The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will maintain operations at its Jamaica office beyond November, when the country officially concludes its current arrangement with the organisation. Resident Representative, Dr. Constant Lonkeng Ngouana, said while it is the norm for the IMF to close its local office when its programme with a country ends, the decision to maintain the Jamaica office for...

Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hon. Shahine Robinson, says the net asset value of the National Insurance Fund (NIF) stood at $120.7 billion as at March 31, 2019, which is an increase of 13.67 per cent over financial year 2018. She said that the growth was driven primarily by the performance of the equity portfolio, which grew by 31.3...

General Manager, Urban Development Corporation, Heather Pinnock (fourth left), listens to Executive Director, National Integrity Action, Professor Trevor Munroe (second right), at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Jamaica’s Governance and Transparency Seminar, at The AC Marriott Hotel in Kingston, on Friday (July 12). Also listening (from left) are: Co-Chair, Anti-Fraud Committee, Jamaica Bankers Association, Lloyd Parchment; Partner, PwC, Jessica Shannon; Territory Leader, PwC,...

The Government is putting strategies in place to better plan for and finance damage and losses resulting from natural disasters. Among the measures is implementation of the public financial management policy for natural disaster risk, which will provide the country with funds in the event of a disaster. It will include, among other things, accumulating fiscal savings in the Contingencies...

The $200 million allocated by the Government for research is expected to be used to finance business and entrepreneurial programmes at tertiary institutions taking up the offer. The funds, earmarked in the 2019/20 Budget, are part of the Administration’s thrust to drive entrepreneurship through research and development. “We will rely on you (tertiary institutions) to run the transparent research application...

The Government is in discussions with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the provision of technical support in building Jamaica’s capacity to commercialise research done by local tertiary institutions. Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, said that the move is aimed at facilitating innovation in driving entrepreneurship. He was addressing the opening ceremony for the...

The winner in this year’s local leg of the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) essay competition has recommended that Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) create a mobile app. The local leg of the competition, spearheaded by the TAJ, had essays exploring the theme ‘Digitisation – Moving beyond the 21st century’. The winner and second-place entrant came from Immaculate Conception High...