Prime Minister Holness on New York TV

Excerpt from the Jamaica Observer column published on Monday, July 19, 2021

By Jean Lowrie-Chin

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, the youngest Jamaican elected to that office, had an excellent interview with Fox 5 New York host Rosanna Scotto last week, organised by Jamaica Consul General Alsion Wilson. We are grateful to Scotto for her kind words on Jamaica: “I can’t wait to come back and visit — the entertainment, the people, the food, the water, the weather — everything is just about perfect there.” In describing PM Holness, she noted that “through compassionate dialogue and inclusiveness he is ushering in a new generation of transformative development and leadership”.

In response to her question on our state of affairs, Holness reponded, “I’m very proud of the fact that Jamaica has resolved its management of its economic affairs and I believe we are on a very good course, having gone through several IMF [International Monetary Fund] programmes to entrench this kind of fiscal stability and fiscal prudence… We are now on a trajectory for growth… We are creating the environment – regulatory and otherwise… we are also tackling other institutional and development issues, such as strengthening our bureaucracy to deal with things such as corruption but, at the same time, to become more efficient.”

He noted the Administration’s heavy investment in national security through “long-term investments, which will have signal effects on the transformation of our country”. He disclosed that his Government “in a few months… will roll out some transformative policies for the education sector”.

The PM referred to the Government’s work towards containment of COVID-19, explaining our protocols for testing and quarantine and our ‘resilient corridor’ for visitors. “We expect that in August we should have a sufficient supply of vaccines to start widespread and mass vaccinations,” he said.

In response to his thoughts on the situation in Haiti, he remarked, “It saddens me. I knew President Moïse personally… my heart goes out to his wife. I hope she is recovering speedily… We want to see stability and peace for the people of Haiti.”