KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says since taking office, the Government has significantly increased its support for the poor and vulnerable.
Closing the 2017/18 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 22, Mr. Shaw said his views are supported by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), a well-respected think tank.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government has embarked on a comprehensive rationalisation of public bodies.
This, he said, will involve “a series of phased and sequenced actions over the next couple of fiscal years, whereby public bodies will, based on time-bound action plans, be merged, closed, privatised or reintegrated into the public sector”.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, says companies that pay the General Consumption Tax (GCT) on group health insurance on behalf of their workers will be able to treat the payment as a deductible expense.
Deductible expenses are those that can be subtracted from a company's income before it is subject to taxation.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
National Security Minister, Hon. Robert Montague, says Jamaica is constantly on alert for terrorists at the country’s ports of entry by using a watch list provided by the international criminal police organisation, Interpol.
“Our immigration officers are on alert. We have the software and backup systems to check passengers before they land, and when they land we’re cued into Interpol,” he said.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
The Enrichment Initiative, which seeks to achieve 100 per cent literacy among primary-school students, has been handed over fully to the Ministry of Education.
The project was initiated in 2009 by the Education Ministry and the Digicel Foundation, which provided funding. In 2013, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) came on board with more funding.
Through the initiative, Jamaica’s literacy rate at the grade-four level reached 86.5 per cent in 2016, exceeding the Ministry’s target of 85 per cent.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) continues its 150th anniversary celebrations with the staging of a concert in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, on Saturday, March 25.
The event is the third of six scheduled concerts to be staged, one for each police division.
Head of the Corporate Communications Unit, Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, told JIS News that the event is part of the JCF’s community engagement initiative aimed at improving relations between the police and citizens.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, says lending rates by banks on new loans as at December 2016 were trending down.
Closing the 2017/18 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 22, the Minister pointed out that interest rates on new loans for large projects are now at 10.23 per cent, compared with 13 per cent in December 2015.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) recently formalised a partnership with Digicel Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide assistance to five early-childhood schools to become certified under the ECC’s 12 Operating Standards.
The schools are New Works Primary and Infant, Westmoreland; Upper Rock Spring All-Age and Infant School, Hanover; Pratville Infant Department, Manchester; Carisbrooke Infant Department, St. Elizabeth; and Cassava River Primary and Infant Department, St. Catherine.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Hon. Daryl Vaz, has given a commitment to assist the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) with lands for its castor bean project.
“I am the Minister with responsibility for land (and) where there is land that is unutilised, I will make it available,” he said.
He was speaking at the official launch of the Grow Castor Bean Project at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew on March 22.
KINGSTON, March 23 (JIS):
The Defence Act is being amended to establish the Jamaica National Service Corps within the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).
The Corps is one of seven under the Government’s Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) initiative, targeting job and training opportunities for unattached young people aged 19 to 24.
