The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) recently formalised a partnership with Digicel Foundation to provide assistance to five early-childhood schools to become certified under the ECC’s 12 Operating Standards. The schools are New Works Primary and Infant, Westmoreland; Upper Rock Spring All-Age and Infant School, Hanover; Pratville Infant Department, Manchester; Carisbrooke Infant Department, St. Elizabeth; and Cassava River Primary and Infant...

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Hon. Daryl Vaz, has given a commitment to assist the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) with lands for its castor bean project. “I am the Minister with responsibility for land (and) where there is land that is unutilised, I will make it available,” he said. He was speaking at...

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) continues its 150th anniversary celebrations with the staging of a concert in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, on Saturday, March 25. The event is the third of six scheduled concerts to be staged, one for each police division. Head of the Corporate Communications Unit, Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, told JIS News that the event is part...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, says lending rates by banks on new loans as at December 2016 were trending down. Closing the 2017/18 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 22, the Minister pointed out that interest rates on new loans for large projects are now at 10.23 per cent, compared with 13...

The Enrichment Initiative, which seeks to achieve 100 per cent literacy among primary-school students, has been handed over fully to the Ministry of Education. The project was initiated in 2009 by the Education Ministry and the Digicel Foundation, which provided funding. In 2013, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) came on board with more funding. Through the initiative,...

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Dr. the Hon. Andrew Wheatley, says the Government has realised savings of some $131.5 million through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Programme (EECP). “This is money that can be diverted to other areas, such as social and infrastructural development,” he said. He noted that the programme, being undertaken in collaboration with international funding partners,...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, says companies that pay the General Consumption Tax (GCT) on group health insurance on behalf of their workers will be able to treat the payment as a deductible expense. Deductible expenses are those that can be subtracted from a company's income before it is subject to taxation. “Simply put, those...