Speeches by the Prime Minister

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica at the Handing Over Ceremony Essex Valley Agro-Processing Facility and Administrative Building On February 4, 2026 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, CTD, that's the Chief Technical Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Courtney Cole. You will understand if I abbreviate the protocols and say it is good to be amongst family, all nice and decent people. I will start by acknowledging the significant work and contribution of the United Kingdom Development Agency. It's called UK Aid. It is important to start there because when I was a younger Member of Parliament and then leader of the opposition, former Prime Minister David Cameron visited Jamaica. The only person would be the then Minister of National Security, Peter Bunting; he would've been in Parliament then. And you recall what had happened during that momentous visit of former Prime Minister David Cameron, but what most Jamaicans would have forgotten is that when he visited, he made a significant announcement of a $300 million. I heard you say $350 million, but this was a large announcement of a grant programme which was called United Kingdom Caribbean Investment Fund, and…

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica at the International Economic Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean on January 28, 2026 _____________________________________ President Mulino, thank you so much for your hospitality and warm welcome. Executive President Sergio Díaz-Granados of CAF, thank you so much for your support of Jamaica. Thank you for the invitation. Colleagues, Distinguished leaders, Partners, it is an honour to address this forum at a time when our region is not only navigating global uncertainty but confronting a deeper question of agency. Will we merely navigate the world as it changes, or will we help to shape the direction in which it moves? Just under three months ago, Jamaica faced one of the most severe natural disasters in modern history, the third most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the world. Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, tested our institutions, our infrastructure, and our people. Yet today I stand before you with a simple but powerful message: Jamaica has endured. Jamaica is strongly recovering, and Jamaica is moving forward. This moment is best understood in the context of how fundamentally Jamaica's economic resilience has changed over time, how…

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica at the Subsea Cable Project Letter of Intent Signing Ceremony On February 3, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------------   Ministers Vaz Our Minister of Finance, Fayval Williams And Minister Audrey Marks And I must tell you that all three of them convinced me that this was a good thing to do. Not that I was not aware of the benefits, but we are doing this against the backdrop of just coming out of the third most powerful hurricane that the world has ever produced or recorded to have produced that did significant damage to Jamaica and so everything that government does will be seen through that prism. Every dollar expended will be judged as to whether or not it goes towards our recovery and our eventual reconstruction, so we are politically sensitive to these issues, but the hurricane exposed us. It uncovered vulnerabilities, which have always been there, but maybe covered up in the fact that they were never tested and we lost telecommunications to a large part of the island. Of course, nothing to do with Subsea Cable, but as would be the case with a…

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica at the Official Opening Ceremony of the Bustamante Overnight Suite on January 30, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------------   The Right Reverend Leon Golding. I know you prayed for me in my absence. I heard the prayers. Thank you very much for your offering of intercession. Honourable Christopher Tufton, our Minister of Health and Wellness. Very important, sometimes we forget that Minister Tufton he's not a medical doctor, but he knows so much about health by now that I believe he should just formalize that and go and do a medical degree, Our Member of Parliament, Julian Robinson for Southeast St Andrew, Mr Linval Freeman, Chairman of the National Housing Trust, And the Deputy Chairman of the National Health Fund, Mr Michael Stern, Mr Mark Martin, Parish Manager for Kingston and St Andrew Health Services, And of course, how could I forget Mr Wentworth Charles, the Chairman of the Southeast Regional Health Authority, Mr Anthony Wood, Chief Executive Officer of the Bustamante Children's Hospital, Mrs Michelle Finnikin Campbell, Acting Director of Nursing Services at the Bustamante Children's Hospital, Reverend Beverly Donald, Chaplain, Bustamante Hospital for children, Members…

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica at the Launch of the Shelter Recovery Programme on January 15, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------   Allow me to wish for you all a happy, peaceful, healthy, loving and prosperous 2026. All distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Jamaicans listening, Members of the Cabinet who are here, But I want to especially acknowledge Kate Forbes, President of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. I do this because the Red Cross is a huge institution, probably the largest and oldest humanitarian entity in the world supported through various conventions including the Vienna Convention and I was reminded yesterday that the Red Cross is an auxiliary to the government. They're in countries all over the world and they work closely with government. Mainly, they provide good advice to the government as to how to manage disasters. They act as a force multiplier in terms of rapidly increasing the capabilities of governments to provide volunteers, and they ensure also that the relief and humanitarian efforts meet certain standards to preserve the dignity of the beneficiaries so they're very critical and it is not always that Jamaica…

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica at the NSHP Handing Over Ceremony- The Brook, Stony Hill on January 30, 2026 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Representatives from the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development, Representatives from the police, Representatives from the media, And of course, you, the wonderful people of Brooks Level Road in West Rural St Andrew, in the lovely town of Stony Hill and Seaview Road And I have to also acknowledge the beneficiaries of these lovely multifamily homes that have been constructed here. Now, just to give some context. This is being done under a programme called the New Social Housing Programme. And what is social housing? Social housing is the provision of housing solutions by the government to worthy beneficiaries, either partially subsidised or fully subsidized. And what do we mean by subsidy? It means that the beneficiary gets the benefit, which is the house, for a price that is not fully the cost of the house, or they pay nothing for the cost of the house. It doesn't mean that the house is free. Somebody pays for it. Who pays for it? Everybody pays for it. It's your…

Keynote Address by  Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP,  Prime Minister of Jamaica at the Handing Over Ceremony for the SRP (ROOFS), Ministry of Labour and Social Security Parish Office, Santa Cruz On January 30, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I want to acknowledge the Minister of Labour and Social Security, the Honourable Pearnel Charles. I won't bother to say Junior because he is now more than walking in his father's footstep. He's walking in his own footsteps, leaving his own footprint, and he has really risen to the challenge of managing two major natural disasters back-to-back so good job, minister. We have here with us the member of parliament. I know I have two other members of parliament here, but I'm going to say something because we have a tendency when we say MPs, we say Floyd Green, Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth but that is just because Minister Green is the Minister of Agriculture, so he's minister for the breadbasket parish. We have Minister Green, Member of Parliament for Southwest St Elizabeth. We have another minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Frank. Good to see you here. And we have Andrew Morris, the new kid on the…

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica At the JCF Passing-Out Parade of Batches 161 and 162 National Police College, Twickenham Park, St Catherine On January 21, 2026 ---------------------------------------------------------------------   Thank you, Master of Ceremonies, Detective Sergeant Shermaine Hassock, and Sergeant Selvan Smith and Pastor Dr Gary Buddoo-Fletcher, Force Chaplain for the invocation, Allow me to acknowledge a long list of officials: The Honourable Pearnel Charles Jr, Minister of Labour and Social Security, Dr Kevin Blake, your Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioners of Police, Mr Merrick Watson, Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Training and the Director of the National Police College, Councillor Claude Hamilton, representing the mayor of Spanish Town, The Honourable Icylin Golding, Custos Rotulorum of St Catherine, Officers and other members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Members of private and public sector entities, And of course, graduates of Batch 161 and 162, and your families and well-wishers gathered, Representatives of the media, Ladies and gentlemen, Today marks a milestone not only in your lives but in the life of our nation. You stand there at attention in uniform as the newest ambassadors of law order and public…

Keynote Address by Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica at the Handing Over of Building Supplies to ODPEM  on January 16, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------------   Brigadier Bogle, our friend, thank you so much, my brother from the Ghanaian Forces Engineering Regiment. Representatives from the Guyana Engineering Corps who are here, and of course, the men and women of the Jamaica Defence Force, Commander Gayle, the Director General of ODPEM, (our Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management agency) but none of you are as special today as is Mrs Antoinette Taddeo, representing New Era Homes, one of Jamaica's premier housing developers. This programme, the government directed roof repair programme is the beneficiary of the philanthropy of two large housing developers in Jamaica, Kemtek, which allocated from their resources $70 million worth of materials and New Era, which contributed $160 million of tools and building materials, and that has given us a very good start towards the government directed roof restoration programme. I should also acknowledge that the Government of Guyana, which undertook the restoration of 200 roofs, not just allocated the human resources. In other words, they didn't just send their engineers, they sent their engineers with a…