Speeches by the Prime Minister

STATEMENT TO PARLIAMENT By Prime Minister Andrew Holness ZONE OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS (MOUNT SALEM) Tuesday, September 12, 2017   Context Mr. Speaker, during my Budget presentation for this Fiscal Year, I informed the Parliament that the Government is developing Plan Secure Jamaica. It is a comprehensive, whole of government plan to build a national security architecture that is robust, resilient and adaptable, capable of responses that address immediate problems that yield long-lasting, transformational results. The plan is being actively pursued and elements of the Plan Secure Jamaica are already operational. Mr. Speaker, during that budget presentation in March 2017, I tabled legislation to address one element of Plan Secure Jamaica, that is the area of Community Safety, Public Order, Crime and Violence.  The Act to provide for special measures for upholding and preserving the Rule of Law, public order, citizen security and public safety within certain geographically-defined areas of Jamaica; and for connected matters.” or concisely the Zones of Special Operations, Special Security and Community Development Measures Act, 2017, is only one of a suite of measures that will be employed to address the national security issues generally, but community safety and crime and violence particularly. Mr. Speaker, analysis of crime statistics…

Address by the The Most Hon. Andrew Holness, ON, MP Prime Minister at  CB’s Ground-Breaking Ceremony for New Processing Plant Aug 18, 2017   Let me acknowledge my good friend and neighbor for my constituency, Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon founder of the Mustard Seed Communities.   Let me also acknowledge the ministers of government who are here. The Honorable Karl Samuda who I don't know if it is a prophetic or a Freudian slip but he announced a reshuffle of the cabinet, of course the Minister of Finance Minister Shaw, Minister Wheatley and of course the universal Minister Vaz.   Let me also acknowledge my friend the Mayor of Spanish Town, my home town, Councilor His Worship the Mayor Norman Scott.   Mr. Haskins, I listened very carefully to your presentation sir and I’m very impressed with the acceptance and adoption of new technology into your business process. I'm very impressed with that.   It's always good to see a young businessman, that's how I would describe you Matthew. It's always good to see the dynamism of youth in business and through the side of my eyes looking on at Karl Hendrickson and I could see the pride.   This new…

KEYNOTE ADDRESS By the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, ON, MP Prime Minister, Jamaica Launch of Youth Summer Programme August 10, 2017     Everybody knows that I love the song ‘My Dream’. There is nothing wrong with dreaming; people say you dream with your eyes closed but you have to move from the stage of dreaming to having a vision and the vision is done with your eyes open. It starts with introspection, contemplation of the inner passion to do something. I encourage all young people to have a dream to do that internal introspection. What is it that I want for myself, for my family, for my country and then to convert that dream into a vision. That is to open your eyes and start the plan to accomplish your dreams. I have been dreaming of a new Jamaican; a land of peace and love. As we celebrate our 55th Independence, I am sure that you will reflect on the very sad events that have happened with the death, the murder of young Mickolle. It is of greater importance that the young people of this country reaffirm themselves to the dream of a peaceful and prosperous Jamaica. So, I…

Address by The Most Honorable Andrew Holness, ON, MP Prime Minister at the Official Commissioning Ceremony Rosewell Water Supply Project August 11, 2017     Thank you very much.   We've been long in ceremony and so I am certain you will agree with me that it is satisfactory to say distinguished ladies and gentlemen.   The parish of Clarendon as it is now geographically defined since July of this year would be one hundred and fifty years old. Clarendon is the merger of three former parishes, the original Clarendon, the parish of Vere and the parish of St. Dorothy.   Rosewell was the capital of St. Dorothy and so when the parish boundaries were redefined it no longer was a parish capital but I start there as a kind of marking point of the history of this town; that this town has been around for some time and you've not had regular, reliable, portable water. You've had water supply for some time with some kind of engineering solutions. When I visited in 2015, I was very surprised to see two huge tanks but they were not in use and when I enquired of them, I was told that they…

KEYNOTE ADDRESS By the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, ON, MP Prime Minister, Jamaica Launch of the Government of Jamaica Portal – GOV.JM August 09, 2017   I am very excited about this project. It represents one of the critical elements of the transformation of the public sector. In development years Jamaica would be a country just entering its adolescence and over our 55 years of independence, we have adopted a model of government that is institution heavy. Meaning that we have invested heavily in a public sector bureaucracy there's nothing wrong with bureaucracy, bureaucracy is important for the delivery of service to the public that is efficient and transparent. But if bureaucracy is not tended it becomes self-serving and when it becomes self-serving it becomes dense, it becomes corrupt, it becomes opaque, you can't understand why it takes the decisions it takes. Luckily for Jamaica, and for the world, we are existing at a time when there is a global development revolution being led by information. So we had the agricultural revolution then we had the industrial revolution now we are in the information revolution. The question is how do bureaucracies survive in the information age? Because the information age,…

KEYNOTE ADDRESS By the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, ON, MP Prime Minister, Jamaica Official Opening of Kupius Bridge in Clarendon August 3, 2017   NIU Qingbao ( Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Jamaica) you have so absorbed the culture and I was just watching the eyes and expression in the audience as they look at you and I can see that they like you. There is a sense of sincerity that escapes the diplomacy and the people, obviously Ambassador they will always be some level of hesitation and maybe even suspicion on the part of Jamaicans or anywhere else as far as Chinese may go. From time to time we hear some of the issues that arise.  Jamaica and China have a long standing relationship, we have had diplomatic relations for a long time, we have supported the one China policy but even before that, Chinese have contributed significantly to Jamaica and Jamaican culture and our motto is "Out Of Many One People." The truth is Ambassador is that I listen very carefully to Dr. Hu and her presentation regarding how we can best maximize the benefit of the partnership between Jamaican and China. How we can ensure that our…

Fellow Jamaicans, On the 55th anniversary of our Independence, it is fitting that we celebrate our achievements and strengths while pondering our challenges. Our independence theme this year is, “Celebrating Jamaicans at home and abroad”. And how appropriate that we should have that theme when our  athletes from home and abroad are right now holding our flag high at the World Championships in Britain, as they did for Jamaica 50 during the Olympics in London. So they will no doubt bring glitz and glory to this little island which always stamps its weight in gold. We can draw inspiration from our sports men and women who have quintessentially incarnated the true spirit of Jamaica: A spirit of excellence, extraordinariness, daring, resilience, optimism, faith and hope. We have been stunning the world with our sporting prowess even before our independence.  Jamaica had the first person to make the final in all three major Olympic sprint events—the 100m, 200m and 400m sixty-five years ago. To this day no one has equaled that Herb McKenley’s record. We were also the first Caribbean team to hold the 4 by 400m relay world record, and that again 65 years ago in Helsinki, when the Jamaican…

Fellow Jamaicans, As we celebrate yet another Emancipation Day, let us continue to remind ourselves of the hard-fought struggles which led us to achieve that momentous victory over oppression.   Let us never take for granted the heroic efforts waged by our forebears, particularly Sam Sharpe, to secure the foundation of freedom on which we stand. Our ancestors stood valiantly against an horrendous system of injustice and exploitation with some, like Daddy Sharpe, paying with their very lives. They were willing to sacrifice their own lives to ensure that we today could enjoy our liberties. Many were beaten brutally, but the pain inflicted only deepened their resolve.   How our ancestors summoned the faith to keep pushing, in the face of what seemed like the invincibility of slavery, was simply amazing. We are not a people who can be kept down forever. Freedom is in our DNA. Ours is a heritage of incredible self-sacrifice, courage, resilience and hope.  Today we need to reaffirm these values.   We need to strengthen our bonds of community. We need to have a deep care for one another, knowing no one is an island. We have to care what happens to our neighbor. We…

  Keynote Address by The Most Hon. Andrew Holness ON, MP, Prime MInister at the Official Opening of Jamaica 55 Diaspora Conference July 23, 2017   Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Before I start, let me say that the first time that I addressed the diaspora conference was when I was the Minister of Education; that was some time ago and I came prepared with a written speech and I delivered the speech and I was certain that I delivered the speech well but everyone was stoic. And then someone from the Ministry of Culture came on and he started 'to sing' and the entire conference erupted and I learned my lesson then because when people come back home, yes they want to hear speeches what the government plans to do but they also want to reconnect with the culture, with the roots; they want to feel at home. And so it is my distinct pleasure to welcome you all back home. Welcome home!   As you would've realized I’m not able to welcome you in song but from the bottom of my heart welcome home. I'm delighted to be here this evening to open the Jamaica 55 Diaspora…