KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC - The Jamaica Teachers Association, (JTA) has become the latest public sector union to sign a wage restraint agreement with the Portia Simpson Miller led administration.
Previously, the teachers’ union had stated that it could not make such an agreement and as a result did not join other public sector unions, which signed the agreement with the government last week.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - THERE is an intriguing story in yesterday's Sunday Observer about a push by The Bahamas to make sports a major engine of growth for its huge tourism industry. Those who haven't read it, should.
Much has been said in Jamaica about sports and its potential as a money spinner — especially since this island of 2.7 million is the envy of the world in terms of sporting achievement.
But as Assistant Sports Editor Mr Sean Williams pointed out in yesterday's story, the Bahamians aren't just "talking the talk, they are walking the walk".
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A senior economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) that they face similar challenges now confronting the Eurozone countries.
Alfred Schipke, formerly of the IMF Western Hemisphere Division, said the Eastern Caribbean Currency and Economic Union, may be the smallest of three economic and currency unions worldwide, bringing together eight small islands, whose total combined population is less than a million.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Last week's death of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, happened as the Jamaican Government was advertising its appointment of Dr Wesley Hughes, the former financial secretary, as manager of its PetroCaribe Development Fund.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Seventeen countries of the Caribbean face a heightened period of economic uncertainty now that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died. Twelve of the 17 Caribbean countries are members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom). They have become highly reliant on their oil supplies from Venezuela on a part payment-part loan scheme, called PetroCaribe, without which their difficult economic circumstances would be decidedly worse.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC - The United States-based rating agency, Moody’s Investor Services has cut Jamaica's sovereign foreign currency credit rating to Caa3 from B3, citing the recent domestic debt exchange as a distressed event that still leaves the country with a high debt burden. Last month, Jamaica launched a National Debt Exchange (NDX) to alleviate the financing pressures of its sizeable debt load.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is heading a high-level team of Jamaicans who will travel to Caracas, Venezuela, today to attend the funeral for that nation's late president, Hugo Chávez. Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell and Foreign Affairs Minister A.J. Nicholson are accompanying the prime minister.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - CARIBBEAN Community (Caricom) energy ministers have approved an initial target of 47 per cent renewable energy contribution to total electricity generation in the region by 2027.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaican and Guyanese citizens account for the vast majority of CARICOM nationals who have been refused entry into Barbados over the last five years, according to statistics compiled by immigration officials there.
However, the statistics, which are among the evidence tendered before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the Shanique Myrie case, have shown that the majority of CARICOM nationals seeking entry into Barbados came from Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - The fallout from Jamaica’s recently approved debt exchange arrangement has hit at least one of Barbados’ biggest financial institutions.
Sagicor Financial Corporation, which has hundreds of millions of dollars in investments in Jamaica, had some of its companies placed “under review with negative implications” for its financial strength rating by international insurance rating company A.M. Best Co.