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Prime Minister of Canada the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, will address a joint sitting of the Houses of Parliament on Monday (April 20) at 2:10 p.m. The Prime Minister arrived in the island on Sunday night (April 19) for a two-day working visit. He travelled to Jamaica by special aircraft from the three-day Summit of the Americas, which ended on...

A total of $2.4 billion has been allocated to the Customs Department this fiscal year, as Government moves to implement strategies to meet revenue targets, collect overdue amounts, and foster an environment for voluntary tax compliance. This is contained in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure, which is now before the House of Representatives. In meeting the stated targets, measures will...

Cabinet has given approval for a Bill entitled, the Child Pornography (Prevention) Act 2009, to be tabled in Parliament. This was disclosed recently by Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, at a post Cabinet press briefing, held at Jamaica House. She explained that the Bill seeks to specifically recognise and treat child pornography as a criminal offence...

Some $4.617million has been set aside in the 20109/2010 budget to assist with the implementation of biodiversity conservation programmes in select Cockpit Country forest reserve sites, that are being affected by expanding agricultural activities. As set out in the Estimates of Expenditure, the Biodiversity Conservation Programmes in the Cockpit Country Forest Reserve Project, will conduct a number of activities. Targets...

Government's support for Special Education has been boosted with the provision of over $800 million in the 2009/2010 Estimates of Expenditure. The total figure of $846.6 million will be apportioned as follows: schools for the mentally challenged, $405 million; institutions for the hearing impaired, $159 million; and schools for the visually impaired, $60 million. The funds will be used to...

The Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James has received $1.2 billion in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure to continue its construction. The project is expected to provide direct and indirect employment for approximately 2,300 persons and, eventually, generate foreign exchange earnings from direct and indirect spending by delegates, exhibitors and associates using the facility, as well as improve the...

Repairs to some 1,500 houses severely damaged by Tropical Storm Gustav in August, 2008, will be completed prior to the start of the 2009 Hurricane Season. The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) says that the repairing and retrofitting of the houses is one of the priorities of its Tropical Storm Gustav Relief (Safer Housing Project), which is funded by...

The Government is to implement an Urban Renewal Project(URC) this year, funded by the Inter American Development Bank(IDB), which is aimed at improving the quality of life in inner city communities in Kingston. The project, which falls under the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce(MIIC) has been given $96 million in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure to: strengthen community based...

The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce(MIIC) has received $31.4 million, to assist micro, small and medium sized enterprises(MSMEs) increase their competitiveness in the agro-processing and craft sub-sectors. Under the Productive Integration of Micro-Enterprises in Jamaica/Industry Modernisation project 2009, there will be continued management and administration of the programme, with the completion of baseline studies of eight newly organised micro-enterprise...

The Government plans to spend just over $21 million this year on plant technologies, under a project in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce. The Plant Breeding and Diagnostics Technologies project, which is being financed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), aims at using radiation to induce mutation and develop plants with desirable characteristics, such as resistance to...

Construction and operation of 16 pilot research mini houses in four locations, are among this year's targets for the production and marketing of greenhouse technology products by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure revealed that the Government has allocated approximately $94 million for the Agricultural Productivity Project (greenhouse), formerly the Modern Agricultural Technology and Capacity...

The Ministry of Transport and Works is spending just over $3 million this year to continue improvements to the Washington Boulevard corridor in Kingston, to reduce traffic congestion. The project is aimed at reducing economic loss and high fuel consumption, due to the congestion and also the vehicle operating cost (VOC) due to poor ride quality. Improvements in travel time...