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Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, has reiterated that a suitable tax reform model is being prepared, which will seek to promote greater levels of compliance in the payment of taxes. Minister Shaw, who was giving the keynote address at the launch of National Productivity Awareness week at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston last week, said...

Prime Minster, the Hon. Bruce Golding today endorsed the decision of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to suspend Pakistan from the Councils of the Commonwealth with immediate effect. Speaking at the first executive session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, the Prime Minister said that the decision was necessary if the organisation was to maintain...

Work is underway on the US$17 million Martha Brae/Runaway Bay Water Supply Expansion and Rehabilitation Project, which will serve sections of Trelawny and St. Ann. The project, which is being implemented by the National Water Commission (NWC) under its transformation and modernization plan, will include the construction of a 500,000-gallon tank above Rio Bueno and some 23 kilometers of transmission...

The St. Catherine segment of the Inmate Public Work Project is now underway, with inmates from the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre engaged in clean-up activities in Spanish Town. The work involves the clearing of grass and debris along Burke Road, the Spanish Town Cathedral and the Spanish Town Prison Oval. Speaking at a ceremony held at the Prison Oval...

Repair work on the Jamaica Police Academy in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine is expected to begin early next year, with the project period to last some six to eight weeks. Sections of the training school, including the canteen facilities and living quarters for new recruits, were damaged during the passage of Hurricane Dean in August. Recently, government allocated some $30...

'The Last Ride' by Jamaican writer Ditta Sylvester was among the Highly Commended works in the 2007 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Ellen Banda-Aaku from Zambia was the overall winner of the competition. Other Highly Commended entries came from Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, Canada, St. Lucia, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. There were five regional winners from Africa, Asia, the...

The National Works Agency (NWA) will be undertaking road repair work in the parishes of Clarendon, Manchester and St. Elizabeth, starting Monday(Nov. 26). Communication Officer for the NWA, Howard Hendricks, told JIS News that the work will entail patching a number of major roads, which were damaged during the heavy rains over the last six weeks. Targeted areas in Clarendon...

Work on the redevelopment of the port in Falmouth will get underway next February, in time for the arrival of the new mega cruise liner, Freedom of the Seas, which is due to call in 2009. Minister of Transport and Works, Mike Henry, told JIS News that "all the things that are necessary, the contracts that are necessary, all the...

Opportunities Jamaica '07, the inaugural business conference and exposition of the Jamaica Trade & Invest (JTI), will be held next week at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort & Spa in Ocho Rios. The two-day event, from November 28 to 29, is one of several initiatives that the JTI will undertake on an annual basis to highlight and showcase some of...

St. Elizabeth Homecoming Week 2007 gets underway this weekend with a health fair in Balaclava on Saturday (Nov. 24), while a special thanksgiving service will be held on Sunday (Nov. 25) at the Black River Methodist Church starting at 10:00 a.m. Joan Lobban from the St. Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation (SEHF) told JIS News that so far all the plans are...

Jamaica was on (Nov. 23) elected to sit on the Council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which has been meeting in London this week. Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry, who headed Jamaica's delegation to the meeting, said Jamaica's election to the Council was significant for the country. "It means that we have made another step forward in terms...

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has called for the Commonwealth to take a fresh approach to the challenges facing heavily indebted middle income countries like Jamaica. Prime Minister Golding made the call on (Nov 23) at the first day's meeting in Kampala, Uganda of members attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting from November 23-25. Addressing a special meeting of Caribbean...