Washington, DC – Jamaica’s Prime Minister, the Most Honorable Portia Simpson-Miller says Jamaica has produced an invaluable array of human capital that continues to represent our greatest national asset for social development and economic growth.
‘It is our people supported by a system of high quality education and relevant world-class training that must now provide the next great leap forward for the nation,” the Prime Minister said.
It is necessary that this advancement be fueled by innovation and the remarkable creativity for which Jamaica and its people are world- renowned.
In her message, read by Charge D’Affaires of the Embassy of Jamaica, Mrs. Marsh Coore-Lobban at the Thanksgiving service to mark Jamaica’s 53rd year of independence at the Dunbarton Chapel, Howard University Law School on Sunday, August 2, 2015, Prime Minister Simpson-Miller said that since January 2012, the Government has embarked on a courageous and successful effort to reform Jamaica’s economy.
This reform she said, will once and for all correct some of the structural weaknesses that have contributed to our country’s high indebtedness, low growth levels, high unemployment and less than satisfactory investments in growth inducing infrastructures and other areas of social capital development.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the economic reform programs is a national call to social and economic action involving commitment, responsibility, patience and sacrifice on the part of all members of our national family.
“By world-bank standards, we have already seen a tremendous improvement in Jamaica’s ease of doing business, inflation has been reduced to its lowest level in 48 years and our investment in the education of our people as a share of the national budget is among the highest in the Caribbean and Latin American region.
Prime Minister Simpson-Miller said that the Government has positively transformed the country’s physical and economic infrastructure, including our network of highways. The county’s international credit rating has consistently been up-graded and the island continues to be the destination of choice for a growing number of vacationers and visitors.
Mrs. Simpson-Miller stated that Jamaica’s ability to enjoy additional and greater benefits of the ongoing economic reforms, require consistency and steadfastness on the part of all Jamaicans, as we continue to advance the program of economic improvement for our country.
(Photo Credit to Derrick Scott)
In addition, Jamaicans will have to recommit themselves in every way possible to engaging in better social relations that can produce peace, harmony and tolerance in our individual families in our communities and in our nation at large.
The Prime Minister commended the Jamaican society at home and in the Diaspora that has made an invaluable contribution to Jamaica’s growth and development over the past fifty-three years. “At this time our country needs your continued support to remain proud, free and to achieve lasting peace and prosperity in the years ahead,” she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
