Approximately one thousand persons are expected to get jobs to construct a Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, plant in Old Harbour, St. Catherine.
Labour Minister Derrick Kellier and Charge d
THE Government is to get a US$995,000 ($86.6 million) dividend payment from Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) in two weeks.
The light and power company notified the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) that its board approved a final ordinary dividend payment of US$5 million payable on April 16, 2012.
The Government, through the Accountant General
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell says PETCOM has been removed off the list of entities to be divested.
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
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
Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Mining and Energy
Anastasia Cunningham,
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell
The Jamaica Public Service Company’s (JPS) plan to invest US$616 million (J$53 billion) to construct a new liquefied
ENERGY Minister Phillip Paulwell has announced that Opposition Spokesman on Energy Gregory Mair will be named to a National Energy Council that will be set up to preside over a range of developments and concerns relating to energy.
Paulwell, who was addressing an energy forum convened by the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AMCHAM) at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Thursday, described the issue of energy as being too critical for it to be the subject of political squabbles.
|
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell in discussion with Executive Director of AMCHAM Becky Stockhausen (left) and AMCHAM
|