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On February 2, 2005, when we last met together like this, I greeted you with a great deal optimism and hope, in spite of some real challenges, which some might have even characterized as real and present danger. Being a man given to optimistic realism, or realistic optimism whichever way you decide to spin it - it simply means that...

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has emphasized that capital markets and investments were critical to the economic development of any country, and that the material progress in a society could be measured by the state of its capital markets. Mr. Patterson said that capital markets, which were important elements of the Jamaican economy and the wider Caribbean economy, were "critical to...

Effective January 30, some 200,000 national minimum wage earners and industrial security guards are set to benefit from increases in their earnings. There will be a 16.66 per cent increase in the national minimum wage, moving from $2,400 to $2,800 per 40 hour work week and a 15 per cent increase in the minimum wage for industrial security guards, with...

Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, has said that the inflation rate for the month of December 2005 was 0.1 per cent, which would result in an outturn of about 1 per cent for the last three months of the calendar year. The Finance Minister, who was speaking to journalists at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay this...

The first conference of the Jamaican Diaspora in the United Kingdom (UK), is set for Saturday, April 1 in Birmingham. This conference aims to widen the participation and strengthen the impact of the Jamaican Diaspora in the UK. Plans for the conference were discussed on January 14 at a meeting of the UK Diaspora group, regional co-ordinators and interest group...

A National Security Strategy, which outlines a tactical approach to crime fighting and provides for collaboration between key entities to enhance citizen security, is now before the House of Representatives for review and approval. The strategy was developed with the assistance of international partners, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom and involved wide consultations with the Opposition, department...

Students of Jamaican heritage living across the Diaspora, who wish to be considered for the third installment of the GraceKennedy Jamaica Birthright Programme, have until February 10 to send in their applications.The forms are available online at www.gracekennedy.com and will be accepted via email at: jamaicanbirthright@gkco.com. Established in December 2003, the GraceKennedy Jamaica Birthright Programme aims to deepen ties with...

Faye Jacobs, Executive Director of Caribbean Integrated Financial Services Limited (CIFS) is proposing the establishment of a regulatory banking body for the region. One hopeful benefit of the Caribbean Single Market (CSM), as perceived by Ms. Jacobs, is that it will introduce a regional regulatory arm for the banking sector, separate from a regulatory arm for the financial services sector,...

Laws are to be in place during the first quarter of this year to allow cable operators to advertise. Senator Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Information, made this disclosure at a JIS 'Think Tank', recently. He noted that drafting instructions to change the law have been given to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, and that a first draft of the document has...

Moore Business Forms Caribbean Limited has been contracted to produce and supply 100,000 receipt books for the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), under the National Praedial Larceny Control Programme, at a cost of $22 million. Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman, yesterday(January 16), announced that Cabinet had approved the award of the contract, at a post Cabinet press briefing held at...

Cabinet yesterday (Jan. 16), approved the compulsory acquisition of land at 6 Kensington Crescent by the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) for parking purposes.The lot, acquisition for which has been approved under the Land Acquisition Act, is to be acquired at a maximum cost of $13 million. Making the announcement at the weekly post Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Information...

Cabinet has approved the award of a contract worth just over $16 million to Arima Engineering Company Limited, for electrical installation works in Denham Town under the Inner City Housing Project. "It will provide infrastructure to take power, telephone and cable services from the various supplies and external connection points to the distribution points within each apartment within the block,"...