Jamaicans and Indian nationals will celebrate Holi Festival at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Old Hope Road, Kingston 7, on Sunday, March 24. Holi is an annual Hindu Festival of Colours, celebrated in India and across the world to welcome the Spring season. This year, the festival falls on Monday, March 25; however, it will be celebrated in Jamaica on Sunday,...

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Her Excellency Dr. Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, has commended the Government’s support for teenage mothers through the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF). “The centre and the Government of Jamaica must be congratulated for having such an initiative in place,” she said, noting that similar facilities in South...

Jamaica welcomed South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr. Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, on March 20, for a four-day visit. While here she will be engaged in discussions with the Government and civil society. Welcoming the visit, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, said it is significant, especially in a year...

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith (left), accompanies South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Her Excellency Dr. Naledi Pandor, as she looks at busts of Jamaica’s National Heroes, at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) in Kingston, shortly after her arrival in the island on Wednesday night (March 20). The official...

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, has reiterated his continued support for the implementation of the Blue Transformation approach in the Region. Blue Transformation proposes sustainable aquaculture production, effective fisheries management, and improved value chains. Minister Green, who was speaking on March 19 at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) four-day regional conference,...

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) wishing to access funding from the European Union (EU) for special projects are being advised to keep abreast of proposal requests in the media. Programme Manager of the EU Delegation to Jamaica, Luca Lo Conte, told a JIS Think Tank on March 14 that several NGOs have already accessed funding from the organisation and that paying keen...

Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Audrey Marks, has called for increased investment in women as a moral and strategic global necessity. She argued that, as half of the world's population, women are not just participants but key drivers of economic growth. She noted that they occupy diverse roles as scientists, military members, entrepreneurs, educators, and political leaders,...

The contribution of the Jamaican Diaspora to the country’s economy now stands at 14 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), says Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Hon. Alando Terrelonge. Mr. Terrelonge said the growth and successes that have been achieved over the decades, particularly in recent times, have been due, in part,...

Jamaica is concerned that the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation has reached a global stalemate, says Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith. “With just six years remaining for their implementation by 2030, we are concerned that, having reached and now surpassed the midway point, global progress on the implementation of...