Post Cabinet Press Briefing Report- June 18, 2025
Minister Morris-Dixon
Good morning everyone, it is Wednesday June 18,2025. And I welcome you to another Post Cabinet Press Briefing.
And this morning, we have a minister extraordinaire with us who will be our main presenter, and that is none other than the Honorable Edmund Bartlett, our extraordinary Minister of Tourism. We also have with us today Senator the Honorable Delano Seivewright, Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism. We have Dr. Kassan Troupe, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information. We also have Jennifer Griffiths, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism. And we also have with us Mrs. Kerry-Ann Thomas Gayle, Acting Chief Education Officer.
There are several heads of tourism agencies here and other senior members of the Ministry of Education. Members of the media, Jamaicans watching at home and abroad, another beautiful Wednesday, good morning to you all. Now, as always, I start with some good news stories, and they gave me 10 pages of good news stories, but I can’t go through 10 pages, not when you have the Honorable Ed Bartlett here with us. But I will give you a few of them, and I saw his presentation yesterday in Parliament, and it was almost 50 pages.
So, there’s a lot of good things happening in our country. Lots going on in tourism, and I’ll start as I always do, you know, with the murder statistics. Murders are down 44.2%. So, every week, it gets better and better. Jamaica is becoming safer every single day. And we look at the numbers since the start of the year up to June 14th, and this is data up to June 14th, which is not that far, just a few days ago. Murders are down by 44.2%, shootings are down by 32 and a half percent, and overall major crimes are down by 18.8%.
What it means is that in the same period, when we compare it to last year, 240 fewer Jamaicans have lost their lives to senseless violence. That’s 240 people here who would not have been here but for the work of the JCF and the work of the administration. And so, as always, I put that first because that is a very important news story, and us getting safer and safer is important for us to celebrate as a country.
The other item I’ll highlight is the government’s intensified fight against praedial larceny with the launch of the Agricultural Protection Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. And this new branch was officially launched on June 13th by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, the Honorable Floyd Green. He welcomed the new branch, and he noted that this was a clear response to farmers’ long-standing concerns about theft. So, the APB, which is what we’re calling it, will be structured around agricultural protection units spread across all of the JCF’s five areas of command and covering 19 regions.
They’re going to use intelligence-led policing, strategic patrols, community partnerships, and what I love, drone technology to improve detection, deterrence, and rapid response. They will also have motorbikes deployed to enhance mobility in rural hard-to-reach areas. This is a big deal. Praedial larceny is a big issue, and we are addressing it as we are addressing all the other elements of crime in Jamaica. We should note that arrests for praedial larceny rose by 78% in 2024.
That means that work is already being done, and this new branch is going to enhance that work. The other one I will mention is the new forensic facility. And many of us remember the long wait for autopsies and us having to use private funeral homes in order to do them. Now, we have a brand-new forensic facility. It’s called the Forensic Pathology Autopsy Suite at 149 Orange Street in downtown Kingston.
It cost $680 million to construct, and this state-of-the-art facility will improve the timeliness and accuracy of post-mortem examinations, and of course, it will help to clear the backlog of cases that we have. The last one I will note before we bring up the esteemed Minister of Tourism is homeownership. It’s a big issue, on everybody’s lips and when you talk to young people especially, they tell you they want to own a home.
And so, effective June 16th, 2025, that’s two days ago, the National Housing Trust implemented the increased loan limits that were announced by the Prime Minister in his budget presentation two weeks earlier. This should have come into effect in July, but it is now in effect two weeks early. And so, as you know, there are many different enhancements. Open market loans for individuals moved up to $9 million.
If it’s two applicants, it’s now $17 million. Three co-applicants, $23 million. Also, they have increased build-on-own-land loans, house lot loans, and there’s also additional support for existing homeowners. And for those who want to fix up a house they already have, those limits have gone up. Also, coming July 1, the smart energy loan ceiling has increased, and that’s a big one, from $1.5 million to $2.5 million. You can use those to purchase solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems, battery storage, and those interest rates are really low, 0 to 5%. And there’s also expanded home grants for contributors with unfinished properties older than two years. And so we are doing our best to assist Jamaicans in homeownership or to fix up a house.
And that is the last one I will do. I have so many more that are so exciting, but I’ll have to stop there because this morning is especially special for me to have the Minister of Tourism here, the Honorable Ed Bartlett, who I will tell you is not just extraordinary in Jamaica, he is extraordinary all over the world. I remember going into a very far country, and they asked me if I know Ed Bartlett. He is very well known around the world. He’s seen as Mister Tourism, not just for us but for others. He’s an innovator in tourism, and he has created the term tourism resilience. He is the leader in that, and the world has come around to understand that that is important. And even more important for me, and especially for young ministers, he is someone who supports us nonstop. He’s always there giving advice, and he doesn’t have to, but he takes the time to mentor us, and I have had to rely on him quite a bit, and I am extremely grateful for it. And so, when you see someone who’s as esteemed as him but still finds the time to mentor young people, you know it’s a special person. And so, for me, it gives me great pleasure to welcome this morning the Honorable Edmund Bartlett, our Minister of Tourism.
Minister Edmund Bartlett