BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Central Bank of Barbados Tuesday said that the local economy contracted by 0.4 per cent in the first three months of 2013 and urged the authorities to put “back on track” the fiscal consolidation strategy as well as a new medium term adjustment strategy to turn around the island’s economic fortunes.
Barbados
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate -The European Union (EU) is funding programmes and providing resources to ensure that young creative minds are given more opportunities to develop their craft.
Working with the government, the hope is to further enhance the resources within the Fine Arts Division at the Barbados Community College while calling on teachers to explore multiple intelligences and varied teaching styles to accommodate the diverse learning styles of students.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development Donville Inniss says the Caribbean has to keep up with technological changes in order to take full advantage of doing business in a global village.
“I sense that the days of credit cards with magnetic strips may be going the way of the pay phone or the snail mail. We cannot afford to be left behind,” he stated.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will give its ruling in the matter of Shanique Myrie against the Government of Barbados at a later date, which is yet to be announced.
The matter came to a close yesterday at the CCJ’s Headquarters in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, with President of the CCJ Dennis Byron adjourning the matter so the seven-judge panel can deliberate on the evidence provided in the case.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Technocrats can do a lot more to build confidence in the ability of state institutions to facilitate an enabling environment for business, to create a greener environment for generations to come and to position Barbados to take full advantage of its CARICOM membership. Recently, Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, stated that there were issues which need to be addressed within the Port that were impacting heavily on the ease of doing business and the cost of living.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - THE recent announcement by European Union officials of an investment package for the Caribbean is good news all around.
Not only is the proposal a welcome piece of information by recipient countries, which are witnessing a slowdown in capital inflows, but the announcement of the Caribbean Investment Facility (CIF) also conveys the position that there remains support within the European Union for the Caribbean contrary to views in some quarters that Europe is showing a lack of interest in its former colonies in the region.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - How beneficial or not to the Caribbean is the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the 27-nation European Union (EU) as a bloc and the 15 small Caribbean members of CARIFORUM individually?
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - “The private sector must be the driver of the economy!” This is the expressed view of His Excellency, the Hon. Robert Morris, CHB, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, as he delivered the featured address at the Combermere School’s Annual Speech Day and Prize-giving Ceremony. He noted that one of the problems he had detected in CARICOM is that it is so “political” and focused on the state, that there is not enough room for the private sector.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Given the parlous state of regional economies, there could scarcely be disagreement that if any of our traditional officious bystanders, the little green man from Mars, the fly on the wall or the politically observant “blind man on a trotting horse” were to observe our current situation, he would offer a view that “it cannot be business as usual”. Indeed, this identical phrase has become a modern cliché, applying at different times to our courts, our public service, our policymaking, our university and even the regional cricket team.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Whether or not the call for a special court for tourism-related crimes comes into being, Barbados needs to be safer – for the half-million tourists who visit here annually and, equally, for our citizens.
This fair land is not immune to the dramatic increase of crime, mainly robbery-based and drug-related, that has been sweeping the Caribbean in the last decade; but keeping these shores as safe as possible must be paramount, particularly in the current challenging economic times when every tourism dollar and every ounce of positive publicity counts.