Business

Hit by the global recession that has resulted in a downturn in segments of their business, operators of private security companies in Jamaica, numbering more than 220, have been staying afloat and generating better sales by changing strategies and tailoring more of their services to the particular demands of their clients, who are seeking to contain costs.

Question: What is the best company from which I can obtain insurance coverage for my two homes in St Ann? I do not currently have any insurance and need to rectify this situation as soon as possible.

Michael Jones, a senior vice-president of human resource with Scotiabank Jamaica, says training under a Master of Business Administration programme generally raises the conceptual and analytical elements of people's skill sets.

A J$4 billion funding package from the European Union (EU) to Jamaica includes J$1.3 billion of support for the sugar industry, which is in the final stages of transitioning from public to private ownership.

I trust you are in a position to give me much-needed high-quality advice on how to invest in the local economy, with specific regard to the equities market. I currently have a small USdollar foreign-exchange account at one of our local money market brokerage institutions. This account was established over six years ago and the current balance is around $8,000...

Despite the challenges in the agricultural sector, there is still a ray of hope for Jamaican farmers. This, as the ministry steps up its initiative to increase onion production to satisfy local demand of approximately 12,000 tonnes annually, and cut the US$4 million spent yearly to import the crop, to US$2 million, by 2013.

Scotia Group Jamaica Limited reported profit of J$7.687 billion in the nine-month period ending July 31, a decline of 11 per cent from J$8.6 billion in the comparative 2009 period, much of which the bank blamed on the debt-exchange programme....

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) advanced an additional half a billion dollars to the Government of Jamaica in a two-week span, sending the central bank deeper into the red at August 11.Its losses were disclosed at J$10.2 billion...

The central bank has reduced the interest rate on its sole open-market instrument by 50 basis points. Effective August 26, the coupon rate on the 30-day certificate of deposit is 8.0 per cent, down from 8.5 per cent which was set by the Bank of Jamaica...

The Jamaican economy continued to contract into the second quarter, with the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) reporting an even more dismal performance of the real sector in the April-June period when output in all sectors...

Executives who worked with indicted financier R. Allen Stanford were aware of problems at his now defunct Caribbean bank, including fabricated investment reports and that Stanford secretly used money from investors to fund loans to himself...