Jamaica secures KOICA grant up to US$9 million to strengthen land administration and opens Kingston innovation hub

The administration has formalised cooperation with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on the Land Administration Capacity Enhancement Project (LACEP), aimed at reinforcing Jamaica’s land-management system through institutional change, stronger technical skills, and improved geospatial tools.

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness said LACEP should help lower obstacles linked to secure tenure. In his words: “We are strengthening the institutional skills, systems, and technologies that will enable Jamaica to administer land more efficiently, more transparently, and more productively.”

The scheme will house the Land Administration Innovation Centre (LAIC) at 84 Harbour Street, Kingston, as a refurbished, fully fitted training and innovation site for the National Land Agency and other public bodies, with offices, meeting rooms, IT labs, storage, desktops, office furniture, rugged laptops, surveying kit, drones, and specialist software. KOICA is granting as much as nine million United States dollars, roughly 1.42 billion Jamaican dollars, covering 2025 through 2031. Partners marked the start at an inception event in the Jamaica House banquet hall on Tuesday, where the chargé d’affaires at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Jeong-ho, restated Seoul’s support for Jamaica’s land framework and geospatial workforce.

During the 2026–2027 sectoral debate in Parliament on Tuesday, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Christopher Tufton said a dedicated health infrastructure maintenance fund now exists, opening with one billion dollars to cut downtime at hospitals and clinics. The ministry will build an inventory of assets, set quality benchmarks, cluster facilities, issue service manuals, and weigh in-house servicing against outsourcing for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, air-conditioning, HVAC, and lift work, with key performance indicators binding on contractors. He said groundwork is already under way inside the ministry’s health infrastructure planning and project management division.

Tufton also announced a five-hundred-million-dollar CARE fund over two years for community and faith-based groups aligned with non-communicable disease prevention, with ten priority themes and a request for proposals opening Monday, 15 June. The ministry will, within twelve months, develop a national fertility and family support strategy, convening a multi-stakeholder task force on fertility and responsible parenting and examining financing, parental leave, affordable childcare, reproductive health access, and parenting education. Officials cite a fertility rate near 1.3 births per woman, under the roughly 2.1 replacement level, and warn of long-run economic, workforce, and social-support pressures, while stressing the state is not urging births for statistics but wants family life to be affordable and supported.

The United Nations Development Programme’s regional democracy and development report for 2026, published 11 May as “Democracies Under Pressure: Reimagining the Futures of Democracy and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean,” places Jamaica first in the Caribbean on the 2025 Electoral Democracy Index at 0.8, using measures such as association, clean elections, expression, elected government, and suffrage. The study notes Jamaica’s steady high scores since the 1990s, above the regional mean, and records that 53 per cent of Jamaicans still see democracy as the best system, while flagging contract monitoring by National Integrity Action and the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal.

The Consumer Affairs Commission said Pan Caribbean Sugar Company Limited has recalled stock manufactured between 30 March and 12 April 2026 and asked buyers to return units to the place of purchase; where serious health issues arise, people should seek treatment and keep records. Enquiries: 876-619-4222, cac.gov.jm, [email protected].

Officials urge swimmers to use guarded beaches, avoid alcohol before water entry, wear life jackets if non-swimmers, heed wildlife and jellyfish warnings, and protect coastlines from litter. NEPA continues lifeguard training and exams. Road-safety leaders, including National Road Safety Council vice-chairman Dr. Lucien Jones, warn that above about thirty kilometres per hour in built-up zones the risk of severe harm rises sharply, and they list impairment, distraction, and handset use as major hazards alongside running red lights, especially among motorcyclists.

A new STEM academy is rising at Dunbeholden in Bernard Lodge, St. Catherine, while Alpha Primary School works with STEM Builders Learning Hub on early hands-on science sessions; chief executive Kavelle Hilton highlights transferable problem-solving skills and inclusive, trial-and-error learning.

Anyone seeking a registered certificate of title should approach the National Land Agency with a tax registration number, valid government ID, a survey diagram, proof of ownership, a current property tax receipt, particulars for two unrelated neighbours over fifty who can swear to possession, and evidence of open, peaceful, uninterrupted possession for at least twelve years. Contact 876-750-5263 or 876-946-5263, [email protected], WhatsApp 876-418-5089.