Jamaica continues to progress towards a brighter and better future as the nation advances in fufilling the global sustainable development goals (SDGs), established by the United Nations in 2015.   These 17 SDGs are being implemented through the successive three-year Medium-Term Socio-Economic Frameworks (MTF) of Vision 2030 Jamaica, the country’s National Development Plan.    The Plan covers a 21-year period and includes...

Work is to continue on the public- sector compensation restructuring process during the first quarter of fiscal year 2022/23, which begins on April 1. The exercise, being spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, is intended to overhaul the system of salaries and emoluments in the public service to make it more equitable. The compensation structure currently...

The 15th Population and Housing Census is right around the corner and many persons are excited about the prospects for employment and nation-building. “I'm looking forward to the census. I've worked actually in three capacities,” says Patricia Curtis, who has worked on two censuses in the past. She tells JIS News that the census provides an opportunity for her to...

Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) says it is committed to informing the public about threshold abuse. Threshold abuse is defined simply as misusing the income tax threshold. While it is not the most attractive subject matter, the issue has presented many challenges for uninformed taxpayers. Manager of Taxpayer Education at the Mandeville Revenue Service Centre, Marie McDonald, explains the concept in...

Data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) show that the number of women securing employment is gradually increasing. According to STATIN’s October 2021 Labour Force Survey, of the 76,600 additional persons gaining jobs to expand the employed labour force by 6.6 per cent to 1,234,800, women accounted for 43,700. This out-turn represents 57 per cent of the overall additional...

Born out of a passion to positively impact his country through youth development, founder and Managing Director of M&M Jamaica Limited, Donald Mullings, has transformed scores of young lives with investment in education. Over the past 10 years, the company has spent more than $35 million providing several scholarships through its CHANCE Fund programme, which has enabled students to pursue...

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is slated to undertake Jamaica’s 15th National Population and Housing Census in April. The national census is conducted every 10 years and was scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Speaking on JIS Television’s Get the Facts Programme, Director-General of STATIN Carol Coy, says data collected from citizens will...

The leadership of unions/bargaining units signing agreements on behalf of civil servants for the Government’s four per cent salary increase offer for April 2021 to March 2022, is anticipating seamless implementation of the Public Sector Compensation Review, and have committed to working to facilitate this. The review, slated to begin in April 2022, is intended to overhaul the structure of...

Deputy Governor of the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ), Natalie Haynes, says Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) implementation is consistent with the Government’s overall financial inclusion strategy. CBDC is a digital form of central bank-issued currency and, therefore, is legal tender that can be exchanged dollar for dollar with physical cash. Households and businesses will be able to use CBDC to,...