PNP launches 10-pillar plan to transform Jamaica’s future
Published:Wednesday | August 13, 2025 | 12:13 AM
Opposition Leader Mark Golding says the People’s National Party’s (PNP) manifesto stands on 10 pillars that will build Jamaica.
Golding was speaking last night at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston during the launch of the document titled Mission Jamaica Love, A People’s Pledge to Country.
He said that while Jamaica’s macroeconomic numbers have improved steadily since 2013 due to bipartisan commitment to a sustained programme of fiscal reform, the daily reality faced by Jamaicans is very different.
He said wages cannot stretch; prices are rising daily; basic public services are substandard; young people have too few opportunities; and communities across the country are trapped in poverty, crime, and neglect.
Further, he argued that stability in the public finances without quality of life for people is not prosperity and is why Jamaicans are “clamouring for change”.
“We understand both the progress and the pain because we have walked this road with you. We were the architects of Jamaica’s celebrated macroeconomic reforms, from the key elements of the Fiscal Responsibility Framework to the modernisation of the revenue system, bringing the nation’s debt under control and allowing a regime of inflation targeting to be introduced,” said Golding.
He said it was the PNP that initiated the fundamental social reforms that decolonised the Jamaican society and created lasting programmes like PATH, the National Health Fund, and JADEP for seniors.
“We built institutions like the National Housing Trust, the Jamaican Urban Transit Company, and modern infrastructure like the major highways, expanded seaports and airports, and we enabled investments in modern telecommunications and the transition to renewable energy through Wigton Wind Farm and the large solar projects,” he said.
Still, he said the benefits of national development have not reached far enough.
He said interior roads in every parish are in a deplorable condition, and many communities do not have access to water in their homes.
“Urban blight and decay plague our cities while rural Jamaica has been left behind. Farm roads are impassable, irrigation is inadequate and outdated, and farmers lack the tools, machinery, and support systems to produce and prosper,” said Golding.
He said the 60-page manifesto is the PNP’s plan for a new chapter built on its vision, Jamaica Love.
The PNP president said the plans stand on justice for all, access to quality education, modern infrastructure, agriculture and food security, innovation and industry, care for the vulnerable, accountability in governance, land and housing, opportunity for youth, violence prevention, and environmental resilience.
He said the pillars formed a compass.
“They will guide us to invest in people, close the gaps between uptown and downtown, between tourism zones and rural parishes, between the well-connected few who thrive while the majority feel neglected and dejected,” he said.
Golding said a future PNP government will protect economic stability and leverage it into inclusive and sustainable growth, creating a new era of opportunities for those who are now excluded from prosperity while tackling corruption and the abuse of power in governance.
“Jamaica, time come to lift our country higher and build a future that belongs to all of us. Let us take this journey together,” Golding said.