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Approximately $543.6 billion has been budgeted to implement public investment projects in central government and public bodies over the next five fiscal years. Of this sum, $106.7 billion will facilitate 189 projects during 2020/21. In addition, $5.89 billion has been allocated for three public-private partnership [PPP] projects, which are also slated for implementation. This is according to the Government’s 2020/21...

Minister without Portfolio with responsibility for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Karl Samuda, says $5 billion has been added to the Ministry’s budget for the 2020/2021 financial year. “I am so very happy that my Cabinet members embraced the appeal I made, and with the kind of support that we have received from Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness,...

Work to enhance the resilience of the agricultural sector and coastal areas will continue during the next fiscal year, through a $235.9 million provision. This sum is set aside in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure now before the House of Representatives. The project, which began in October 2012, is intended to safeguard livelihoods and food security in vulnerable communities by...

Approximately $3.5 billion is earmarked to provide contingency funding support for new projects approved for implementation under the Public Investment Management System (PIMS), during the upcoming fiscal year. The provision is contained in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure, which will be deliberated on by the Standing Finance Committee of the House on March 2 and 3. The engagement, which is...

Central Government operations over the first nine months of the 2019/20 fiscal year (April to December) generated Primary and Fiscal Surpluses of $112.7 billion and just over $24 billion, respectively. This is according to the Government’s 2020/21 Fiscal Policy Paper, which was tabled in the House of Representatives on February 11 by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr....

The Government will be spending $12.91 billion during the upcoming fiscal year to begin various roadworks under the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP). The money has been set aside in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. Works include commencing construction on the Harbour View to Yallahs Bridge road corridor and achieving 20 per cent...

Just over $1.5 billion has been provided to continue the Public Sector Transformation Implementation Project during the upcoming fiscal year. Details are given in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in the House on February 11. The project, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, aims to improve public service delivery by enhancing the...

A sum of $140.1 million has been allocated in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure to strengthen the capacity of Jamaica’s National Designated Authority (NDA) under the Green Climate Readiness Support Project. Details are provided in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure now before the House of Representatives. The project, which started in October 2017, and is slated to end in March...

The Government has provided $87 million to facilitate the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s (PIOJ’s) continued implementation of the Technical Cooperation Facility VI (TCF VI) Project during the 2020/21 fiscal year. This allocation is set aside in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project aims to identify and implement relevant, sustainable, visible and measurable programmes...

A sum of $489 million has been allocated for the Montego Bay Waterfront Protection Project in the new fiscal year. Details are given in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. A key activity under the project involves the rehabilitation of the Montego Bay Groynes. This is to reduce the loss of beachfront acreage to coastal...

Some $451.2 million has been budgeted to continue work under phase two of the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR II) during the next fiscal year. The sum is set aside in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. Being implemented by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, the project aims to improve the...

The Government will be spending more than $144 million for environmental improvement to the Negril area, as outlined in the 2020/2021 Budget, now before the House of Representatives. Objectives of the Integrating Water, Land and Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (IWEco Project) are to restore historical hydrological and other physical processes in the Negril Great Morass; enhance...