PM Tells Partnership Council to Move with Urgency

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller has made a call for urgent implementation of planned projects so the country can meet its targets for growth, debt containment, job creation and social protection.

She told the Partnership Council at its meeting on Thursday, February 28, that this is a time for action on the growth agenda.

“Implementation is what we are about, and I have set up an internal system to ensure that projects are implemented with a sense of urgency,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister urged all the partners to collaborate and ensure that projects which are in an advanced stage be completed with minimum delay.

The Prime Minister commended public sector workers for their positive response to date to the Government’s appeal for salary restraint and the private sector for supporting the growth agenda and creating jobs as a vital contribution to Jamaica’s economic development in the near term.

Prime Minister Simpson Miller welcomed indications from members of the Partnership Council that the private sector was collaborating with the public sector union leadership and the Minister with responsibility for the Public Service to explore measures of support for easing some of the burdens affecting public sector workers and the most vulnerable.

Welcoming the views of the members of the Council, the Prime Minister reaffirmed that “nobody, no single entity, no political party, no sector, private or public, no union, no civil society group can accomplish on its own what we as a nation need at this time,” and expressed her firm opinion that Jamaicans had the capacity to work our way out of our problems.

The Partnership Council comprises representatives from the Government and the Opposition, the Private Sector, the Trade Union Movement, Civil Society Organisations and Special Invitees.