The Inter-American
FORMER MINISTER of Finance Audley Shaw said on Wedsnesday that being absent from government has allowed him the opportunity to engage in deeper thinking.
Shaw made the comment while making his contribution to a debate on the third supplementary estimates in the House of Representatives.
“I am not going to be intimidated at the fact that only a few months ago I was a minister,” Shaw said as he suggested that the
JAMAICAN businesses have long bemoaned the high cost of energy and the deleterious impact it has on both their businesses and the bottom line. Residents too have complained and in many cases it accounts for a third of employees wages.
With oil prices now above US$105 per barrel and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East threatening to send oil prices skyrocketing, the energy situation becomes even more precarious given the fact that Jamaica spends about a third of its foreign exchange earnings on imported oil.
Minister of Energy, Mining and Telecommunications Phillip Paulwell has vowed to oversee the liberalisation of the energy sector resulting in the reduction of electricity costs by as much as 40 per cent by 2014. Here he is supported by some of the biggest names in corporate Jamaica, including CEO of GraceKennedy Don Wehby; Managing Director of WISYNCO, William Mahfood; President and CEO of Jamaica Broilers Christopher Levy, and Managing Director of Jamaica Producers Jeffrey Hall.
Speaking with Caribbean Business Report from the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) headquarters in Kingston, Paulwell said: “The energy situation in Jamaica today is probably the most critical economic issue facing the country. There is no way businesses can expand and employ more people with electricity prices at US 40 cents per kilo watt-hour, nor can we attract foreign companies to invest here with those prices. Any discussion I have with the business community, the high cost of energy constantly comes up. This means we are at a crisis point.
Solving Jamaica’s energy problem
Oil prices fell to below 107 dollars a barrel today amid investor concerns that China’s economy and crude demand may grow less than expected this year.
Preliminary data showed Chinese industrial production fell to a four-month low this month.
China is the world’s second biggest consumer of
GAS prices have been increased again this week.
However the prices of kerosene, and liquid natural gases have decreased marginally.
The prices of 87 and 90 gasoline have been raised by 97 cents and will now sell for $104.84 and $106.49 per litre respectively.
Automotive diesel oil has been raised by 14 cents per litre and will now sell for $106.49.
The price of kerosene has been decreased by 12 cents and will be sold for $109.34 per litre, while propane and butane liquid natural gases have been decreased by 80 cents and 31 cents per litre and will sell for $43.73 and $60.55 respectively.
Retailers will add their own mark up.
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THE Government has renewed its commitment to providing electricity at affordable costs to remote communities and marginalised groups across Jamaica through a rebranded Rural Electrification Programme (REP).
The programme was incorporated in 1975 with the specific mandate to expand the reach of electricity supply to rural areas, where the provision of such services would not be economically viable for commercial providers of electricity.
Going forward, the REP
THE ongoing debate about the rising cost of electricity has gone viral.
Yesterday, a full-page advertisement was taken out in the Sunday Observer, which asked people to join a Facebook initiative called Fight For Your Light, which gives Jamaicans a forum to express their frustration against high electricity bills and to mobilise support to break the monopoly on the distribution of electricity.
Today, the fight was taken further when telecommunications giant Digicel tweeted,