House backs JSE micro market and ALPART restart as mediation bill advances

The House of Representatives resumed its sitting on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, with Madam Speaker welcoming guests in the gallery, including 20 students and lecturers from Sam Sharpe Teachers College in Montego Bay, and members answering the roll call before ministerial statements and public business.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr. Nigel Clarke told the chamber that the Jamaica Stock Exchange micro market was launched on June 23, 2026, giving micro and small enterprises a structured route to raise equity capital between $50 million and $100 million. She said an initial pool of 25 firms that graduated from the Jamaica Business Development Corporation accelerator programme had been identified, and that a stock market sandbox would prepare issuers for listing requirements. Dr. Clarke contrasted the junior market’s growth since 2009 — from $785 million to a peak valuation of $148.5 billion across 56 listed companies — with national unemployment falling to 3.6% as at March 31, 2026, after a record low of 3.3% in October 2025.

Opposition members welcomed the micro market but pressed the government to simplify MSME access to Development Bank of Jamaica programmes and to implement procurement set-asides within six to eight months. Questions also touched on how micro enterprises would be classified and on reviving wider investor interest in the equities market.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green reported that JISCO, which acquired ALPART in 2017 and suspended operations in 2019, has committed to a two-phase modernization plan aimed at restoring output to about two million tonnes of alumina per year. Phase one, costing roughly US$490 million, targets one million tonnes annually over 20 months, with construction expected to start before the end of 2026 and an official launch before June 2027. Green said JISCO had already spent about US$8 million on rehabilitation equipment, including two D11 bulldozers commissioned in May, and that work continues on land titles — 350 of 1,233 required titles completed — and on securing about 149 million tonnes of associated bauxite reserves. Opposition MPs questioned past missed deadlines and asked what action government would take if timelines slip again.

Later, members debated the Mediation Act 2026. Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Christopher Tuftton backed the bill on public-health grounds, citing 33,081 injury cases recorded in 2024 through the Jamaica Injury Surveillance System, nearly 7,000 of them violence-related. Opposition legislators proposed amendments on residency tests, default penalties, mediator age limits, and automatic conversion of agreements into court orders. Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck said committee-stage changes would be taken up the following week.

The House also laid several papers on the table, approved motions referring insurance regulations and an ethics matter involving the member for Manchester Southern to committees, and adjourned without fixing a return date.