Under this Government, even after the worst economic crisis in our history, Jamaica’s macro-economic fundamentals are the strongest that they have been for 50 years.
 
And we are leveraging that economic stability in the people’s interest. It was Bruce Golding and Audley Shaw who had the audacity and courage to point out that the economic policies of the 1989 – 2007 administration were unsustainable and reckless.

#Update 🧵

CARIFORUM member states (ie Jamaica and 13 other Caribbean countries, including the Dominican Republic), entered into an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union in 2008. This agreement, known as the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (CARIFORUM-EU EPA) is a region-to-region trade and development agreement.
See the agreement here ⬇️:

sice.oas.org/trade/car_eu_e…

#Thread 🧵 Summarizing my Op-Ed in Saturday’s publication of the Gleaner: The FSC sent a report in April 2020 about an examination of SSL in June 2019. While the report was not brought to my attention it would not have made a difference if it was as:

(i) By the time the report was sent, the FSC Board had already implemented the recommendations in the report by issuing SSL with directions in October 2019.

#UpdateReSSL Please See #CourtOrder below:

Join me for my presentation on the 2022/23 Budget Debate || The Hon. Nigel Clarke - March 8, 2022 twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1… I would like to begin by thanking Almighty God for his kindness, as well as his many blessings, and mercy. To God be the Glory, great things He hath done. #BudgetDebate2022

#Thread Yesterday, in keeping with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, I tabled an Order in Parliament that designates the Montego Bay Bypass as a National Development Project.

The Project is to be implemented by China Harbour Engineering who developed the project. The Terms and Conditions include:

1/ Minimum of 90% of the unskilled construction labour on the project to be Jamaican labour.

2/ Minimum of 50% of technical jobs to be Jamaican jobs as long as Jamaicans are available.

During the year we passed the Bank of Jamaica Amendment Act that paves the way for the modernization of our central bank. This legislation benefited from, and was strengthened by, the deliberations of a Joint Select Committee of both Houses of Parliament consisting of Government members and Opposition members.

This past year has been one of the most difficult and challenging years on record for Jamaica, for Jamaicans, and for all of humanity. #Budget2021 The coronavirus, a living organism incapable of life on its own, has sought hosts in the human population at great damage to our health, and with the skillful ability to hop, unnoticeably, from one human to another through respiratory activity.

#Thread

Our record is strong, we will recover stronger.

The policies of this Government have been working for the majority of Jamaicans evidenced by the lowest levels of unemployment in Jamaica’s history and a 40% drop in poverty since 2015. The unemployment rate, at 7.2% in January 2020 was the lowest level in Jamaica’s history i.e. in at least 58 years.

#Thread #CompassionateGrant Approximately $2.65 billion in Compassionate Grant payments, for some 265,000 applicants, has been made to the financial institutions selected by applicants. Some 77,000 applicants put in bank information that has not been validated. These applicants would have received a text message and they are encouraged to log unto the We CARE website and update their account information.

The CARE Programme! The CARE Programme represents the Jamaican society coming together to assist those who are most affected by the economic impact of the Covid pandemic to put us in the best position to be able to recover and to be stronger than we were before the crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I am closing this budget debate under highly unusual circumstances of Jamaica and the world facing a health threat of alarming proportions. The focus of my presentation has to be on the Government’s fiscal and economic response. The coronavirus represents the most dangerous and threatening pandemic in 100 years.

#Thread The severe disruption caused by Covid 19 globally has escalated daily over the past week, and resulted in increasingly stringent measures to safeguard populations around the world including the Jamaican population. The Covid crisis will certainly have adverse economic implications for the world and for Jamaica.

The good news, however, is the the Government of Jamaica is providing a $25 billion stimulus, the largest stimulus in Jamaica’s history that could not come at a better time.

#Thread Sharing some data on the significance of Jamaica’s current 19 consecutive quarters of year-on-year quarterly economic growth. Jamaica has now experienced 19 consecutive quarters of economic growth. This is after the modest growth in the 3rd qtr of 2019 over the 3rd qtr of 2018, despite the significant external economic shock, from US/China trade tensions, that led to the closure of JISCO/Alpart plant.

#Thread The Jamaica Observer has a misleading article, with several inaccuracies, on the STATIN release. When comparing Q3 2019 against Q3 2018, STATIN reports that the economy grew by 0.6%. This fact is overlooked in the Observer story and hence the very unfortunate and misleading story headline.

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary celebration of the Inter American Development Bank’s (IDB) engagement with Jamaica which began in 1969. Today, the IDB is Jamaica’s single largest lender with a portfolio of US$1.6 billion representing approximately 11% of Jamaica’s debt. The IDB has had a profoundly positive impact on Jamaica over this time. They have assisted Jamaica across a range of areas including health, education, youth, energy, fiscal reform, public sector reform, and governance.

#Thread As part of public sector transformation, today we signed consultancy engagements with E & Y for a review of the public sector compensation. This will include development of pay-for-performance compensation, a concept that has been agreed to by Permanent Secretaries. The review will also seek to establish an internally consistent and internally equitable compensation system based on a unified job evaluation tool. It will seek to simplify, streamline public sector compensation and make it more transparent.

#Thread Hear Dr Phillips explain the necessity of a flexible market determined exchange rate in his 2014/15 opening budget presentation. Hear Dr Phillips inform Jamaica that the nominal exchange rate is not an indicator of whether the economy is “weak or strong”.

#Thread On learning of a meeting of UTECH Staff this morning, I called UTECH Staff Association (UTASU) President Mr Leo Langley and offered to attend, to address the UTECH staff and field any questions. UTECH plays an invaluable role in Jamaica and trains tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, leaders, skilled technicians and professionals.

PIOJ reports that the poverty rate for 2017 was 19.3%, higher than the 17.1% in 2016 but lower than the 21.2% in 2015. Against the backdrop of the 2013 poverty rate of 24.6%, (which was the highest poverty rate since 1996), the general trend is downward though not smoothly.

Thread:

During the July 23rd sitting of Parliament there was an exchange among Leader of the Opposition Peter Phillips, House Leader Karl Samuda and Speaker Pearnel Charles on the matter of individual government funded credit cards. 1/5 That exchange cast doubt on whether there was historical precedent and triggered uncertainty over whether the practice was consistent with government policy. 2/5