Human Capital Jamaica’s Greatest Asset-PM

Prime Minister, the Most Honorable Portia Simpson-Miller says Jamaica has produced an invaluable array of human capital that continues to represent the country’s greatest national asset for social development and economic growth.

“It is our people supported by a system of high quality education and relevant world-class training that must now provide the next great leap forward for the nation,” the Prime Minister said.

She added that it was necessary that this advancement be fueled by innovation and the remarkable creativity for which Jamaica and its people are world- renowned.

In her message, read by Charge D’Affaires of the Embassy of Jamaica, Mrs. Marsh Coore-Lobban at the Thanksgiving service to mark Jamaica’s 53^rd year of independence at the Dunbarton Chapel, Howard University Law School on Sunday, August 2, 2015, Prime Minister Simpson-Miller said that since January 2012, the Government has embarked on a courageous and successful effort to reform Jamaica’s economy.

This reform she said, will correct some of the structural weaknesses that have contributed to the country’s high indebtedness, low growth levels, high unemployment and less than satisfactory investments in growth inducing infrastructures and other areas of social capital development.

The Prime Minister also pointed out that the economic reform programme is a national call to social and economic action involving commitment, responsibility, patience and sacrifice on the part of all Jamaicans.

“By world-bank standards, we have already seen a tremendous improvement in Jamaica’s ease of doing business, inflation has been reduced to its lowest level in 48 years and our investment in the education of our people as a share of the national budget is among the highest in the Caribbean and Latin American region,” Mrs. Simpson Miller said.

She also noted that the Government has positively transformed the country’s physical and economic infrastructure, including its network of highways.

She further added that the county’s international credit rating has consistently been up-graded and the island continues to be the destination of choice for a growing number of vacationers and visitors.

Mrs. Simpson-Miller also stated that Jamaica’s ability to enjoy additional and greater benefits of the ongoing economic reform process requires consistency and steadfastness on the part of all Jamaicans, as the government continues to advance the program of economic improvement for the country.

In addition, Mrs. Simpson Miller noted that Jamaicans will have to recommit themselves in every way possible to engage in better social relations that can produce peace, harmony and tolerance in individual families, communities and the nation at large.

The Prime Minister also commended the Jamaican society at home and in the Diaspora that has made an invaluable contribution to Jamaica’s growth and development over the past fifty-three years.

“At this time our country needs your continued support to remain proud, free and to achieve lasting peace and prosperity in the years ahead,” she said.