PM Andrew Holness hosts Constituency Conference, highlights Jamaica’s economic progress

Kingston, Jamaica: Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, has recently hosted a ‘Constituency conference’ at Vere Technical High School, South East Clarendon, on June 25, 2023, at 3:30 pm.

The keynote speaker of the event was the party leaders and Prime Minister – Andrew Holness.

Prime Minister Holness outlined that with a budget of 1 trillion and debt servicing at 280.6 billion, only 28 per cent of every dollar goes to the debt, where it used to be 48 per cent.

“It means that Jamaica and Jamaicans get to hold on to more of our money and use it to build our country, and that is exactly what we have been doing,” he mentioned, adding, “We can’t do it all at once because we have to ensure we don’t fall into the “run wid it” mentality that got us into serious economic trouble in the past.”

“They can lie, try to trick, try to misinform and try to mislead, but no amount of propaganda can undermine reality, and one thing is certain, they cannot argue with the facts,” he stated.

He further asked the general public to think for themselves, compare pound for pound and see who gives more bang for their buck.

In addition to this, PM Andrew Holness stated that the government of the Jamaica Labour Party has a record of giving public sector workers the largest pay raises in history.

“Because of our management of the affairs of Jamaica, we can now allocate more resources towards fixing our roads, providing water, building housing and paying our public sector workers more and ensuring that the increase is sustainable,” he was quoted saying.

Another point highlighted by PM Holness was to integrate allowance into salaries. He mentioned that the compensation review integrated allowances into salaries, which means allowances are now considered part of your pensionable salary. This will increase the amount of pension a Jamaican will receive when one retires.

He further outlined that this change provides a longer-term benefit over their lifetime.

“Imagine presiding over a country for years and failing to substantially increase the minimum wage and then pretending the sky is falling when it is this government that has doubled the minimum wage taking from $6200 to $13,000,” Prime Minister Holness noted.

He concluded, “We continue to tangibly demonstrate our commitment to improving the livelihoods of our citizens.”