The Coconut Industry Board (CIB) is encouraging coconut growers to register with the entity before March 1. Registration is free and enables growers to access benefits such as free seedlings, fertiliser, weed control grant, automatic insurance for trees against windstorm damage, voting rights and advisory services. Speaking with JIS News, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with the CIB, Shaun Cameron, said...

Discussions focusing on integrating more persons with disabilities in the overseas farm-work programme, among other areas, are continuing, says Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr. Two individuals have already been recruited and are now making preparations to depart Jamaica. Mr. Charles said the Ministry is actively striving to increase the number of participants so that more...

The Scientific Research Council (SRC) has extended the deadline for entries in the National Young Inventors and Innovators Competition (YIIC) to March 31. Speaking with JIS News recently, Executive Director, Dr. Charah Watson, said the extension was made in the best interest of students who wish to participate. “We launched the competition at the end of November, then students went...

Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, has disclosed that 151 positions will be added to the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB). “The training of firefighters has been an important feature since 2016, [and] since 2017, the JFB has added over 800 firefighters to its complement. This is an outstanding achievement. Since then, the Brigade has received approval...

The Ministry of Justice will be developing a trace study during the upcoming 2024/25 financial year to determine the true impact of the Child Diversion Programme on children who have successfully completed the intervention. “It is to see if they are still maintaining the things that they have learned in the programme,” said Director of the Chid Diversion Branch, Venisa...

A project to support the improvement of access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) has been given a budgetary allocation of $822 million to continue in the upcoming fiscal year. Details of the undertaking are contained in the 2024/25 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project, which is being implemented by the Development...

Data gathered from a recent cross-sectional survey on antibiotic use among in-patients at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) are being used to develop and roll out stewardship programmes at the institutions. Internal Medicine Physician at the UHWI and the CRH, Dr. David McGowan, who led the study, recently copped the award...

There will be 650 beds available to patients in St. James and the wider Western Jamaica once the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) and Western Children and Adolescent Hospital are completed. Clinical Coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), Dr. Delroy Fray, told a meeting of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) in Rose Hall, St. James,...

Director of Elections, Glasspole Brown, has advised that the final counting of ballots from Monday’s (February 26) Local Government Elections is under way. He told JIS News that counting is in progress at 63 counting centres across Jamaica. “We await those results. As soon as they come in, we will be releasing it to the public. Some constituencies will be...