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NEWS IN BRIEF
FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
Top News in the Print Media: The JIS, The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Monday September 08, 2003
CARICOM WILL OPPOSE TARIFFS
The Observer: Jamaica and its Caricom partners will be taking a "strong and united stance" against any attempt to slash and eliminate tariffs at this week's World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, according to Foreign Trade Minister K D Knight.
"We have to put forward our arguments in the most persuasive and comprehensive way," Knight said last Friday while briefing some members of Jamaica's delegation to the September 9-14 conference.
The Caribbean, he said, would continue to call for the recognition of the special circumstances of small economies and insist on special and differential treatment in the area of trade for developing countries.
Developed countries have been pushing for drastic reduction and elimination of tariffs on non-agricultural products enjoyed by developing countries.
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY____PURCHASES___SALES
__US$_______59.2514_____59.5147
__CAN$______42.0974_____42.9538
__GB£_______92.3184_____93.3493
UPGRADE FOR MOBAY CARGO TERMINAL
The Gleaner: The Government has signed a $64.2 million contract for the upgrading of the Mon-tego Bay Cargo Terminal. Under the project, 27,000 sq. metres of the terminal yard is to be paved.
The contract was awarded to Tank-weld Construction Company Limited, a Kingston-based firm, which was chosen from a field of 10 bidders.
Addressing the gathering, Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, said the project fell under an aggressive programme being undertaken by the Government through the Port Authority to expand and upgrade all public port infrastructure, which included facilities for domestic and transhipment cargo and cruise shipping.
OMAR ON ‘PNP SUPPORT’ DRIVE
The Gleaner: Dr. Omar Davies, the Finance and Planning Minister, was yesterday elected unopposed as the new chairman of the People's National Party's Region Three which is made up of the 15 constituencies in the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew.
While dismissing claims that he entered the race for the chairmanship of Region Three in an attempt to boost his chances to become a vice-president of the PNP, and subsequently a contender for the presidency, Dr. Davies said his mission was to regain support for the party. "Clearly the PNP has difficulties in Region Three, as evidenced by the results of the elections in October and in June," he said.
"I understand that I have taken on an enormous responsibility," he told a news conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre, Duke Street, downtown Kingston, after the election, adding that the appointment would not affect his performance as minister.
SPANISH TOWN BYPASS CHANGES
The Gleaner: The new reversible one-way traffic system along the Spanish Town bypass begins today and will operate Mondays to Fridays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
During the mornings, only traffic heading towards Kingston from the Old Harbour roundabout will be allowed on the bypass. In the evenings, the traffic system will run in the reverse.
The one-way system is being implemented an hour later than the start of morning peak "in consideration of trucks and trailers coming into Kingston", a spokesman for the National Works Agency told The Gleaner last week.
JIS NEWS
Monday September 08, 2003
EU SUPPORTS AGRI-BUSINESS VENTURES
The European Union presented cheques of US$8,250 to A-Z Information Jamaica Limited and US$11,250 to Profitable Corporate Solutions (PCS) on Thursday (Sept. 4) to finance the establishment of marketing information systems to push their agri-business.
The funds, which were the first tranche of grants totalling US$38,437 for A-Z Information Jamaica Limited and US$40,977 for PCS, were made available under the EU-funded CARIFORUM Agribusiness Research and Training Fund (CARTF) Market Information Projects (MIP).
In his remarks at the handing over exercise, Head of Delegation of the European Commission in Jamaica, Gerd Jarchow informed that, “the MIP component was introduced to help Caribbean countries to meet the challenges of increasingly competitive local and export markets by improving the availability and access to timely, accurate and relevant market information…we look forward to the results of the MIP projects as they facilitate access to reliable information on where to buy and sell food and agricultural products in Jamaica”.
COPS GET HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING
Control of riots and dealing with vulnerable groups such as juveniles, women and the elderly, are among the main areas being highlighted at the 5th International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Instructors course, now on at the Jamaica Constabulary Staff College in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine.
The two-week course, which began on September 1 and is being conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), entails the teaching of methodologies for the use of force as informed by human rights law, including the use of firearms and handcuffs.
Captain Alex de Melo of Brazil, one of the tutors, told JIS News that the training draws on actual cases of human rights abuses, which have taken place around the world, showing real footage obtained from the media.
POLICE AWARD SCHOLARSHPS
Twenty-five students from inner city communities in Kingston have been awarded scholarships valued at $10,000 each, to assist with their high school education.
The scholarships were awarded by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) as part of the anti-crime initiative.
Additionally, the first book grant from the Rev. Horace Roberts Memorial Fund, worth $5,000, was given to Kemar Gibson, second form student of Oberlin High School, and the son of late Constable Dwight Gibson, who was gunned down at the Above Rocks Police Station over two years ago. Rev. Horace Roberts was the late Assistant Chaplain of the Area 4 Police. The fund was established by the late Chaplain’s family members.
CRIME COUNCIL PROPOSED FOR MOBAY
A proposal is being finalised by senior police personnel in Montego Bay to set up what has been described as a Crime Council, comprising various groups, to help in the fight against crime in St. James.
Superintendent of Police in charge of the parish, Newton Amos, revealed at a press conference on Wednesday (Sept. 3) that the document would be submitted to the Commissioner of Police for his approval.
Commenting on the level of support the police was getting from the public in St. James, Supt. Amos said it was satisfactory, but could be improved.
1,000 NEW STREET LIGHTS
The St. James Parish Council has been allocated 1,000 new street lights for the entire parish.
This was announced on September 4 by the Director of Planning at the St. James Parish Council, Sophia Kerr-Reid.
She was speaking at a Physical Planning and Environment Committee meeting in the Council’s Chambers in Montego Bay.
Contact: Celia Lindsay
For further information about any of these news items, contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Monday September 08, 2003
THE OBSERVER
MR HAMILTON’S BUS RIDE
FRIDAY'S symbolic bus ride from New Kingston to downtown by the public defender, Mr Howard Hamilton, as part of an initiative to encourage use of the capital's bus service finds favour with this newspaper.
Indeed, Mr Hamilton's action coincided with our comment in last Friday's Weekend Observer, stressing the need for responsible behaviour by workers and their union representatives to ensure that the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), the state-owned bus company, does not go rapidly down the tubes.
Billions of taxpayers' dollars have been pumped into this venture to produce what is clearly a decent, and relatively efficient bus service. We dare to insist that in terms of the quality of the buses and the services provided, the JUTC is significantly above anything on offer in the English-speaking Caribbean.
But notwithstanding the decency of this service -- particularly when compared to what previously passed itself off as a bus system in the capital -- the JUTC does have problems.
The company was initially undercapitalised. Or, perhaps more correctly, the Government didn't work out clearly how it intended to treat with public transportation, especially with regard to the ongoing support it would provide the JUTC and the company which held the assets. So the JUTC has, over the past five years, returned substantial losses.
There appears now to be a settled policy and the JUTC, it seems, is restructuring itself to meet the new modalities, without compromising quality. The danger of which we warned on Friday is a trade union intransigence which could destroy the effort.
We have always felt that a good public transportation system is both a critical tool in the national economy as well as an important instrument of social engineering. The Government a decade ago liberalised its motor vehicle import policy in part because the circumstances of international trade meant that it couldn't do otherwise. But it also did so in partial response to the mess that was the bus service. The eagerness with which Jamaicans bought second-hand Japanese cars proved the point.
But the impact on the current account has been enormous. So, too, has been the attendant impact on the supporting infrastructure.
People felt better about themselves. Freed of the middle passage experience on the buses, they are likely to be less grumpy and more productive at work. The advent of the JUTC brought back into the sphere of public transportation some of the gains of private vehicle ownership.
Now, though, the city is being affected by traffic gridlock. Part of Mr Hamilton's solution is for more people to ride the buses and to leave their cars at home. It will take more than a single bus ride by the public defender to sell this idea to middle-class Jamaicans, who, among other things, have great concerns about crime, or their perception of it. Social distance, too, is an issue.
If Mr Hamilton's initiative is to work, it will demand a great effort on the part of the JUTC to make a case for its service beyond its existing constituency. It must make itself customer-friendly.
All this has to be underpinned by Mr Hamilton's proposals for uniformed and undercover security operatives on the routes to help build confidence, and supported by central parking lots.
But then Friday's bus ride by Mr Hamilton can't be his last. He should ride the buses every day. He should draw the support of public officials, including government ministers who, too, should ride the buses.
Not least of these should be Mr Robert Pickersgill, the transport minister. We bet he would learn a thing or two on a Kingston bus ride.
===========================================
THE GLEANER
[/b]THE NEW MINIMUM WAGE[/b]
THE GOVERNMENT must have faced a number of problems in deciding on a new minimum wage, some philosophical and some practical. Among the philosophical considerations there would have been whether the cost of labour should be market-driven and determined by individual industries rather than by government decree. This must have somewhat influenced the need to set one minimum level for workers generally and another for security guards.
In deciding on the quantum of the increase, the government would have to be concerned with what impact it would have on the rate of inflation, already anticipated by the Central Bank governor to reach as high as 13 per cent per annum. On the other hand the political directorate would be acutely aware that the existing minimum wage of $1,800 per week is woefully inadequate and not high enough to allow domestic helpers to keep their heads above the poverty line.
In the event, the government settled for an 11.1 per cent increase for workers and a 13 per cent increase for security guards; and we note that both representatives of the trade unions and the employers have given the increase their blessing. We think that a $200 a week increase is very meagre and it is interesting that Barbados, which has no legislated minimum wage, pays on average, the highest wages in the region. Based on a 40-hour work week, Trinidad and Tobago's minimum wage is the equivalent of US$50 per week compared with the new rate of US$34 per week for Jamaica. The American minimum wage is about US$206 per week and England is some 40 per cent higher than America at US$288 per week.
It says something about the Jamaican economy that the minimum wage has climbed from $24.50 when it was introduced in 1974 to its present level of $2,000, some 80 times more. In 1974 the American minimum wage was about US$80 per week and has climbed by only a factor of 2.5 times to US$206.
Market forces will undoubtedly continue to influence wage levels in Jamaica and good workers with the requisite skills will be able to secure remuneration considerably in excess of the minimum prescribed by law. Already the middle class pay domestic helpers more than $2,000 a week, in some cases as high as $3,500 to $4,000. But as poverty continues to increase, this will put downward pressure on wages and perhaps the new minimum wage scale will serve as a safety net.
FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
Top News in the Print Media: The JIS, The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Monday September 08, 2003
CARICOM WILL OPPOSE TARIFFS
The Observer: Jamaica and its Caricom partners will be taking a "strong and united stance" against any attempt to slash and eliminate tariffs at this week's World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, according to Foreign Trade Minister K D Knight.
"We have to put forward our arguments in the most persuasive and comprehensive way," Knight said last Friday while briefing some members of Jamaica's delegation to the September 9-14 conference.
The Caribbean, he said, would continue to call for the recognition of the special circumstances of small economies and insist on special and differential treatment in the area of trade for developing countries.
Developed countries have been pushing for drastic reduction and elimination of tariffs on non-agricultural products enjoyed by developing countries.
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY____PURCHASES___SALES
__US$_______59.2514_____59.5147
__CAN$______42.0974_____42.9538
__GB£_______92.3184_____93.3493
UPGRADE FOR MOBAY CARGO TERMINAL
The Gleaner: The Government has signed a $64.2 million contract for the upgrading of the Mon-tego Bay Cargo Terminal. Under the project, 27,000 sq. metres of the terminal yard is to be paved.
The contract was awarded to Tank-weld Construction Company Limited, a Kingston-based firm, which was chosen from a field of 10 bidders.
Addressing the gathering, Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, said the project fell under an aggressive programme being undertaken by the Government through the Port Authority to expand and upgrade all public port infrastructure, which included facilities for domestic and transhipment cargo and cruise shipping.
OMAR ON ‘PNP SUPPORT’ DRIVE
The Gleaner: Dr. Omar Davies, the Finance and Planning Minister, was yesterday elected unopposed as the new chairman of the People's National Party's Region Three which is made up of the 15 constituencies in the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew.
While dismissing claims that he entered the race for the chairmanship of Region Three in an attempt to boost his chances to become a vice-president of the PNP, and subsequently a contender for the presidency, Dr. Davies said his mission was to regain support for the party. "Clearly the PNP has difficulties in Region Three, as evidenced by the results of the elections in October and in June," he said.
"I understand that I have taken on an enormous responsibility," he told a news conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre, Duke Street, downtown Kingston, after the election, adding that the appointment would not affect his performance as minister.
SPANISH TOWN BYPASS CHANGES
The Gleaner: The new reversible one-way traffic system along the Spanish Town bypass begins today and will operate Mondays to Fridays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
During the mornings, only traffic heading towards Kingston from the Old Harbour roundabout will be allowed on the bypass. In the evenings, the traffic system will run in the reverse.
The one-way system is being implemented an hour later than the start of morning peak "in consideration of trucks and trailers coming into Kingston", a spokesman for the National Works Agency told The Gleaner last week.
JIS NEWS
Monday September 08, 2003
EU SUPPORTS AGRI-BUSINESS VENTURES
The European Union presented cheques of US$8,250 to A-Z Information Jamaica Limited and US$11,250 to Profitable Corporate Solutions (PCS) on Thursday (Sept. 4) to finance the establishment of marketing information systems to push their agri-business.
The funds, which were the first tranche of grants totalling US$38,437 for A-Z Information Jamaica Limited and US$40,977 for PCS, were made available under the EU-funded CARIFORUM Agribusiness Research and Training Fund (CARTF) Market Information Projects (MIP).
In his remarks at the handing over exercise, Head of Delegation of the European Commission in Jamaica, Gerd Jarchow informed that, “the MIP component was introduced to help Caribbean countries to meet the challenges of increasingly competitive local and export markets by improving the availability and access to timely, accurate and relevant market information…we look forward to the results of the MIP projects as they facilitate access to reliable information on where to buy and sell food and agricultural products in Jamaica”.
COPS GET HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING
Control of riots and dealing with vulnerable groups such as juveniles, women and the elderly, are among the main areas being highlighted at the 5th International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Instructors course, now on at the Jamaica Constabulary Staff College in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine.
The two-week course, which began on September 1 and is being conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), entails the teaching of methodologies for the use of force as informed by human rights law, including the use of firearms and handcuffs.
Captain Alex de Melo of Brazil, one of the tutors, told JIS News that the training draws on actual cases of human rights abuses, which have taken place around the world, showing real footage obtained from the media.
POLICE AWARD SCHOLARSHPS
Twenty-five students from inner city communities in Kingston have been awarded scholarships valued at $10,000 each, to assist with their high school education.
The scholarships were awarded by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) as part of the anti-crime initiative.
Additionally, the first book grant from the Rev. Horace Roberts Memorial Fund, worth $5,000, was given to Kemar Gibson, second form student of Oberlin High School, and the son of late Constable Dwight Gibson, who was gunned down at the Above Rocks Police Station over two years ago. Rev. Horace Roberts was the late Assistant Chaplain of the Area 4 Police. The fund was established by the late Chaplain’s family members.
CRIME COUNCIL PROPOSED FOR MOBAY
A proposal is being finalised by senior police personnel in Montego Bay to set up what has been described as a Crime Council, comprising various groups, to help in the fight against crime in St. James.
Superintendent of Police in charge of the parish, Newton Amos, revealed at a press conference on Wednesday (Sept. 3) that the document would be submitted to the Commissioner of Police for his approval.
Commenting on the level of support the police was getting from the public in St. James, Supt. Amos said it was satisfactory, but could be improved.
1,000 NEW STREET LIGHTS
The St. James Parish Council has been allocated 1,000 new street lights for the entire parish.
This was announced on September 4 by the Director of Planning at the St. James Parish Council, Sophia Kerr-Reid.
She was speaking at a Physical Planning and Environment Committee meeting in the Council’s Chambers in Montego Bay.
Contact: Celia Lindsay
For further information about any of these news items, contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Monday September 08, 2003
THE OBSERVER
MR HAMILTON’S BUS RIDE
FRIDAY'S symbolic bus ride from New Kingston to downtown by the public defender, Mr Howard Hamilton, as part of an initiative to encourage use of the capital's bus service finds favour with this newspaper.
Indeed, Mr Hamilton's action coincided with our comment in last Friday's Weekend Observer, stressing the need for responsible behaviour by workers and their union representatives to ensure that the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), the state-owned bus company, does not go rapidly down the tubes.
Billions of taxpayers' dollars have been pumped into this venture to produce what is clearly a decent, and relatively efficient bus service. We dare to insist that in terms of the quality of the buses and the services provided, the JUTC is significantly above anything on offer in the English-speaking Caribbean.
But notwithstanding the decency of this service -- particularly when compared to what previously passed itself off as a bus system in the capital -- the JUTC does have problems.
The company was initially undercapitalised. Or, perhaps more correctly, the Government didn't work out clearly how it intended to treat with public transportation, especially with regard to the ongoing support it would provide the JUTC and the company which held the assets. So the JUTC has, over the past five years, returned substantial losses.
There appears now to be a settled policy and the JUTC, it seems, is restructuring itself to meet the new modalities, without compromising quality. The danger of which we warned on Friday is a trade union intransigence which could destroy the effort.
We have always felt that a good public transportation system is both a critical tool in the national economy as well as an important instrument of social engineering. The Government a decade ago liberalised its motor vehicle import policy in part because the circumstances of international trade meant that it couldn't do otherwise. But it also did so in partial response to the mess that was the bus service. The eagerness with which Jamaicans bought second-hand Japanese cars proved the point.
But the impact on the current account has been enormous. So, too, has been the attendant impact on the supporting infrastructure.
People felt better about themselves. Freed of the middle passage experience on the buses, they are likely to be less grumpy and more productive at work. The advent of the JUTC brought back into the sphere of public transportation some of the gains of private vehicle ownership.
Now, though, the city is being affected by traffic gridlock. Part of Mr Hamilton's solution is for more people to ride the buses and to leave their cars at home. It will take more than a single bus ride by the public defender to sell this idea to middle-class Jamaicans, who, among other things, have great concerns about crime, or their perception of it. Social distance, too, is an issue.
If Mr Hamilton's initiative is to work, it will demand a great effort on the part of the JUTC to make a case for its service beyond its existing constituency. It must make itself customer-friendly.
All this has to be underpinned by Mr Hamilton's proposals for uniformed and undercover security operatives on the routes to help build confidence, and supported by central parking lots.
But then Friday's bus ride by Mr Hamilton can't be his last. He should ride the buses every day. He should draw the support of public officials, including government ministers who, too, should ride the buses.
Not least of these should be Mr Robert Pickersgill, the transport minister. We bet he would learn a thing or two on a Kingston bus ride.
===========================================
THE GLEANER
[/b]THE NEW MINIMUM WAGE[/b]
THE GOVERNMENT must have faced a number of problems in deciding on a new minimum wage, some philosophical and some practical. Among the philosophical considerations there would have been whether the cost of labour should be market-driven and determined by individual industries rather than by government decree. This must have somewhat influenced the need to set one minimum level for workers generally and another for security guards.
In deciding on the quantum of the increase, the government would have to be concerned with what impact it would have on the rate of inflation, already anticipated by the Central Bank governor to reach as high as 13 per cent per annum. On the other hand the political directorate would be acutely aware that the existing minimum wage of $1,800 per week is woefully inadequate and not high enough to allow domestic helpers to keep their heads above the poverty line.
In the event, the government settled for an 11.1 per cent increase for workers and a 13 per cent increase for security guards; and we note that both representatives of the trade unions and the employers have given the increase their blessing. We think that a $200 a week increase is very meagre and it is interesting that Barbados, which has no legislated minimum wage, pays on average, the highest wages in the region. Based on a 40-hour work week, Trinidad and Tobago's minimum wage is the equivalent of US$50 per week compared with the new rate of US$34 per week for Jamaica. The American minimum wage is about US$206 per week and England is some 40 per cent higher than America at US$288 per week.
It says something about the Jamaican economy that the minimum wage has climbed from $24.50 when it was introduced in 1974 to its present level of $2,000, some 80 times more. In 1974 the American minimum wage was about US$80 per week and has climbed by only a factor of 2.5 times to US$206.
Market forces will undoubtedly continue to influence wage levels in Jamaica and good workers with the requisite skills will be able to secure remuneration considerably in excess of the minimum prescribed by law. Already the middle class pay domestic helpers more than $2,000 a week, in some cases as high as $3,500 to $4,000. But as poverty continues to increase, this will put downward pressure on wages and perhaps the new minimum wage scale will serve as a safety net.