Prime Minister Andrew Holness has defended the stewardship of his administration in managing the affairs of the country.

Holness, during his keynote address at the University of Technology International Climate Conference on Thursday, October 17, countered critiques about the country’s direction, emphasizing that Jamaica has fundamentally changed and is better equipped to handle multiple crises.

“We have addressed the issue of Jamaica being able to withstand multiple crises happening all at once—crisis that is not just low severity but high severity, crisis that is overlapping,” Holness underscored.

Holness noted that the last eight years the country has endured severe weather events, which affect the nation’s roadways. He highlighted the establishment of a recovery fund and contingency measures as vital buffers against these frequent climate challenges.

“Before, what we used to do was take from the future revenues and consume it today to deal with today’s threat, and that is effectively borrowing. What we are doing is taking the future taxes that these students will grow up and pay to pay for the challenges that we are experiencing today. Now they are going to be left the burden of not only today’s challenges but the challenges that they will face in the future. What we have done is to take today’s savings and put it aside so that when they have an event in the future they can call on the savings that we left for them,” Holness explained.

Acknowledging that many citizens may not recognize these efforts as good stewardship, Holness urged universities to disseminate complex issues to the public, combat misinformation, and enhance civic understanding.

“It is the universities that need to get these complex issues to the common man. The role of the university is not to keep knowledge circulating in its halls; its circulate the knowledge outside of society to combat the misinformation and ignorance that exist. We spend billions of dollars every year on our universities, and they do great work, but it is trapped within their textbooks, computers, and campuses. It needs to get out their to the common people so that they become informed voters,” Holness stressed.

The Prime Minister noted that his administration is emphasizing a number of programmes, such as constructing highways inland in the event of an existential threat.

“If a natural disaster is to happen that pose existential threats we could still continue to have economic activity. We don’t get credit for that. Nobody see’s it that way but that is what we are doing and that is the right thing for Jamaica given this context of the threat of climate change,” Holness added.