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State Minister for Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Michael Stern, has welcomed the 'I am the Change' programme stating that it will help to develop an entrepreneurial culture among the nation’s youth. The initiative, which was launched on Wednesday, April 20 at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) offices in New Kingston, is aimed at empowering and preparing selected secondary level...

Cabinet has approved Jamaica's accession to the Second Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. Minister with responsibility for Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects, Hon. Daryl Vaz, speaking on April 21 post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, said that the Optional Protocol, which is one of...

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and the Ministry of Education have partnered to produce a Braille format of the popular 88-page popular version of the Jamaica National Development Plan - the 400-page Vision 2030 Jamaica. Approximately 500 copies of the translated Braille format are being produced by the Ministry’s Special Education Unit, for distribution to agencies and organisations that...

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) has embarked on a series of activities islandwide, aimed at heightening awareness and understanding of Jamaica’s National Development Plan – Vision 2030 Jamaica. Central to these efforts is the publication and dissemination of an 88-page popular version of the original 400-page document, which was unveiled at the Vision 2030 Jamaica launch of the planning...

New Financial Year This new session of Parliament opens against the backdrop of a global economic recovery that is proving to be slow, uneven and uncertain. The significant increases which we have recently been experiencing in the cost of imported oil and grain are a worrying reminder of what took place in 2008 when these prices reached record levels and...

Acting Project Director for the Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP), Lisa Campbell, has emphasised  the need for a mindset change in how persons deal with issues pertaining to land, particularly titling and subdividing. Speaking at the presentation of titles to beneficiaries of Sligoville, St. Catherine, at the Sligoville Baptist Church, on April 7, Ms. Campbell cited “many deep-rooted issues,”...

HEART/NTA is now investing heavily in the establishment of the Career Advancement Programme which focuses on Jamaican youths who are unable to take advantage of training opportunities and certification programmes because they do not meet the required educational standards. Speaking at a Jamaica House press Briefing yesterday April 6, Minister with responsibility for Information, Daryl Vaz said, the Agency collaborated...

Minister of Finance, Hon. Audley Shaw, has expressed gratitude to the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) for its $327 million (£2.4 million) in debt relief for the fiscal year 2010/11. The relief was granted on past official development assistance loans (ODA), through the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). Mr. Shaw reaffirmed the strong and historic relationship...

Director General of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), Sonia Jackson, says the agency is  ready to undertake the 2011 Population and Housing Census (Census 2011), slated to officially get underway on Tuesday, April 5. Ms. Jackson tells JIS News that virtually all of the requisite activities necessary to carry out the data collection exercise have been completed. “It’s all...

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Hon Dr. Kenneth Baugh, is urging nationwide support for the 2011 Population and Housing Census, which will be administered by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) over a four month period, beginning April 5. This year's census, the island’s fourteenth since the commencement of the modern format in 1943,...

Prime Minister, the Hon Bruce Golding, officially opened Jamaica's 'most modern and elaborate' port, the Falmouth Cruise Pier in Trelawny, on Tuesday March 22. The approximately US$ 269 million pier, which is still under construction,  also saw the arrival of the world’s largest cruise vessel, Oasis of the Seas, making its inaugural stopover in Jamaica, with about 6,000 passengers and...

Recommendations aimed at inducing short and medium term economic growth in Jamaica, have been included in a strategy developed within the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ). The document, a Growth Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term, was developed through a special secretariat established within the PIOJ. It establishes a strategic framework for robust economic growth, aligned...