KINGSTON, Jamaica – Government will be making several policy and legislative changes to streamline procurement, permitting and approvals.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the disclosure during his 2025 New Year’s Day message on January 1.

“Many of the obstacles faced by businesses and citizens doing business are old legacy requirements whose relevance has expired, but their continued existence has never been questioned,” Holness said.

“We must reengineer our processes to ensure they are fit for purpose, streamlined, responsive, and able to meet the needs of a modern, growing economy,” he added, while noting that the country is already seeing the benefits of reengineering its processes to include technology.

The prime minister said that with the full rollout of the National Identification System (NIDS) this year, pensioners will no longer be required to go through the time-consuming process of providing a proof of life certificate.

“Once you are registered with NIDS, the proof of life process will be simplified,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Holness said work has started on the first of over 600 community roads to be repaired under the $45 billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme.

He also noted that the Relief Emergency Assistance and Community Help (REACH) Programme and the additional $2 billion critical road network repair programme have already begun and are having an impact across Jamaica.

“However, we acknowledge that while the resources allocated are the largest amount ever granted for road repairs and maintenance, these amounts are still not enough to fix all the bad roads which have annoyed you for years,” Holness said.

He further pointed out that the administration of the country’s roads is fragmented, and this prevents proper management, planning and budgeting for road maintenance.

“We intend to solve this problem; we have already started with a detailed documentation and assessment of all our roads, and this will give us a full picture of the magnitude of the challenge. As a first step and starting with these allocations that have been made, the Government will ensure that all our high traffic main roads are in an acceptable state of repair at all times,” the prime minister said.