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The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), has approved $817 million for projects and programmes geared at enhancing and developing Jamaica's tourism product. Speaking at a recent press briefing at the Ministry of Tourism's offices in New Kingston, Minister Edmund Bartlett, pointed out that funds have been allocated to improve and upgrade resorts and tourism centres throughout the island as a means...

The funeral service for Alton Ellis, the singer regarded as Jamaica's greatest proponent of Rocksteady music, will take place at the St. Andrew Scots Kirk United Church at 43A Duke Street in downtown Kingston on Monday 3rd November 2008, starting at 11:00 a.m. Mr. Ellis, who died on the night of October 10, in England where he resided, will be...

Senator Aundre Franklin, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Environment will lead a delegation to the Rotterdam Convention at the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy from October 30 - 31, 2008. The theme identified for the two day meeting is "Sound Chemicals Management: Relieving the Burden on Public Health." "Jamaica has an...

President of the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association, Omar Azan, has welcomed the new US$10 million credit facility that has been secured by the Export Import Bank of Jamaica (EXIM Bank), to assist local importers of goods and raw materials from the United States. Reacting to the announcement in an interview with JIS News yesterday (Oct. 28), Mr. Azan noted that the...

Minister of Health, Rudyard Spencer, has expressed the view that to successfully reduce the demand for illicit drugs throughout the Caribbean, a region-wide public education programme, similar to the one being implemented for HIV/AIDS, must be carried out. Pointing out that the region cannot afford the social decadence that accompanies the peddling, use and abuse of drugs, the Health Minister...

Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Tufton, has informed that the Consumer Affairs Commission and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), will be monitoring selected retailers to ensure that the prices on the cheaper fertiliser blends, which arrived in the island last week, are kept at the agreed levels. "The intention is not to implement price control, we will however continue...

A programme for the rehabilitation and reintegration of local offenders and deported persons, is to be undertaken by the Government, through the Ministry of National Security, and the United Kingdom (UK) Government. Making the announcement at today's (Oct. 29) post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of National Security, Senator Colonel Trevor MacMillan, said that to this end, "a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU),...

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), on Tuesday (Oct. 28), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with the Jamaica Red Cross Society, to undertake the management of priority emergency shelters islandwide. Director General of ODPEM, Ronald Jackson, said the signing, which took place at the agency's headquarters in Kingston, represents the culmination of year-long consultations with the...

National Security Minister, Senator Colonel Trevor MacMillan, is defending the Government's decision to build a new 5,000-bed, state of the art, correctional facility at Amity Hall in St. Catherine. Describing the country's correctional facilities as "woefully inadequate", Col. MacMillan says the facility will be the first major investment undertaken in the island's prison system in over 200 years. Addressing the...

Across the world, leaders of nations are continually engaged in pursuits, aimed at positioning their countries to maintain relevance within a globalised dispensation. Increasingly, there is recognition of the need for focus in this regard, as the global platform continues to broaden to accommodate those capable of participating and surviving in a highly competitive environment. The same is true of...

Minister of Health and Environment, Rudyard Spencer, advised the House of Representatives yesterday (Oct. 28), that there was nothing "malicious or vindictive" in the termination of the services of Rae Barrett, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Fund (NHF). "It is very important that the country understand that the CEO was appointed by the former administration. When...

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Dwight Nelson, has called on stakeholders participating in this year's Productivity Conference, to take total factor productivity into consideration. He cautioned against mistaking efficiency for productivity, while speaking at the opening ceremony of the Jamaica Productivity Centre's (JPC), Productivity Conference, at the Knutsford Court Hotel yesterday (October...