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Jamaica's tourist arrivals for the six-month period from January to June 2006 have increased by 17.1 per cent when compared to the same period last year. Preliminary figures for July 2006 indicate a continuation of this strong growth trend with a 22.5 per cent increase over July 2005. In June, the United States (US) accounted for the vast majority of...

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has repeated her call for support from the Jamaican community overseas, in the thrust to move the country forward. She emphasized that this support was vital for her vision for the promotion of literacy, early childhood education, rural development and agriculture, and for the attack on crime and violence. The Prime Minister was speaking at...

Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller has reiterated that the use of National Housing Trust (NHT) funds to provide housing for the poor and dispossessed would not affect contributors, but would instead save thousands from living in squalor. Mrs. Simpson Miller was speaking yesterday (August 16) at the handing over of 252 housing units in Trench Town under the Inner City...

Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr. Wesley Hughes, has said that the Jamaican economy grew by some 2.8 per cent for the period April to June 2006.Dr. Hughes, who was addressing the Institute's quarterly press briefing yesterday (Aug.17) at his Grenada Way office in New Kingston, attributed the growth to the strong recovery in agriculture and...

A Canadian charitable organization has established a medical scholarship in honour of Jamaica's first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller. Jamaican-born Lloyd Seivright, head of the Independent United Order of Solomon, which administers several scholarships and each year donates medical equipment and supplies to countries around the world, made the announcement recently at the offices of the Jamaican Consulate General...

Cable and Wireless Limited today (Aug.16) unveiled its new e-Learning project, which allows access to more than 2,000 courses online in a wide cross-section of areas including business and professional development, management, information technology, finance and law. The training and educational tool is targeted at business customers and allows employers to access and create company-specific courses to improve employee orientation...

More than 200 Jamaican nationals from the northeast United States (US) are scheduled to meet in Washington, DC this Saturday (Aug. 19) for the Northeast Diaspora conference. The one-day conference, which is scheduled for Washington Plaza's Hotel Freedom Hall, will be officially opened by Professor Gordon Shirley, Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, with Senator Delano Franklyn, State Minister for...

Director General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal said that the region must fully participate in and shape negotiations at the resumption of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks. He pointed out that as Caribbean countries have small economies and face unique constraints in their development, states within the region should seek to ensure that they...

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) has launched a hurricane awareness programme targeted at residents in the most vulnerable parishes of St. Thomas, St. James, St. Catherine and Westmoreland. Director of Communication at the ODPEM, Nadine Newsome, speaking to JIS News at the launch held at the Rudolph Elder Park in Morant Bay on the weekend, said...

Some 60 teenagers from across the island are participating in the Ministry of Health's annual 'Teens Are Terrific' summer camp, which got underway on August 13 at the Knox Junior School in Spalding, Clarendon. Director of Health Promotion and Education in the Ministry, Takese A. Foga, told JIS News that the seven-day camp, which would run until August 19, was...

Plans are in high gear for this year's staging of the St. Ann Heritage Festival and Homecoming celebrations. The upcoming event, being planned to coincide with the 119th anniversary of the birth of National Hero, Marcus Garvey on August 17, will entail a homecoming banquet at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort on Saturday, August 19 and a trade fair, exposition...

As Jamaica seeks to expand its trade in agricultural produce globally, it is paramount that steps be taken to further comply with the exacting international food safety regulations, Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Roger Clarke, has emphasised. The Minister was addressing participants at the third Regional Workshop for the review of Draft International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures at Hotel Four...