Swearing-in Ceremony for Dr. The Most Honourable Andrew Holness
Swearing-in of Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP
As
Prime Minister of Jamaica
On
September 16, 2025
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Their Excellencies, the Most Honourable Sir Patrick Allen, Governor General, and the Most Honourable Lady Allen
Mr Mark Golding, Leader of the Opposition, and Mrs Golding
The Most Honourable Juliet Holness, and other members of my family who are here.
Her Excellency, Raquel Peña, Vice President of the Dominican Republic
CARICOM Government delegations from the governments of the Cayman Island and the Turks and Caicos Islands,
Former Prime Minister, Mr Bruce Golding and Mrs Golding
Widows of former heads of government,
Excellencies and members of the diplomatic community and the Consulate Corps,
Members of the judiciary,
Cabinet Secretary and heads of Public Services,
The Cabinet Secretary, Honourable Audrey Sewell
Leaders of the public sector, private sectors and academic bodies
The Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman
Acting Commissioner of Police, DCP Andrew Lewis.
Members of the Clergy
Other distinguished special guests,
Fellow Jamaicans at home and abroad in the diaspora, a very good afternoon to you all and thanks for coming out.
My fellow Jamaicans, to God be the glory. His grace, his mercy and his direction; without him, none of this would be possible. I give thanks to the countless number of Jamaicans who prayed for peace, prosperity, and good government in our nation.
I’m grateful to my family, my wife, Juliet, our children, our parents, my siblings for their steadfast support, their sacrifices, and their patience as they have shared in the weight of this responsibility.
To my constituents in West Central St Andrew, my profound gratitude to you for placing your trust in me as your Member of Parliament for 28 years and for laying the foundation for my political journey. I thank you.
I’m grateful to the members of the Jamaica Labour Party, to our campaign teams, to all the party workers, to all our supporters who worked and kept the faith during difficult days. Most of all, I’m grateful to you, the people of Jamaica, including our diaspora. Your participation in the process is vital for our democracy, and your voice has been heard clearly, decisively and powerfully, not only on who should have the mandate to form the government, but more so, how that mandate should be used.
I stand before you deeply humbled and profoundly grateful to accept the people’s mandate to once again serve as your 1 prime minister. I consider it the greatest privilege, and I do not take it lightly. The third term is not a laurel to rest upon. It is a summons to continue to serve with vision, wisdom, and integrity, more diligently, more inclusively with even greater urgency. Thank you for your trust. I will honour it by working even harder for you.
Now, my friends, the elections are over. We must reunite and refocus on the business of the nation. The time has come where we must get over the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, put aside haughtiness and bitterness, unfold our arms, unclench our fists, retract accusatory fingers, and embrace each other. Regardless of the outcome, we must choose Jamaica.
I recommit to leading an inclusive and consultative government. I extend my hand to the leader of the opposition to create a space for the national interest. Mark, let us partner together to complete the work we started on making Jamaica a republic. I look forward to continuing the work with all stakeholders: the National Partnership Council, the church, unions, youth, the business community, and civil society generally. Let us all work hand in hand to build the progressive and prosperous Jamaica we all want.
Over the past nine years, we have walked a challenging but rewarding path together. When we took government in 2016, Jamaica was way down by 120% debt-to-GDP. Unemployment was stubbornly high at 13.7%. Wages were low. Poverty was high. Crime was rampant. Public infrastructure was crumbling. Public services were weak. Hope was dim and confidence was low. Together we changed that trajectory. Together we made Jamaica a story, not of decline, but a story of renewal.
Step by step, year by year, we worked with discipline and determination to repair the damage of decades of mismanagement and misadventures. We brought order and stability to the public finances. We cut the debt-to-GDP in half to now 62.4%, restored fiscal credibility, and balanced budgets without imposing new taxes, created hundreds of thousands of new jobs giving our people new opportunities to work and prosper and reduce unemployment to historic low of 3.3%. We almost tripled the minimum wage and gave the largest pay increase to the public sector. We cut poverty in half, cut murders and crime in half to 30-year lows. We significantly increase spending on infrastructure, education, social welfare, health, waste management, and public transportation; all contributing to the period of highest consumer and business confidence.
As proud as I am of our achievements, I do not stand before you today to recite them as if they were the destination. What we have achieved so far has simply been to repair the breach and correct decades of mismanagement and misadventure and undo the consequences of reckless policies that nearly broke this country. We have stabilized the ship, set the destination, and laid the foundation upon which we must build a greater vision. We have only begun to scratch the surface of Jamaica’s immense potential. We are destined for more. Our people are too talented, our culture too rich, our geography too strategic and our history are too proud for us to stop short of greatness.
This term, the next term, the next chapter is not about maintaining the status quo. It is about fulfilling our potential and taking our rightful place among the great nations of the world, admired for not only overcoming hardships, but respected for our results in achieving a high and sustainable quality of life for our people. Our people’s talent, our rich culture, and our history have already given Jamaica a global name, but now we must match that reputation with an economy of strength, a society of opportunity, and a nation of enduring justice and peace. This is the vision of a Jamaica, not only surviving and overcoming, but a Jamaica that thrives and inspires, a Jamaica that seizes its destiny of greatness for hope has been rekindled, confidence restored, and Jamaica can now stand the tall.
The vision of this government in this next chapter is to spur economic growth, growth that lifts every household across the length and breadth of Jamaica out of absolute poverty. Sustained economic growth will end absolute poverty in Jamaica. We can and we will end absolute poverty in Jamaica. We want growth that gives every child the opportunity to dream and achieve no matter where they are born or their surname, growth that reaches the trying mother who can send all our children to university without facing crippling debt or having to choose between first born or second born, growth that reaches the farmer who now has reliable irrigation storage and a market for his produce, growth that strengthens our healthcare system which in turn keeps our people well and productive, growth where tourism is even more integrated in our economy where world class resorts thrive along community tourism and where the benefits reach every corner of Jamaica from farmers, entertainers, to the taxi operators and the craft vendors.
We want growth that inspires our Jamaicans in the diaspora, not only to send remittances, but to confidently invest their time, talent, and resources in building their homeland Jamaica. We are a small nation, but we are a nation of extraordinary influence. Few countries of our size can claim the global reach that Jamaica enjoys. Our athletes dominate the biggest stages. I want to acknowledge Oblique, Kishane, Tina, Orlando, Tyler, and all the members of the Jamaican contingent who participated in the World Athletic Championship. And I also want to make a special acknowledgement of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who carried the Jamaican flag with dignity and excellence.
Our music echoes in every corner of the world. Our scholars and professionals carry the Jamaican flag into university boardrooms and institutions across the globe. Our culture, it is not just admired, it is lived, celebrated, imitated by millions. The next chapter of Jamaica’s journey must be about converting this unmatched global influence into a pillar of our economy. We will elevate the creative industries, music, film, fashion, art, and sports transforming creativity into an engine of growth. The world already consumes our culture. Now, we must realize the value from it, invest in it, and respect it as one of Jamaica’s greatest exports.
Likewise, we must also complement our soft power, our great creativity and influence with the infrastructure of growth, ports, highways, digital systems, energy grids, and real estate in which our creative energy can thrive and develop a lifestyle that itself becomes a product for which people will travel to our shores to consume and be a part of in a seamless way. We must take the same discipline, creativity, and ambition that gave us musical and sporting legends and channel that into building one of the most dynamic economies in the global south.
Geography has always been one of Jamaica’s greatest assets. Situated at the gateway between North and South America at the intersection of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, Jamaica is perfectly positioned to be a hub of global trade, but geography is only potential. Realizing the potential requires vision, planning and investment. In the next chapter, we will be pressing ahead with transformational projects to anchor our role as a logistics hub of the region. The Caymanas Special Economic Zone will be the largest and most advanced industrial and commercial centre in the English-speaking Caribbean, bringing together manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and technology services. It will be a space designed for the 21st century economy seamlessly connected by road, rail, air, and sea. We will make Jamaica the gateway to the Americas.
Ultimately, Jamaica’s economic future must be about human capital development and technology creation. We must ensure that our young people, creative, tech savvy, and ambitious, are equipped to lead in the global digital economy. It is estimated that 70% of the Jamaican economy depends on services. This means that the value created is intrinsic to the individual effort, knowledge, skills, creativity, and attitude. If the economy is to grow beyond its current trajectory, there must be a widespread and general increase in the productivity of individuals as well as the systems and technology which they are paired with in production.
This next chapter must see a laser focus on education and training of our current labour force and the generation to come. Through our education system, we must create a Jamaican that is pro-social, pro-growth, pro-technology, innovative, emotionally regulated, and more productive. This is imperative, but growth also depends on how government itself works.
For too long, bureaucracy has frustrated investment, slowed innovation, and drained productivity. Too many Jamaicans know the feeling, endless forms, long lines and red tape that stand in the way of progress. Of even greater concern is that inefficient systems breed and provide an incentive for corruption that is why we have developed the SPEED, (Streamlining Processes for Efficiency and Economic Development Programme). This is our commitment to cut red tape to remove unnecessary obstacles and to ensure that government is not a barrier to opportunity, but a platform for success.
Through SPEED, permits will be faster, licenses simpler, and services more transparent. By digitizing transactions, streamlining approvals, and using technology to eliminate delays, we will unleash productivity across the economy. This will also peel away the layers of inefficiency and lack of networking that hampers anti-corruption efforts. A modern economy demands modern government. Jamaica cannot afford to be slow when the world is moving fast. With SPEED we are building a public sector that moves at the pace of our ambition; a government that matches the energy and creativity of the Jamaican people who are the fastest people in the world.
But my fellow Jamaicans, economic progress alone will mean little if our society is torn apart by violence. Yes, we have brought homicides down to levels not seen in decades, but too many of our children still grow up in communities where violence is normalized. Too many families are scarred by domestic abuse. Too many young men are recruited into gangs, and too many women live in fear. We must go beyond fighting crime to fighting the culture of violence itself. That means strengthening families, rebuilding respect for authority, restoring civility, and teaching our children discipline and responsibility. It means our education system must not just impart knowledge, but also values.
However, it is not only our schools, our churches, the business community, or the security forces. Indeed, this requires a partnership of the whole society to prevent violence and move Jamaica towards true and sustained peace. My administration will mobilize this effort, and I believe the challenge of social violence should be taken out of the political space and treated as a matter of national interest. This is also imperative, and I will be reaching out to the leader of the opposition to work out how we can, as a country, unite against violence.
Finally, economic strength must be matched by diplomatic strength. Jamaica cannot be a silent actor on the world stage. Our history, moral standing, and our record of democratic governance demand that we speak boldly and clearly in an increasingly complex and dangerous world. We must continue to defend democracy at home and abroad. We must promote peace and stability in our region. We must stand up for small states whose voices are too often drowned out by great powers, but we must also be smart in understanding our interests and identifying the opportunities that emerge as the world changes. We must be nimble enough to adjust and grasp them. The world owes us no favours.
Though we will continue to fight for justice in global affairs, we will also continue to build our resilience and our economic independence. In this way, our diplomacy reinforces our economy by being a respected global voice. Jamaica attracts investments, builds partnerships, and strengthen trust. We must be a nation that not only consume ideas from the world, but create the ideas that shapes the world, whether in trade, technology, climate, or culture. Jamaica must always have a seat at the global table.
The task before us is not small but then again, Jamaica has never been defined or limited by size. Our story has always been one of outsize influence from the day Marcus Garvey declared that the people of African descent must chart their own destiny to the day Bob Marley sang One Love and One Destiny to the day Usain Bolt stretched his arms wide at the finish line becoming the fastest man alive to the world. The world has looked to Jamaica for inspiration. Now, the world must look to Jamaica again. This time for a model of a small nation of greatness, a nation that is the hub of logistics and trade, a nation that is powered by clean energy, a Jamaica that is digitally advanced and globally connected, a Jamaica that speaks with moral clarity on the world stage. Our destiny is greatness, and with discipline, innovation and unity, we will achieve it.
My fellow Jamaicans, there are those who say, Prime Minister, you have achieved so much, you have nothing left to prove, it is time to hand over the baton. I hear you. I hear those voices, but I also hear another voice. The voice of Jamaica itself. The voice that says we are not yet where we need to be. The voice that says we are destined for more. The voice that says our children deserve to inherit not just hope, but opportunity, not just survival, but success, not just resilience, but prosperity.
This term is not about me proving that we can build. We have already proven that. There is much more to build, and I am here to build it. This term is not about my legacy. It is about Jamaica’s destiny. That is why I stand before you today, not as a man who feels he has completed his work, but as a leader who knows that the greatest tasks are still ahead of us. The greatest challenges are yet to come. Yes, we have proven that Jamaica can rise and recover from adversity, but now we must prove that Jamaica can soar to the heights that we have all dreamed of, but we have never before attained.
My fellow Jamaicans, we stand today at the threshold of a new chapter. Behind us lies a history of struggle, of sacrifice, and resilience ahead of us is the horizon of possibility, of hope, of greatness. Let us not shrink from it. Let us not doubt ourselves. Let us not listen to the voices of negativity, fear and cynicism. I say to you today, Jamaica can, and Jamaica will. We will eradicate absolute poverty. We will build an economy that provides opportunities for all. We will make Jamaica the safest society in the Caribbean. We will restore respect and values and raise a generation that chooses peace over violence, discipline over disorder, and love over hate. We will build a transformative education system that will produce a generation of confident and innovative problem solvers. We will make Jamaica the most efficient and least corrupt jurisdiction to do business. We will make Jamaica a socially just and equitable place, and we will claim our rightful place among the leading nations of the world. This is our destiny. This is our charge. This is our moment. We are a little, but tallawa place. With faith, with unity, with vision, and with work, work, work, work and prayers, we will conquer all challenges and fulfil the potential of our blessed nation.
May God bless you and may God bless Jamaica land we love.