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TODAY
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1.
CARICOM, Mexico to cement ties against common challenges
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com |
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (GINA) -- The second CARICOM/Mexico
summit opened on Monday in Bridgetown, Barbados with
acknowledgement of the need for a strengthened alliance
against the common challenges of citizen security,
transnational crime and sustainable human
development.Trade, investment, tourism and cooperation
are expected to feature prominently over the two-day
event but CARICOM leaders are also looking forward to a
meaningful outcome on natural disaster risk reduction
and the environment. Under two existing programmes; the
Meso-American Territorial Information System and the
Meso-American Environmental Sustainability Strategy;
experiences are to be shared on regional co-ordination
system for natural disaster risk reduction and projects
in the areas of bio-diversity and forestry, climate
change, green growth and sustainable competitiveness.
Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar joined his other
colleague Heads of State in CARICOM at the summit,
looking forward most of all to an engagement with
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon on strengthening
responses to challenges in the social, economic and
political realm. While accrediting the new Mexican
Ambassador to Guyana Francisco Olguin on May 10, Ramotar
conveyed the high value which the Guyana government
believes the forum can engender with the challenges
facing today’s world.
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2.
Bahamas budget deficit estimated at $500million
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com |
NASSAU, Bahamas -- Progressive Liberal Party (PLP)
Chairman Bradley Roberts revealed on Monday that the
incoming Christie administration in The Bahamas has met
a budget deficit of around $500 million, and said he
would be ‘shocked’ if criminal charges are not brought
after an investigation into the management of public
funds by the previous government. Asked about this
figure on Monday, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
Perry Christie told The Nassau Guardian he was not sure
of the figure that his team had come up with as he was
busy preparing the Speech from the Throne. He suggested
that The Guardian speak to Minister of State for Finance
Michael Halkitis. However, Deputy Prime Minister Philip
Brave Davis confirmed the figure when he spoke to The
Nassau Guardian on Monday. Davis blamed the Free
National Movement (FNM) government’s “mismanagement” and
“abuse” of the public purse. Davis, who is the minister
of works and urban development, also said the PLP
administration has launched an investigation into the
former government’s management of public funds and added
that criminal charges may follow.“Now that we’re in, and
looking at what the true facts are, we are definitely
approaching the $500 million deficit range,” he said
after a swearing in ceremony for 10 senators. “We are
doing our investigations with a view to see if we ought
to prosecute someone for the abuse that has taken place
with the public purse.”
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3.
Cayman Islands premier calls for fairer taxes on flights
to Caribbean
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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Cayman Islands Premier McKeeva Bush has urged the UK
government to change the way it administers the
controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD). In
a letter sent on Thursday, Bush encouraged British
Chancellor George Osborne to amend the way the tax is
imposed, describing it as “unfair”. The
premier said tourism in the Cayman Islands has been hit
by increases in the tax.He pointed out that there was a
lower APD imposed on people flying to the West Coast of
America than to the majority of the Caribbean.Bush
wrote: “In the Caribbean there are no less than sixteen
Commonwealth and Overseas Territories and I would
suggest that our ‘special relationship’ with the United
Kingdom requires even more favourable treatment than the
United states of America”The letter to the Chancellor
urged the “discrimination” to end. He also urged Osborne
to implement a two-band system rather than the current
four bands.
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4.Restructured
sugar cane industry could benefit rum production in
Barbados
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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A restructured sugar cane industry holds great potential
for the development of the Barbados rum sector. This
is the view of Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries
and Water Resource Management, Dr David Estwick, who
pointed out that the restructuring process could lead to
improved sugar cane yields and the production of grade
"A" molasses, which in turn, would have significant
benefits for the growth of the Barbadian rum
industry.Estwick was speaking during the Barbados
Investment and Development Corporation's (BIDC) Rum
Expansion Programme groundbreaking session. He
was presenting on the topic Marrying the Ministries of
Agriculture and Industry to the Benefit of Barbados' Rum
Industry. The
focus of the session was to devise a strategy for
securing a Geographic Indication or GI for Barbados' rum.
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4.
CARICOM woos Japanese Investors
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states earlier this
week showcased to Japanese businessmen the opportunities
available in the region, particularly in the energy,
natural resources and information and communication
technology (ICT) sectors. The
CARICOM-Japan Business Seminar was convened in Trinidad
and Tobago on 22 November, in Port-of Spain and brought
together government and private sector representatives
from CARICOM member states, the Caribbean Development
Bank (CDB) and a Japanese business delegation that
comprised representatives of some of the biggest
Japanese enterprises such as Fujitsu, Hitachi and
Marubeni. Several bilateral meetings between the
representatives of both sides were held on the margins
of the seminar. In
addition to providing an overview of the economic
situation and prospects the region held, the CARICOM
delegations promoted the investment opportunities and
highlighted the incentives and enabling attributes that
their respective countries provide to attract investors.
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5.
Nevis election petition trial adjourned until January
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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High Court judge, Justice Mario Michel, announced in
court on Tuesday that January 16, 2012, has been
identified as the date for the commencement of the trial
of the election petition by the agreement of all parties
in the matter. The
NRP Administration maintains that deputy premier Hensley
Daniel was duly re-elected on July 11, defeating former
Senator of the Nevis Island Assembly, Mark Brantley.The
announcement came two days into the originally planned
trial schedule, which had to be shelved due to the
untimely illness of Madam Justice Indra Hariprashad-Charles.
To avoid jeopardizing evidence of a number of witnesses
for the petitioner that had traveled to Nevis for the
trial, lawyers for mier Daniel and the other respondents
agreed to allow the admission of “amplified” affidavits
by those witnesses, thus eliminating the need for the
presence of a judge for the admission of those
affidavits.
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6.
India donates US$100,000 in relief aid to St Vincent
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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As part of the ongoing efforts to recover from the
double-barreled assaults of October 2010’s Hurricane
Tomas and the April 2011 flash floods and landslides,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has received US$100,000
(EC$270,000) in assistance from the government of
India.India’s Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, in a letter to Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves,
stated, “In keeping with the close and warm relations
between our two countries, the government of India has
decided to make a cash donation of US$100,000 to the
government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as
humanitarian assistance.”India joins Australia,
Azerbaijan, Brazil, Georgia, Pakistan, Qatar, Taiwan and
the United States of America as countries that have made
specific donations to SVG in the wake of Hurricane Tomas
and/or the April flash floods. These countries have
delivered most of the approximately EC$9 million pledged
in humanitarian assistance to the government of Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines and various civil society
organisations.
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7.
Cuba lifts some restrictions on internal Migration
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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The Cuban government has partially lifted restrictions
that for years limited internal migration, according to
an official decree published at the Official Gazette on
Tuesday. The decree modifies a previous regulation
issued in 1997 that drastically limited permanent
migration to Havana of Cubans residing in other
provinces, in an effort to reduce overpopulation and
social indiscipline in the city capital. The previous
measure forced Cubans hoping to reside permanently in
Havana to apply for special permits. Those who did not
abide by the rules were subject to fines or to be
returned to their places of origin.“Despite the fact
that the causes and conditions that motivated the
adoption of the 1997 decree still prevail…, it is
advisable to exempt from the proceedings established in
that document certain cases of persons from other
provinces, who request their permanent residence in
Havana,” according to the new decree.
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8.More
former Turks and Caicos ministers arrested
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewnow.com
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The special investigation and prosecution team (SIPT) in
the Turks and Caicos Islands has confirmed that four
people were arrested this week in connection with the
ongoing investigations into allegations of widespread
government corruption.According to the SIPT, those
arrested and later bailed were a 48-year-old woman on
Monday, and three men aged 48, 50 and 53 years
respectively, on Tuesday.Although the individuals
arrested were not named by the SIPT, according to media
reports three of the four were former ministers in the
previous Progressive National Party (PNP) government:
Jeffrey Hall, Lillian Boyce and Samuel Been (Boyce’s
former husband).The fourth person arrested is reported
to be Melbourne Wilson, Jeffrey Hall’s attorney.This
being the case, the only remaining ministers of the
Michael Misick administration not currently set for
court appearances are McAllister ‘Piper’ Hanchell and
Misick himself, who is reported to have taken refuge in
the Dominican Republic.Former deputy premier and former
finance minister Floyd Hall was arrested earlier this
month.
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9.
St Kitts-Nevis Development Bank seeks strategic
alliances to promote businesses
Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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The Development Bank of St Kitts and Nevis has been
working to forge strategic alliances with various
partners in the region as it strives to deliver
technical assistance and support to its current and
prospective clients, says its general manager, Lenworth
Harris. Addressing the opening ceremony of a two-day
workshop held at the University of the West Indies Open
Campus at the Gardens in Basseterre, on Wednesday,
Harris thanked the Inter-American Institute for
Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) through its country
representative Augustine Merchant for collaborating with
the Bank. The workshop, ‘The Application and Use of a
Cost of Production/Investment Model for Crops and
Livestock’, which is organised by the Business Support
Unit of the Development Bank, and aims at enhancing the
competitiveness of the modernisation of the agricultural
sector, is being facilitated by Edric Harry, IICA policy
analysis and policy specialist of Trinidad and Tobago.
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10.
Wireless provider wins award for scaling mobile money in
Haiti Courtesy of-www.caribbeannewsnow.com
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On the eve of celebrating its 12th anniversary in Haiti,
Trilogy International Partners' Haitian subsidiary,
Voila, was recognized on Tuesday for its leadership role
in launching mobile money services throughout Haiti,
receiving the majority share – 89% -- of the first
'Scaling Award' from the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI),
a partnership between The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and USAID, administered by The Haiti
Integrated Finance for Value Chains and Enterprise (HIFIVE). At
a ceremony in Port au Prince, Voila and its banking
partner, Unibank, were presented with a check for
$889,250, following HIFIVE's verification of transaction
reports submitted earlier this year. Those reports
showed that as of May 1, 2011, Haitians had conducted
100,000 qualifying financial transactions -- sending,
receiving, or storing money – on their mobile phones.
Some 89 percent of those transactions were performed by
customers of Voila's mobile money service, T-Cash.
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