A sum of $735.5 million has been allocated to continue the Strategic Public Sector Transformation Project this year. This is outlined in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project, being implemented by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, is seeking to strengthen public resource management and provide support for select State institutions...

Education Officer for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information’s Region IV, Stokely Reid, is imploring the country’s young males to focus on the positives, noting that their dreams can be realised as long as they work steadfastly and earnestly towards these goals. “Stop looking at the past and the negativity and what will hold us down and start looking...

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has announced that grade-five students will sit the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) grade-six mock examinations in June. In an interview with JIS News, Senator Reid said all the necessary arrangements have already been made for students islandwide to sit the examinations, of which they will be the first cohort...

The fleet of the Jamaica Fire Brigade is expected to be increased in the new fiscal year, following an allocation of $232 million. Details of the project are outlined in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, which were tabled in the House of Representatives by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, on February 15. The money will...

State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, has tasked the HEART Trust/NTA to keep track of young innovators and to highlight their creativity. The State Minister said the agency should facilitate the exposure of the scores of youth across the island who are “doing well”, and “showcase them more”, through channels such as the...

Essex Valley in St. Elizabeth is to benefit from the development of its irrigation infrastructure in the upcoming fiscal year. A sum of $457.6 million has been provided in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure to undertake this work and other activities. These include the development of lands; construction of access roads; and the construction of a pump-house, and well drilling....

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor, Brian Wynter, says recent fluctuations in the exchange rate have resulted from greater demand for foreign currency and not a shortfall in supply. Noting that the exchange rate appreciated by 3.8 per cent during the October to December 2017 quarter, Mr. Wynter said this trend continued into the first week of January 2018, adding that...