My Fellow Jamaicans: The theme for this year's Labour Day is the well-known African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." It challenges us to be each other's keepers. As members of one community we have to take responsibility for each other. This year the emphasis is on our children. Much of what we do as parents and...

Once again, we are getting ready to celebrate another Workers’ Week/Labour Day.  On Monday, May 23 we will celebrate Labour Day, the culmination of Workers’ Week, May 15 – 23. Like so many times before since its inception, our objective over this period is to galvanise our people into active and voluntary engagement within the various communities in our nation...

KINGSTON — Minister of Finance and the Public Service, the Hon Audley Shaw, issued a statement on the National Investment Bank of Jamaica’s (NIBJ) approval of an equity investment in a hotel being developed by the Runaway Bay Development Company Limited in February, 1996, Tuesday (May 17). Mr. Shaw, in closing the Budget Debate on Wednesday (May 11), had described...

Concerns about the upcoming Diaspora Convention have been fully ventilated in the media as it ought to be in a democratic country enjoying all its freedoms. Hopefully, this will generate more interest and participation, as reports from different Diaspora regions are now indicating. To set the record straight, I wish to make the following comments. The process of planning the...

[Click here to view entire speech (PDF)] Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago I invited this House and the nation to draw inspiration from the tremendous progress made during the single calendar year of 2010. I spoke of our success at side-stepping economic collapse when the global crisis hit us, halting our decade-and-a-half-long fiscal slide, and our success at stabilizing the...

[Click here to view entire speech (PDF)] This debate has been conducted in the manner to which we have long been accustomed. One side seeks to showcase what has been achieved, the other side seeks to demonstrate how little, if any, has been achieved. I question whether the interests of the people are best served by this approach. I question...

[Click here to view entire speech (PDF)] Mr. Speaker, after three and a half years at the helm of the Transport and Works Ministry, I am happy to be now reaping the levels of success that were envisioned from the start, which took creativity, grit and determination to accomplish. With strategic application backed by in-depth analysis of the inherited positions,...

I laud all teachers today. You have the undying regard of the Ministry of Education. We applaud your service to the education sector, the nation and God. Teacher’s Day provides an opportunity for the Ministry and Jamaica to recognize and honour the immense contribution of teachers to human development and progress.  It is with a deep sense of appreciation that...

Today, as we mark Teacher's Day, we are presented with an opportunity to give due recognition to members of this noble profession, whose outstanding contribution to nation building cannot be discounted. It is an opportunity for many of us to reflect on our own lives and how much our past teachers had aided our journey to the place of success...

KINGSTON — Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, tabled Jamaica's first ever Tax Expenditure Statement in Parliament, when he opened the 2011/12 Budget Debate on Thursday April 28 at Gordon House. Tax expenditureis, essentially, any provision that results in a reduction of tax for a specific type of taxpayer or activity.      Mr. Shaw said the statement...

Mr. Speaker, exactly a year ago, Jamaica faced a very different reality. Certainly for me, and the Economic Management Team at the MOF, it was a time of intense activity and immense pressure because of what was at stake. Jamaica was grappling with the fall-out from the most severe economic crisis the world had seen in 80 years. Not only...