Mr. President, I am honoured to join fellow leaders at this 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, which affords us an opportunity to undertake the most effective global response to the challenges for which the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was elaborated. I congratulate you on your assumption of the Presidency of this session, and am particularly pleased...

Message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade on the occasion of the International Day of Peace (21st September 2016) “The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace” As we celebrate International Day of Peace, we are reminded by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, that “if we have no peace, it is...

Statement by The Most Honourable Andrew Holness on Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) Delivered in Parliament on Tuesday, September 13 Mr. Speaker, over the past  two months I have noted the public sentiments being expressed  in the media and elsewhere about the findings from the audits that were conducted at the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ ) and the Factories...

Statement by The Most Honourable Andrew Holness on Granting of Spectrum Licence Delivered in Parliament on Tuesday, September 13 Special Report of Investigation Conducted into the Circumstances Surrounding the Granting and /or Issuance of a Domestic Mobile Spectrum Licence to Symbiote Investments Ltd. Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology (MSET)   The Cabinet has given serious and deliberate consideration to...

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and the United Nations Population Fund are pleased to celebrate International Youth Day under the theme “The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Production and Consumption.” International Youth Day is observed globally on the August 12 each year to raise awareness on issues affecting youth and recognize and reaffirm the central...

Fellow Jamaicans: As we mark Emancipation Day 2016, we reflect on the heroism, awe-inspiring courage and indomitable will of our forebears, as well as the legacy they have bequeathed to us. The daring of those who were insistent in demanding their dignity; their resoluteness in struggling against their dehumanization and their freshness of vision in imagining a new kind of...

My fellow Jamaicans, brothers and sisters: Today we celebrate another Emancipation Day, One Hundred and Seventy Eight years after that epic event, which ended the enslavement of Black people. Slavery was the most reprehensible chapter of our modern history. Emancipation provided the opportunity for a fresh start. Today we breathe the fresh air of freedom, bought with the blood, sweat,...

In May 2016, the Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid announced the removal of the payment of auxiliary fees to all secondary institutions. Since then, much debate has ensued about the implications of this removal.  This Government believes that education must be compulsory between the ages of your third and eighteenth birthday. Already through the...