KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has acknowledged that while the record of her ruling People’s National Party (PNP) over the past 12 months “has not been perfect” her government came to office “at a difficult time” and has since restored trust, brought back respect and decency to governance while making important progress in some key areas.
Jamaica
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A perfect example of the shortage of vision affecting CARICOM governments is their dropping of the ball on the Leucaena project in the early 1980s. Ambassador Byron Blake, former CARICOM assistant secretary general, reminded us of that last month during a sitting of the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange. For those who missed it, the Leucaena project was established in response to the energy crisis of the late 1970s.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - GORDON ‘Butch’ Stewart yesterday urged Jamaicans to hold each other’s hands and face the challenges of 2013 in an exemplary spirit of unity and teamwork. Stewart, the Caribbean’s leading hotelier, said co-ordinated teams win big games, and if Jamaicans work as a team, by “helping each other, protecting each other, and supporting each other, as never before, there is very little that we cannot achieve together”.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that by 2017 China will be the largest economy in the world, but it is not yet a developed country. If and when it achieves that status, it will represent a remarkable and unprecedented development in the world economy. Developing countries are now responsible for over half of global economic growth, according to a report released in October by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Seven years after Jamaica started courting the eastern Europeans, the first Russian carrier Transaero arrived on the island yesterday. The flight, a boost to the winter tourist season, landed at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James, with 320 passengers aboard from Moscow, Russia. In a welcome ceremony at the airport, Minister of Tourism and Entertainment Dr Wykeham McNeill reiterated the importance of airlift to the survival of the island's tourist industry.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A Jamaican delegation of environmental officials has returned from the annual climate change conference in Doha, Qatar, with a sense of accomplishment, having seen the achievement of the goal to establish a new five-year commitment period that allows developed countries to further reduce their greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - IT IS the considered position of this newspaper that much of the public discussion about Jamaica's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is misdirected, of limited value, and does little to advance an understanding of the issues facing the island's economy and how to make things better. Essentially, what we have engaged in is keeping time on when, or when not, the agreement may be signed, without a deep exploration of the consequences, if any, of failure to meet the deadline. So, there is an a priori assumption that the proposed agreement is good.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - The first year of this new People's National Party (PNP) administration has been a mixed bag. Among the things under its control, there (have) been spectacular lows, but no spectacular highs. There have been promises kept and pledges broken. There has been talk on specific issues but no commensurate action and, as the world knows by now, there's been, as yet, no agreement on a new economic programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC - Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has acknowledged the reality of harsh conditions that may accompany an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement expected to be finalised during this New Year.
The CARICOM Electoral Observer Mission, at the invitation of the Government of Jamaica, monitored the conduct of the General and Regional Elections on 29 December 2011.
The Group of seven persons was deployed in two teams of two each and one of three to cover Election Day activities, in the parishes of St. Andrew, St. Catherine, St. Thomas and Kingston.
As mandated by the CARICOM Secretariat, the teams’ mission was to observe_
(i) the opening of the poll;