KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke announced today that a senior technical team from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Institute of Capacity Development (ICD) will lead a training workshop on strengthening macroeconomic framework skills at the ministry.

The workshop is slated to run from Monday, December 10 until Friday, December 14.

Participants for the workshop will include technical staff from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, the Bank of Jamaica, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, and the Auditor General’s Department.

The ministry said the workshop is a demonstration of the Government’s commitment to develop local capacity to independently design and analyse fiscal policies using appropriate macroeconomic models.

“As we pursue the policy objective of economic independence, this customized training is part of our strategy to scale-up the indigenous macro-fiscal expertise of the ministry, and to strengthen the overall macroeconomic management of the Jamaican economy. This training will be followed by further capacity building exercises,” Clarke noted.

To enrol in this face-to-face workshop, the ministry said the 35 staff participants were first required to complete an online, self-paced course in financial programming over a six week period.