Mayor of Portmore George Lee has announced that a major modern park will be built in Portmore early next year.

Recently, the Portmore Municipal Council twinned with Hagen, a city in Germany and discussed ways of improving the local municipality.

"They have agreed to sign off on building a major modern park in Portmore. We are trying to get the Gregory Park or the Portmore Mall area and that is slated to begin in February next year," Mayor Lee said. "We have gone a far way in doing that with the drawings ... all we need is to get the land from the UDC (Urban Development Corporation)."

Mayor Lee was addressing a gathering at the Portmore HEART Academy Auditorium, during a consultation meeting for the MP Colin Fagan-led South East St Catherine constituency.

Mayor Lee was also sympathetic to the people's cries with regards to the economic hardships of the time. He also hinted that a number of major industries will be coming to Portmore in 2014 as per budget presentation by Anthony Hylton, minister of industry, investment and commerce.

This, Mayor Lee feels, will create many jobs for the people in Portmore and ease some of the citizens' burdens.