The Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), which was unveiled yesterday at the party’s 73rd annual conference, offers a five-year tax holiday for all start-up businesses to encourage entrepreneurship.

“There is an urgency in the air, the people ready for action, action is now required,” said President Portia Simpson Miller who claimed that the country’s unemployment rate has reached almost 100, 000 within the four years the Jamaica Labour Party has been in office.

“We have no more time to waste, no more time to spend on this dithering government. We have to take the firm decisions necessary to rescue this country and to restore the hope.”

The programme, targets agro-processing, cultural and creative industries, micro and small business development, manufacturing, community transformational projects, and information communication technology.

The PNP president said the programme’s success will depend on the partnership with stakeholders.

“At the centre of our plan is consultation, partnerships and dialogue as our Progressive Agenda states. We will consult, not insult, dialogue not monologue, engage not enrage. This is a fundamental difference between a People’s National Party Government and this particular Government that is now in office,” she said.

During her two hour long address, described as a call to action, Simpson Miller said her party intends to renegotiate the existing standby loan facility with the International Monetary Fund, IMF.

The PNP is seeking to unseat the JLP in the next general election constitutionally  due by December 2012.