Work on the Caymanas to Linstead leg of the North-South Highway is more than 80 per cent complete and is on track to conclude in the first quarter of 2016. Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, who toured that section of the highway yesterday (October 28), said she is pleased with the progress of the project. She commended...

Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College, in St. James, is to benefit from a Diagnostic and Early Childhood Centre, to complement its preparation of trained teachers with specialization in Early Childhood and Special Education. To this end, Cabinet has approved a contract to Food for the Poor for the construction of the Centre at a cost of $50.64 million. “Presently, there is...

Contracts totalling US$8.73 million have been signed for upgrading and improvement works at six wastewater treatment facilities in the parishes of Kingston, St. Catherine and Clarendon. Of the total allocation, US$5 million is for the decommissioning of the Acadia, Bay Farm Villas and Hughenden facilities as well as the design and construction of three wastewater conveyance systems and pump stations, which...

State Minister in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Julian Robinson, is encouraging private sector companies to diversify their energy sources and become more efficient in their energy consumption. This, he said, is in order to reduce the country’s huge energy import bill, which amounted to over US$2 billion last year.  “This exceeds all our exports as a...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Derrick Kellier, has welcomed the launch of the first locally developed sorrel harvesting machine which, he said, will significantly reduce the cost and reaping time of the crop. “With the introduction of this machine, the de-seeding of sorrel will reduce, by at least 50 per cent, the time required by manual labour and will...

Reproductive Health Advisor at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, Dr. Mario Aguilar, says investing in the reduction of adolescent pregnancies can lead to significant economic and social gains. Speaking on a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) television programme, ‘Issues and Answers’, he emphasised that every effort must be taken in the region to deal...

An unquenchable passion for new experiences and a desire to learn the cultures of others prompted Terrike Brown to travel more than 12,000 kilometres to the East Asian island of Japan in 2011 to participate in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. At the time, he was working as a research assistant at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica....