AMIDST the sharp decline in asset prices and erosion of the capital base of financial companies, different listed companies have decided to forego dividend payments to shareholders as they bolster their capital base owing to continued volatility in the financial markets.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — The long-established relationship between Jamaica and Canada, the island’s second largest tourism market, has been strengthened with an agreement to enter a new era of cooperation and collaboration in tourism, resilience and sustainability.

On Thursday, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett and his Canadian counterpart, Randy Boissonnault, agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) when they met on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Boissonnault is Canada’s first full-fledged Minister of Tourism but also holds the portfolio of Associate Minister of Finance. Two other key stakeholders in the Parliament Hill meeting were Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Canada, Sharon Miller and Canadian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maninder Sidhu.

The two ministers agreed on an MOU to share best practices and build capacity in training and human capital development, marketing, investment and the expansion of tourism resilience and sustainability programmes and projects.

Although tourism is Canada’s second largest export and growing, Minister Boissonnault said the industry was never seen as being critical. However, with a changing paradigm, it was now being pursued with new insights and a commitment made to funding and support for a meaningful MOU, recognising the key role that Jamaica and Canada can play in strengthening global tourism.

The renewed partnership has been welcomed by Bartlett who said Minister Boissonnault was a supporter of the new tourism that has been emerging since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and being the first full-fledged tourism minister for his country was an indication of how important tourism was now being seen.

Minister Bartlett elaborated on the MOU, stating that it will focus heavily on building the capacity of tourism workers and stakeholders of the industry “to provide a greater level of service, but more so to be able to pivot and to respond to different challenges and crises that may appear from time to time.”

In a release on Friday, it was revealed that an Employment Charter, being developed to attract and retain tourism workers, has received the backing of the Canadian tourism minister who indicated that he wanted to play an active role in the dialogue relating to the charter leading up to its promulgation at a later date.

“We looked at the wider question of resilience and sustainability, in particular the work of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) and Canada will support the Global Tourism Resilience agenda and participate in the Global Tourism Resilience Day activities to take place in February 2023 at the University of the West Indies,” said Minister Bartlett.

Satellite centres of the GTRCMC are to be established at Carlton University in Ottawa, in addition to the one that already exists at George Brown University in Toronto.

The MOU also calls for exchanges to be initiated with Carlton University, George Brown College, and other key technical institutions that are tourism and hospitality oriented.

Minister Bartlett disclosed that Canada and Jamaica will collaborate on a number of initiatives he did not identify but stated that “this was a great encounter.”

Canada and Jamaica have enjoyed a longstanding relationship spanning over 60 years. Canada is also one of the preferred countries for settlement by migrating Jamaicans, with some 350,000 making it their home.

Jamaica's five-time World Championships 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has been shortlisted for the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year award.

WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Reggae singer Sevana was fined $300,000 on Thursday in the Westmoreland Parish Court after pleading guilty to a death by dangerous driving charge in an accident that claimed the life of a 32-year-old woman, in May of last year.

Sir Geoff Palmer, Professor Emeritus and Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, has been selected to receive the Edinburgh Award 2022.

THE BALL punched in by Diego Maradona for his “Hand of God” goal at the 1986 World Cup has been sold at auction for nearly US$2.4 million by the referee who missed soccer’s most famous handball.

Reggae artiste Blvk H3ro is looking forward to making the most of the Grammy red carpet when he arrives at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles – with his Jamaica flag – on February 5 next year. It is actually something he sang about in one of his songs, and the rising star is happy that his words are being manifested.

A representative for Roberta Flack announced on Monday that the Grammy-winning musician has ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and can no longer sing.

A limited edition, deluxe box set of Bob Marley & The Wailers historic 1976 album Rastaman Vibration, will be officially released on November 18.

For this project, Tuff Gong International has partnered with Acoustic Sounds/Analogue Productions, a world leader in audiophile music, to present a newly remastered and repackaged version of Rastaman Vibration in Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) format on Clarity Vinyl.

“When Rastaman Vibration was first released in America in 1976, it took Bob Marley into the Top Ten alongside disco records and corporate rock,” acknowledges Rolling Stone in a four-star review of the album.

Peaking at number eight on the Billboard Top 200 off the strength of songs like War, Who The Cap Fit, Crazy Baldhead, and Roots, Rock, Reggae, the only Marley single to reach the Billboard Hot 100 charts, peaking at number 51, the 10-song opus now makes history again. It is the first title in the Marley catalogue to be released in UHQR format.

This UHQR is remastered by Sterling Sound’s Ryan K Smith from the original analogue master tapes. Each UHQR is pressed using hand-selected Clarity Vinyl with attention paid to every single detail.

Each UHQR is packaged in a deluxe box and includes a booklet detailing the entire production, as well as an eight-page booklet containing new liner notes by musician and Marley biographer, Leroy Jodie Pierson.

Beyoncé has propelled herself into the highest Grammy echelon: The star singer claimed a leading nine nominations Tuesday, making her tied — with her husband Jay-Z – as the most nominated music act in the history of the awards show.