More Speeches

My Jamaican brothers and sisters This year we celebrate Emancipation Day amidst the challenges and hardships that we continue to face as a nation. Every year at this time I can imagine and feel the excitement of our ancestors as they prepared for the August Morning, referred by our ancestors as "Augus Mawnin", that promised them freedom. I can imagine...

THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Approaching three years into my stewardship of the Transport and Works portfolios, I am happy to be now delivering the kind of strategic applications that are geared at modernising all portfolio areas. This first phase of delivery has come out of in-depth analysis of the pluses and minuses of the systems that were inherited in September 2007,...

Mr. Speaker, it is well known that ICTs are the pivot of productivity and growth in the post-industrial world and it is for this reason that our own growth prospects are inextricably bound up with how we drive this industry. Mr. Speaker, Jamaica has taken great care in not only laying a strong and sound foundation, but in adding value...

Since the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Corporate Area on May 23rd which was later extended to St. Catherine, the Police and the Military have been conducting an intensive campaign to reduce the level of crime and violence that have plagued the country for many years. The results have been positive and encouraging. For the first time...

Minister with responsibility for Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects, Daryl Vaz, will be making his sectoral presentation to Parliament on July 20, 2010. This will be Minister Vaz' second presentation as Minister with responsibility for Information, and he is expected to address the wide range of issues and developments that fall under his portfolio as Minister with responsibility for Information,...

Mr President, despite the level and intensity of the criticism made of my handling of this matter, I have endured in good faith and good conscience. "when US authorities received the intercepted communications pursuant to a joint law enforcement memorandum between the United States and Jamaica that governs the obtaining and sharing of such communications, US authorities had no reason...

Mr. Speaker, once again I am privileged to speak in this Honourable House. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Hon. Dr. Kenneth Baugh, makes his presentation during the 2010/11 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (July 13). I remain heavily indebted to those who have afforded me this opportunity - the Councillors, constituency executive, workers and...

Mr. Speaker, I have on several occasions provided an update to this Honourable House on the progress of the divestment of Government assets in the sugar industry. It will be recalled that the St. Thomas and Trelawny estates were divested last July to Golden Grove Sugar Company and Everglades Farms Limited respectively. In relation to Frome, Monymusk and Bernard Lodge,...

Jamaica is honoured to be hosting this 31st regular meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, in Montego Bay, a city whose links with the Caribbean integration movement go back to that historic conference in 1947, when British colonies of the Caribbean met here to chart a course for the region as the world emerged from the...

The National Transformation Programme (NTP), known as "Fresh Start Jamaica", is a Civil Society led, value based, socioeconomic programme with the State as a major partner along with Church and the Private Sector. Its intent is to trigger a process of positive transformation for all Jamaicans. As National Director of the programme, I am taking a leave of absence for...

Mr. Speaker, permit me to thank this Honourable House for allowing me a third opportunity to speak on the state of agriculture and fisheries in these sectoral debates. Please allow me to thank the Honourable Prime Minister for his confidence in my stewardship and my Cabinet colleagues for their support. My team at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries headed...

The security forces wish to confirm reports that Christopher Lloyd Coke, in respect of whom the police are holding a warrant of arrest for the commencement of extradition proceedings, was arrested this afternoon at four. He was arrested by a party of policemen manning a vehicle checkpoint along the Mandela Highway and they were acting on intelligence. Coke is being...