Jamaica is being hailed as “exceptional” for achieving sustained reduction in the public-debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio (GDP) despite global financial crises, pandemics, and other emergencies. In a paper titled ‘Sustained Debt Reduction: The Jamaica Exception’, authors Serkan Arslanalp, Barry Eichengreen and Professor Peter Blair Henry, noted that the sharp, sustained reductions in public debt are outstanding “because public-debt-to-GDP ratios have been trending...

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has issued new service-level standards as guidelines for the operation of Automated Banking Machines (ABMs) by deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) which are regulated by BOJ. The new standards were issued on April 2 and DTIs have a nine-month transition period to bring themselves into conformity with the guidelines, given the far-reaching nature of the service-level standards. Compliance...

Minister of Education and Youth and St. Andrew Eastern Member of Parliament, Hon. Fayval Williams (second left), and Chief Executive Officer, Universal Service Fund (USF), Dr. Daniel Dawes (centre), point to the Chambers Lane Wi-Fi sign during the launch of the service in the community on Wednesday (March 27). Others (from left) are Councillor for the Mona Division, Gary Gordon;...

Plans are under way to boost the Tilapia fish industry by training farmers at the Clarendon-based HEART/NSTA Trust Ebony Park Academy and providing free fingerlings. According to Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, the Ministry is putting resources in the Academy to re-establish their fishponds, and “use Ebony Park as a base for the next generation of...

State Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Franklin Witter (right), is being shown the root length of Kaiser lettuce grown in the hydroponics system  (without soil), by Agricultural Extension Officer, Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Kavil Howard. Occasion was the St. Mary Association of Branch Societies/Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) Annual Agricultural Show held on Easter Monday...

The global launch for the 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference will take place on Thursday, April 4, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, 2 Port Royal Street, Kingston, Persons can view the event, which will be streamed live on the Ministry’s website, mfaft.gov.jm, and on the Jamaica Information (JIS) YouTube channel. Biennial Conference...

To revitalise the dairy industry, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, has identified Knockalva Polytechnic College in Hanover as a key institution to lead this resurgence. Addressing the 41st staging of the Montpelier Agricultural & Industrial Show, held at the Montpelier Show Ground in St. James on April 1, Mr. Green said that the tertiary institution...