Speeches by the Prime Minister

Keynote Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Groundbreaking Ceremony Rio Cobre Water Treatment Plant St Catherine On March 14, 2024 _______________________________________ Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much. I don't want to break the protocol that has been established but I will say, today is a great day and I thank you all for coming. And I thank you for your patience because I was a little bit long in coming. As you probably would have already excused me because there were many things happening this morning for which I paid very close attention and indeed had to give direct attention to some issues. I see here, which I will make some specific observations. I want to acknowledge our Ambassador from the European Union, Marianne Van Steen.  You have been at many of our groundbreakings and handovers because the European Union continues to be a very solid partner for development in Jamaica. And our French Ambassador, Olivier Guyonvarch. Forgive me. Ambassador, thank you for coming. Vinci, of course, is a French company. Today is a great day as we gather to break ground for this significant project, the Rio Cobre…

Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At High-Level CARICOM Meeting on Haiti On March 11, 2024 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr Chairman Colleagues Heads of Government Secretary Blinken Ministers of Foreign Affairs Specially invited guests Excellencies Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Jamaica and to this special meeting which our country is honoured to host. I want to thank you for your patience. And I would also like to thank the press for their patience, as we all see this meeting is a work in progress and I am happy to say that we are making progress. Despite sustained efforts and attempts made over time by Haitians, by members of CARICOM and by the international community to find a solution to the political security and humanitarian crisis, the situation in Haiti continues to worsen on the ground, especially for the last few weeks. Without recounting the disruptions and violence being experienced by ordinary Haitians through attacks on institutions and infrastructure, it is clear that Haiti is now at a tipping point. CARICOM and our regional partners are deeply concerned as are our international partners here present and beyond. CARICOM heads have been intensively engaged in discussion…

Keynote Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Jamaica Stock Exchange 19th Regional Investment & Capital Markets Conference On January 23, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you, Michael, for establishing the protocol. It is a pleasure to be here at this, the 19th staging of the Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference, the signature calendar event for the investment and capital markets industry.  Now, I have a long unbroken record of speaking at this conference and probably the only person to beat that is Gregory Fisher. This conference holds significant importance by uniting stakeholders, corporate executives, and national and regional Government leaders. Its purpose is to facilitate the exchange of information and explore current trends in the capital markets, as well as emerging products and services within this sector. The goal is to expand the market and encourage increased participation. Today, I stand before you to share the good news that Jamaica boasts the most favourable economic environment since gaining independence. We now have 10 consecutive quarters of economic growth since the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, we had a long stretch of 20 consecutive quarters of economic growth. My government has established…

Keynote Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At The Launch of The Pinnacle, Montego Bay On January 20, 2024 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can imagine that I am at a loss for words. The presentation which we have just seen brings a new level of real estate development to Jamaica.  And I want to congratulate the principals of LCH Developments.  It is a visionary project.  It is a project that shows quite a bit of bravery. And I know that there are many looking on, on the project and saying this is substantial, this is significant.  So, you're not only breaking ground today, you're doing something that is groundbreaking in Jamaica. Today I hosted the Foreign Minister of China, His Excellency Wang Yi.  The Ambassador, obviously, could not have been here with us because he has to take care of his Foreign Minister who is here. He did not give me a message, he sent his message but I'm sure he would not object to me saying that the visit of the Chinese foreign minister was a very useful visit, and we had very good discussions about the economic partnership and the infrastructure partnership…

Keynote Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Official Launch of Amber UTECH On March 7, 2024 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was just thinking, what kind of speech should I give, should I attack Howard, or should I just be graceful like Chris? But let me first of all thank the Master of Ceremonies for her masterful handling of the event so far. And acknowledge our Minister of Industry and Commerce, Senator Aubyn Hill. Mr Aldrick McNab, our Pro-Chancellor of the University of Technology. The very impressive Dr Kevin Brown, the new President of the University of Technology, with so much promise for the institution. Allow me also to acknowledge the work of the newly appointed Ambassador Dushyant Savadia, Founder and CEO of the Amber Group. And let me acknowledge all of you who are here. Thanks for coming, and thanks for being part of the audience. And as I sat and listened to the preaching, I decided that I would not deliver us another sermon, so I'll make a few points. I'm very pleased to be here today at this Amber UTech Launchpad event.  This initiative is a critical one, particularly at this time…

Main Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Official Opening of the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP) PartB II (Harbour View to Yallahs Bridge) On February 6, 2024 ________________________________________________________________________________ First, let me thank your Master of Ceremonies for her masterful handling of the ceremony.  She has moved it along quite expeditiously. Allow me as well to acknowledge your Member of Parliament the Most Honourable Juliet Holness for the constituency of East Rural St Andrew, where we are,  but allow me also to acknowledge the Members of Parliament for St Thomas, James Robertson and Michelle Charles, who are here. I  breached the protocols because I should have acknowledged the ministers first, but because of the nature of the event, allow me to acknowledge the Honourable Edward Warmington, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, and Minister Matthew Samuda; again, Minister without Portfolio with Responsibility for Water in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. And in case you are wondering who is the Minister with Portfolio for that Ministry, just in case you are wondering, that is yours truly. I want to acknowledge our Cabinet…

Keynote Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Haughton’s RxPak Mobile App Launch February 29, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stafford, I'm here today not because of your invitation. I'm here today because you invited me as Prime Minister to attend your event, but I think I need to explain this very carefully.  I am also the Minister responsible for the DBJ. Yes, the DBJ falls under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creations, one of our critical agencies so I'm not really here as prime minister today. I'm here as minister with responsibility for the DBJ. We've recently taken on under the Office of the Prime Minister, the responsibility for digital transformation for which minister without portfolio Dr Dana Dixon is here so in a sense I'm also here for that.  So, I'm here mostly in a ministerial role. I think most people view me totally in my prime ministerial role, but I do actually do ministerial work and Chris attested to it. I do take direct charge of several entities including the DBJ, including UDC, including the Port Authority so one of my functions as a minister aside from the policy…

Keynote Address By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Groundbreaking Ceremony UHWI Modernization Project On February 20, 2024 ________________________________________ Thank you very much, Carl, for your skilful mastery of this ceremony. I will follow the doctor's orders and just simply say good morning, nice and decent people.  Good to be in your company. You will forgive my raspy voice. I'm sure you understand why that is the case. Minister Tufton from all I've seen, you deserve to continue to be the Minister of Health. This morning marks a pivotal moment as we gather to celebrate the contract signing and groundbreaking ceremony for the redevelopment of the University Hospital of the West Indies and this is only phase one.  This project stands as a testament to your government's commitment to advancing healthcare infrastructure and meeting the evolving needs of the Jamaican people.  I had a little bit of history here on the hospital, but to save time when we come to open this building, then I will preserve that part of the script. The hospital, which was opened in September 1952,  I believe,  received its first patient at that time. Started with an…