Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness met with several other top officials in the United States government, following his meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
On the second day of his working visit in Washington DC, Holness met with the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, Gregory Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, USAID Administrator, Ambassador Samantha Power, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, chairman of the House Finance Committee and Jamaican-American Congresswoman Yvette Clarke.
Holness was accompanied by Jamaica’s Finance Minister Nigel Clarke, Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith and Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks.
The prime minister said the goal of the meetings is to “strengthen the existing relationship between Jamaica and the United States.”
During his meeting with the USAID Administrator, Holness said: “Our discussions took place within the context of Jamaica’s continued objective to foster impactful partnerships with the United States in the strategic development areas of Human Resource Development, Digitization, Energy Security, Economic Development & Climate Resilience.”
On Friday morning, Holness and his delegation also met with United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
The discussions focused on several issues including, investment in human resource development capacity which will have a direct impact on Jamaica’s growth horizon, establishing Jamaica as a nearshore technology hub for logistics, light manufacturing, and other services.
Other issues discussed were partnership on violence prevention through information and intelligence sharing, border protection and cooperation to eliminate trafficking and other transnational crimes, and support for energy resilience and diversification in light of geopolitical developments and the potential impact on Jamaica’s economy over a sustained period.
“Secretary Blinken and I agreed that Jamaica and the US have had a long and meaningful relationship spanning 60 years; however, it was also agreed that there were many opportunities to strengthen the relationship and build greater partnerships,” the Prime Minister wrote via Twitter.
“We will be using the channel of a working group to continue strategic dialogue to examine proposals for impactful support to Jamaica’s development objectives.”
Prime Minister Andrew Holness is expected to return to Jamaica on April 3.
