Jamaica welcomed 1,217,870 visitors during the January to March 2017 quarter, who spent an estimated US$759. 3 million. Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Director General, Dr. Wayne Henry, said the figures represent increases of 1.7 per cent and 3.7 per cent in arrivals and expenditure, respectively, over the corresponding quarter in 2016. He was speaking at the PIOJ’s quarterly media...

The National Child Month Committee (NCMC) wrapped up its activities for Child Month 2017 with a Day of Prayer on May 31, at the Bethel Baptist Church on Half-Way Tree Road, in Kingston. The month was observed under the theme ‘Take Action! Break the Chain of Abuse Against Children’. Children who attend schools in and around the Half-Way Tree area...

Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, is imploring councillors to put service at the centre of everything they do. “We want to take local government where the people not only respect you because of your political persuasion… (but) must also respect you because of the kind of representative that you are, the kind of service that...

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is reporting that 1,185,700 persons were employed as at January 2017, an increase of 21,900, relative to January 2016. The figure, contained in the Labour Market Survey for the month, represented a further decrease in the unemployment rate, which stood at 12.7 per cent. This was 0.6 per cent lower than for January 2016...

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government is working to address the over-reliance on the use of force in policing. He said the method has not been successful in maintaining the rule of law and public order. “So, I am totally seized of the importance of entering Jamaica into a new paradigm of engendering rule of law...

The Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control (JCTC) is concerned about the debilitating effects of tobacco on persons from low-income households using it. Speaking at a JIS Think Tank on Wednesday, May 31, which was observed as World No Tobacco Day, JCTC Board member, Deborah Chen, explained that the majority of Jamaican tobacco users are from the lower socio-economic group. According...

Director of the Early Stimulation Programme (ESP), Antonica Gunter-Gayle, could hardly contain her joy at the recent opening of the programme’s upgraded facility for special needs children. “I feel great, I am excited; the staff is overcome. It is a good feeling,” she says. The $86-million centre, located at 95 Hanover Street, downtown Kingston, was constructed by the Government through...