It is being suggested that the Government either significantly increase the funding it provides to the state-owned micro- and small-business training and promotions agency, Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC), or farm out to private-sector entities to provide, at market rates, the services that the agency now offers.

Sandals hotel chain bosses, Gordon 'Butch' Stewart and son, Adam Stewart, have downplayed the importance of a planned multi-family housing development they are to undertake in the swanky Freeport area of the resort city of Montego Bay.

Within the next two weeks, beer company Red Stripe will complete its consultation with staff, paving the way for making several positions within the company redundant by the end of June.

The Government is pressing ahead with an ambitious plan to tap into the lucrative import-substitution market, especially involving the sale of food to the local hotels. However, lingering doubts are still being voiced about both the ability of Jamaican producers to displace foreign suppliers, and the desirability of presenting tourists with only locally produced staples.

Realtors say there is no surplus of office space in the uptown business district of New Kingston, but at least one investor who relies on the usually top-end rentals the area commands, says they have space that is slow in getting off their hands.

On May 27, President Obama sent a new United States national security strategy to Congress.

Former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Jamaica Employers'Federation (JEF), Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, has been appointed to the board of Sagicor Life Jamaica.