Mr. Hakeem Weir, himself a former GSAT beneficiary and Miss Dena Chatrie, Business Analyst at the UDC, our Guests of Honour, our GSAT awardees and your parents and guardians Members of the Board of Directors, Executive Management and all team members of the Urban Development Corporation Mr. Alex James, a former beneficiary of our GSAT awards, who will later attest to the impact of the programme on his life, Members of the media, Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
It is with great pleasure that I share with you in this special occasion as we celebrate ‘generation excellence’
Let me take this opportunity to extend congratulations to you, parents of the awardees, who have remained committed to the future of your children and are now reaping the first fruits of your labour. It is inherent in every good parent, to seek for their children to do better than they did and to make the sacrifices necessary for their success. I therefore celebrate you, parents and employees, of the Urban Development Corporation, the government’s leading urban and rural development agency.
I want to take this time to educate our young ones on the work of the UDC and how this affects your lives. Here at the UDC, your parents work hard to invest in your educational future and this event today is testament to success already being reaped.
You may not understand right now the struggles they underwent to purchase books and the various things you need, but one day you will. Use this moment of your life to be appreciative of your parents and guardians and show them thanks by increasing your study discipline and focusing on your career choices.
Speaking of career choices, the UDC is a multi-disciplinary agency. What does that mean? It means that almost all the major professions can be found right here. We have engineers, architects, planners, project managers, financial personnel, communication and customer service experts, tour guides, landscapers, administrative professionals, human resource specialists, and a whole lot more.
This means that by the time you are ready for the work world, the UDC will be even more relevant to you, as some of us may not be here and you will need to occupy these positions. I see before me future CEOs, doctors, nurses, pilots, technology experts and just about any career that you may choose.
Our work at the UDC demands the excellence of your future. As we implement projects such as the renovation of the port royal naval hospital, where we are creating an experiential musuem with funding from the tourism enhancement fund, we will need maintenance experts to keep it going for the next 100 years.
As we progress with the Festival Marketplace Downtown Kingston, we will need managers and entreprenuers for the future upkeep and expansion of the vision.
As we construct various offices, hotels and roads, and implement historic infrastructural projects such as the caymanas sewage infrastructure, we will need engineers and next generation planners to expand and help to urbanise some of our rural communities. Can you envision a jamaica dotted with skyscrapers or other modern designs, even in remote communities? The vision is possible only with the input of your excellence.
The world is demanding higher skills and as such you must step up to the plate. The focus now is on logistics hubs, which you would have heard about in the media. The UDC is involved through the proposed provision of land space in the Caymanas economic zone. This project will radically change the Kingston Metropolitan Area and cause intra-island migration as people seek jobs in the various enterprise zones.
This is great for your future as this will mean more jobs for your generation. I know you will sometimes hear negatives about the future of our country, but know that Jamaica is a beacon of hope for many and can be an economic hotspot with the right attitude from generation excellence. Yes that’s what you are, generation excellence. This morning we had the example of the wonderful performances of our athletes in Beijing, all the result of hard work and dedication to the task at hand.
As I take my seat, let me remind you that your attitude determines your altitude and that you can either be a part of the solution or the problem for the country in which you reside. Let this event today, be a day of decision, where you make up your mind never, to settle for less than the best and to give of the best of your life to god, family and country.
Thank you all and god bless generation excellence!
August 28, 2015