Speeches by the Prime Minister

Opening Statement By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Meeting of Haitian Stakeholders At Liberty Hall, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade On June 11, 2023 _____________________________________________________________ Thank you Madam Chairperson, Senator the Honorable Kemina Johnson Smith Commonwealth case you thought she was Minister of Foreign Affairs for another country, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Jamaica, y friend, The Honorable Philip Davis, Prime Minister of the Common Wealth of The Bahamas and Chair of the CARICOM Conference of Heads of Government, my friend His Excellency Ariel Henry, Prime Minister of The Republic of Haiti Her Excellency, Dr. Carla Barnett, Secretary General of the Caribbean Community. Ministers of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas and Haiti Members of the CARICOM Eminent Group Mr. Bruce Golding, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, The Right Honourable Perry Christie, former Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the Honourable Kenny Anthony, former Prime Minister of St. Lucia. Representatives of Partner Countries the United States, Canada, and International Organizations such as the OAS and the UN, Senior Officials of Government and the CARICOM Secretariat, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, and especially our Haitian brothers and sisters, Members of…

Remarks By The Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the CARIBBEAN NATIONS SECURITY CONFERENCE (CANSEC) 2023 ROSE HALL HOTEL ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2023 ________________________________________________________________   Thank you, moderator. Good morning everyone. Welcome to sunny Jamaica. I sincerely apologize for the rains, though locally we are, I must confess, very happy because it could possibly mean a break in our ongoing drought, but allow me to acknowledge our Deputy Prime Minister, Dr The Honourable Horace Chang, Ms Amy Tachco, Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy in Jamaica, Rear Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman and General Laura Richardson, host of CANSEC 2023. Our Commissioner of Police, Major General Antony Anderson, Chiefs of Defence Staff and Commissioners of Police from across the region, Commissioner Stewart Beckford, Commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Jones, Head of CARICOM IMPACS, representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Government of Jamaica, representatives of the CARICOM Secretariat and other regional and international organizations. Senior Defence and Security Officials, specially invited guests, ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to specially acknowledge a good friend of Jamaica, Daniel Erickson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for the Western Hemisphere.…

Remarks  By   The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP  Prime Minister of Jamaica  At the   National Disaster Risk Management Council Meeting  On  June 1, 2023  ___________________________________________________________  Good morning, everyone, allow me to part with salutations. We meet here each year to review our plans to ensure that we are ready should a natural disaster hit us, particularly a natural disaster of a national scale. It is an important meeting each year because it sets the tone for the government and that tone is preparedness. If we fail to plan, then you know the other side of that equation and failure is not an option. So, I do not need to go any further with my speech minister; I could take my seat. An important element of organization is to bring the people who occupy the functions to what is called a mind share. The government of Jamaica, like any other government, is complex with many different functions held and executed by many different people with diverse outlooks, and different motivations, but for the organization to work on a common challenge such as a natural disaster, all its leaders in particular must be of a shared mind. And so the…

Remarks By The Most Honorable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the IDB Hosted Event Jamaica: The Road To Digital Government At the AC Hotel By Mariott On May 31, 2023 Thank you, Master of Ceremonies, Leader of the Opposition Mr. Mark Golding, Senator Dr The Honourable Dana Morris Dixon- it gives me such great pleasure to just roll that off- our new Minister without Portfolio with responsibility for Skills and Digital Transformation. I thought about having you deliver the speech this morning, but I saw my good friend and believe me, he is, the Leader of the Opposition made a statement about technology and I thought it would be such a good opportunity, Mark to respond to you. I note your position in the room. Other Members of the Cabinet, I see Senator Hill here with us. Chief Justice, it is good to see you sir. I know that you are an advocate for the integration of technology into the business of government and justice as well. Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Permanent Secretaries, Mr. Tariq Alli, General Manager of the Caribbean Country Department/ Country Representative for Jamaica and members of IDB Jamaica, stakeholders of…

 REMARKS BY THE MOST HON. ANDREW HOLNESS, O.N., PC., MP PRIME MINISTER OF JAMAICA   “Transnational Organised Crime: Challenges with Small Arms and Light Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean” on  APRIL 17, 2023   REGIONAL SYMPOSIUM TO ADDRESS CRIME & VIOLENCE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO     Honourable Philip Davis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas The Honourable Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Other CARICOM Heads and representatives of Community Institutions Ladies and gentlemen Let me express sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Government of Trinidad & Tobago, the CARICOM Secretariat, and the other regional institutions including CARPHA and IMPACS, for coordinating this meeting. Colleagues, we live in a high violence region. If we use murder rates as an index for violence, the Latin American and Caribbean region would be approximately 15 murders per 100,000 of population while the world average is approximately 6 per 100,000. For the Caribbean, this runs counter to our global image as a zone of peace. In the last 3 decades, the Caricom region has seen an increase in crimes, and in particular, the use of fatal violence. Violence generally in social interactions, and violence in crime…

Thank you very much, master of ceremonies for your kind words of introduction. Let me acknowledge the Minister of Local Government, your minister, Desmond McKenzie, who has served you well for a very, very long time. Let me acknowledge your Member of Parliament who has also served you very well for a very, very long time. Bobby Montague and your mayor, who has served you particularly well for also a very long time, and I've used the term long time not to say that by any means they are coming to the end, no. What I am saying is that they have garnered so much experience, so much understanding that they have developed such broad and deep skill sets that they are able to serve you for even longer to come. There are two programmes of the government to treat with issues of social housing. One programme, it's the new Social Housing Programme, which you see me almost every week presenting to beneficiaries new housing solutions constructed for them. And then there is the Indigent Housing Programme which is part of the responsibility of the Ministry of Local Government to assist persons who have been established as poor and who…

Thank you very much Garth. Allow me to acknowledge our Minister of Education, Fayval Williams, and, allow me as well to express a few thoughts on the co-founders of Quantas. Now, when Adrian took the stage and he started to pace, it reminded me of a lecturer in a classroom and he delivered probably one of the best explanations I have heard so far of the actions of the FEDS in the United States, I have not heard a better explanation. And so immediately I said, you know, I need to participate in whatever offerings they have and then I remember that I don't have much with which to participate but that was how good he was. And I'm certain based upon the response that many of you thought so as well, that clearly Adrian knows the financial craft very well and that is usually a good sign and a good basis on which to make judgment and determination regarding these financial institutions. And I was, before taking the stage, making the point to both Adrian and Jackie that they come from a good school. They are alumni of one of our oldest banks, Scotia Bank and therefore you would…

It is always good to greet you, to greet the new year with optimism, with hope, with gratitude, with renewed faith. My grandmother, when I would bid her goodbye, I used to have to stay with her when my mother went to work and then when she came to pick me up, I would say goodbye grandma, see you tomorrow and she would say, "see you tomorrow if life spare". How many of your grandparents used to say that to you? I don't hear it being said that much these days, "if life spare" and as a youngster, I always wondered what did she mean by that because when you are young, life is an eternity. It will never end. It is almost guaranteed that you'll see tomorrow but it was also an expression of who we were as a people, of how we respected life, that it was a gift from God to us and that we must appreciate it. We must be thankful for it, and that every moment of life is precious. So, when we say to each other, happy New Year, we could very well say a happy new hour, a happy new day; an expression…

We give God thanks for sparing our lives to see 2023, and we give thanks for the lives of loved ones and other great Jamaicans who transitioned last year. We embrace the New Year with optimism and positive energy, knowing that our earnest efforts will determine the success we make of the time given to us. We have been earnest in our efforts in the past year in controlling crime, particularly murders, and improving public order. It cannot be disputed that Jamaica has an epidemic of violence, which results in intentional killings. Guns are the main enabling weapons used by violence producers, and ease of access to guns of itself extensifies fatal violence.  Last year, we took a major step in deterring the procurement, possession, trafficking, and use of guns by passing a new Firearms Act which has totally transformed the legislative framework around legal and illegal guns in Jamaica.  It is now a minimum of 15 years to life for a person convicted of an illegal gun offense. Since the coming into force of the new Firearms Act on the 1st of November 2022 last year, over 70 persons, that is a rate of one person per day, mostly…