The Premier Honourable Charles W. Misick gave a report on travels to Jamaica and Washington DC on Thursday. This report was heard at a press conference held by the Premier and attended by Government Ministers including those that formed part of the delegation that traveled with Premier Misick.
Hon Arlington Musgrove Minister for Immigration and Border Services and Hon Rachel Taylor Minister for Education, Labour, Employment, and Customer Service highlighted benefits coming from various meetings with Jamaican Border Services, the University of the West Indies, and the University of Technology in Jamaica.
Premier Misick during the press conference when questioned on the choice of visiting countries, said Jamaica was the obvious choice due to the neighboring country’s long history with the TCI and existing partnership in education and otherwise. The Premier boasted of the TCI’s amicable relationship with UWI as one of the best education institutions in the world.
In a press statement prior to the delegation’s return to the TCI, it was said that early discussions were had with JA PM Andrew Holness on partnerships in trade and possibly agriculture.
At the conference, however, very little was said on this matter with presentations from the Education and Immigration Ministers forming the larger part of the conference.
Hon. Musgrove outlined the calendar of events for his Ministry which included meetings with the CEO of the Immigration Department in the JA Ministry of National Security and CEO of the Port Authority and team.
Among the matters discussed were the regulation of agencies, security of documents and combatting the creation of fraudulent documents, inland security, understanding of the movement of guns, drugs, and other undesirable goods in the region, asylum management, staff safety, and intelligence capacity building. These were highlighted by the Minister during the conference.
From the Minister for Education, was a report on TCI’s partnership with UWI. Hon Taylor boasted of a ‘healthy’ relationship with the UWI and announced an expansion to the existing TCI nursing program with further partnership from the university including plans for an upgrade from associate’s degree to bachelor’s degree for those students registered to the program.
The Minister flagged internship opportunities, accommodations for students studying in JA, issues with delays in work permits for students completing residency, and student safety as topics also discussed with the UWI senior officials.
Hon Taylor noted that TCIG expressed strong interest in adding degree courses in social work, business studies, and teacher training to the current terriatiary level offerings at the TCI Community College and additional technical support and curriculum review for the college.
