Two hundred and sixty public-sector workers have, so far, registered for the Government’s Special Early Retirement Programme (SERP), which officially closes yesterday (February 28). The figure is likely to increase by March 2 when Human Resource Departments across government complete the uploading of all the persons who have applied to the programme. During a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee...

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says public debt servicing is below 40 per cent of the National Budget. “It is at 37.4 per cent. This is significant because we all remember the days in both governments when we had debt servicing in excess of 60 per cent (and) at one stage as high as 65 per...

Live music from a rhythmic mento band, aromatic authentic Jamaican food and a relaxed ambience greeted Caribbean Governors who took part in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) meeting, when they arrived at Devon House for a cultural offering last evening (February 27). The event, which was hosted by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, provided a comfortable setting...

The Government of Jamaica on February 26 took strategic steps to strengthen the foundation for the creation of a digital society, with the signing of a package of loan operations from the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB). The loans are part of a broader strategy to leapfrog the country’s development through digital transformation, thereby improving the lives of the people...

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has provided US$248 million in loan support for three key government initiatives. A total of US$160 million has been earmarked for the Public Sector Transformation Project; US$68 million for the National Identification System (NIDS); and US$20 million to further boost national security technology inputs. Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, and IDB...

President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, has praised Jamaica on the progress made in reforming its macroeconomic environment. “We believe that Jamaica is turning around, and I think this is an example for the rest of the Caribbean that when a country decides to bite the bullet, I think the collective part of the international community...

As part of efforts to minimise the impact of climate change on fishing livelihoods, a campaign will be designed and executed in the upcoming fiscal year. A sum of $22.8 million has been set aside in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure to facilitate this undertaking under the Fisheries Ecosystem Adaptation Strategies and Technologies project. The Estimates were tabled recently in...

Finance and Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are exploring the possible expansion of the IDB’s private sector loan portfolio in Jamaica. While noting that the private sector has access to significant low-cost single-digit interest rates, citing the IDB’s partial credit guarantee loan programme for micro and small enterprises disbursed through the...

The Government has allocated $88.84 billion in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, for debt repayment this year. Of this sum, the lion’s share of $58.6 billion will go towards repaying Jamaican dollar benchmark investment notes issued under the Jamaica Debt Exchange/National Debt Exchange (JDX/NDX) initiatives. The second largest provision of $17 billion is earmarked...