MIAMI — Five months after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised to "use every opportunity" to push for funding to eliminate cholera from Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic, government officials in both nations are still waiting on donors to open their wallets.
The feet-dragging comes as the rainy season begins and a new French study says the disease could quickly be eliminated from Haiti if investments are made to restrain transmissions.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Less than 24 hours after the Washington-base International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Caribbean countries would experience economic growth of just over one per cent this year, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) is maintaining that the oil rich twin island republic will record economic growth of 2.5 per cent in 2013.
BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC –Foreign Minister Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington is due to meet with his Guatemalan counterpart, Fernando Carreras, in the United States on Wednesday, less than a week after Belize confirmed that there will be no referendum in the two countries on October 6 in a bid to end the long standing border dispute between them.
The meeting will also be attended by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Miguel Angel Insulza.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - FOUNDER and Chairman of Sandals Resorts International, Gordon "Butch" Stewart says Caribbean governments can derive even more revenue if they would take a more strategic approach to their tourism products rather than front-load tax demands.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Friday concluded its Thirty-Sixth Meeting recording progress to boost the Community’s trade and development agenda in key areas.
BRIDGEETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Legendary fast bowler Michael Holding believes the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) represents an excellent opportunity for the development of professional cricket in the region. The 59-year-old, known for his strident criticism of the shortest form of the game, said the CPL was special as it had the potential to birth a new generation of professional cricketers in the Caribbean. He has signed on as the ambassador for the development programme.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Monday expressed concerns regarding the human rights situation of the Maya indigenous communities in the District of Toledo, in Belize. The IACHR said that it has received information that private companies have been carrying out oil exploration and exploitation and logging activities in the traditional lands of Maya communities under permits issued by State authorities without prior consultation.
ST JOHN_ Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Minister John Maginley will speak to Chinese authorities later this month in Beijing about renewed efforts to tap into their tourism market. The announcement came as newly appointed Chinese ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda Ren Gongping paid a courtesy call on the tourism minister. Maginley believed the time had come for Antigua and Barbuda and, by extension, the Caribbean to do more to attract the attention of Chinese holidaymakers, adding that such a lucrative market would augur well for small states like his.
NEW YORK, CMC - United States federal prosecutors have charged a powerful Caribbean American legislator with embezzlement.
New York State senator, John L. Sampson, who represents the largely Caribbean 19th Senatorial District in Brooklyn, had been charged with stealing funds from the sale of foreclosed properties and using the money to help finance his race for Brooklyn district attorney.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Portia Simpson Miller government says it will establish a comprehensive database of Jamaican professionals and investors abroad.
"We will be embarking on a mapping of this later on in the year with the assistance from the International Organization on Migration," said junior Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Arnaldo Brown.