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Regional tourism is expected to benefit from 750,000 Euro-grant in official aid from Spain, as part of a developmental assistance agreement between CARICOM and that European country. The agreement was finalised during the second Joint Commission meeting of the CARICOM/Spain Commission held from October 18 to 20 at the Hilton Kingston Hotel. Talks between Spain and CARICOM began in 2002...

Deputy Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, has said that the region stood to derive tremendous benefits from the provisions of a two-pronged agreement between Spain and CARICOM, which was arrived at after three days of deliberations last week in Kingston. In giving details of the arrangement at a press conference held at the Jamaica Pegasus...

Children's Advocate, Mary Clarke is appealing to the nation to be constantly vigilant and to become actively involved in the protection of children. She made the appeal against the background of recent reports of the alleged sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl by five school boys, at the Dunrobin Primary School. "This is another wake up call to the nation...

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Sheila Campbell-Forrester, has said that while Jamaica has achieved favourable results in relation to its rate of infant and child immunisation, more emphasis should be placed on immunising children during the first year of life. Dr. Campbell-Forrester, who was delivering the opening address at the National Conference on Immunisation held...

State Minister in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Senator Floyd Morris, has recommended that a confidentiality clause be included in the Electoral Commission legislation for the protection of the disabled voters. He made the suggestion during the debate on the Bill, which was passed in the Senate on Friday (Oct. 20). "For a Bill of this nature it...

Government Senator, Trevor Munroe, has called on the media and Parliamentarians to do more to encourage members of the public to attend sittings of the Houses of Parliament. Senator Munroe, who was speaking at last Friday's (Oct. 20) sitting of the Upper House, raised concern at the lack of public interest in Parliamentary proceedings, evidenced by the decline in the...

Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips, has said that society must explore mediation as a means of peacefully solving disputes. Dr. Phillips, who was addressing a recent Jamaica Constabulary Force-organized mediation conference at the Medallion Hall Hotel on Hope Road, noted that, "issues of mediation and social intervention are among the most urgent tasks that confront the society.as a...

Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller has described as phenomenal, the growth in remittances from the Jamaican Diaspora over the last 15 years.Matched against the top two income generating sectors of the Jamaican economy, Tourism and Bauxite and Alumina, Prime Minister Simpson Miller said that remittances were at the top of the list. "The growth in remittances from the Jamaican Diaspora...

Ambassador to the United States (US), Professor Gordon Shirley, will meet with more than 200 Jamaican students attending colleges and universities in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia next Saturday (Oct. 28) at a special reception slated for the Organization of American States' Museum of the Americas in the American capital. The reception, hosted jointly by the Jamaican Embassy and the...

The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) will be introducing a community safety component to its fire prevention strategy, with special emphasis placed on households. "We will continue to do public education, inspection and certification, but we will add another component, where we will actively target households," said Assistant Commissioner with Responsibility for Fire Prevention, Laurie Williams. He told JIS News that...

The Ministry of Justice will meet with stakeholders in the justice system next month, to consider the submissions on the draft Victims' Charter, in addition to the views that came out of the recent public consultations on the matter. Attorney-at-Law and Advisor on Justice Reform in the Ministry, Canute Brown, told JIS News that the presentations made by each group...

Work on the review of the Jamaican justice system has begun, with the arrival of personnel from the Canadian Bar Association (CBA). The team, which will operate from the Ministry of Justice's Oxford Road premises, will be in the island for two weeks initially, to begin the nine-month review. "They have mapped out an approach, which is welcomed," Communications Manager...