Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Stabroek News - Last week, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of St Lucia presented his Budget for the year 2013-14, an event that followed a three-week strike by the country’s civil servants in protest against the government’s wage offer for a triennium ending in 2013. The Budget was presented, and the strike was held, against a background of a certain level of dissatisfaction with the government’s original wage offer of 0%-0%-0% for the triennium, a figure which was eventually raised to 4%, and still rejected by the Civil Service Association.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, , CMC – Norway is reported to have expressed “serious concerns” about the status of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), following the decision by the National Assembly to approve a drastic reduction in the national budget as proposed by opposition legislators.

WASHINGTON, CMC - The World Bank has commended Guyana for its Education Strategic Plan, saying it is seeking to achieve the “Education for All” goals and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015.
The Washington-based financial institution noted that the School Feeding Program (SFP) is a component of the Education for All -Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI), whose objectives include building more community participation in schools and improving children’s human development outcomes, such as student enrollment and attendance, nutritional status and learning outcomes.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Guyana Wednesday made an impassioned plea for business investments from its oil rich Caribbean Community (CARICOM) neighbour, Trinidad and Tobago, saying it also provides a gateway for investment in South America.
Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar addressing the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Annual General Meeting his country could be a bridge “between the Caribbean and South America and offer our Caribbean investors huge possibilities into getting into the market”.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The storm that had been blowing and strengthening in the direction of Trinidad & Tobago National Security Minister Jack Warner’s direction for the last five years or so, has finally hit him with full force. The former President of CONCACAF’s resignation as FIFA Vice President in 2011, signalled that he was beginning to perceive that all was not well.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC - Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries say they are looking forward to “continued goodwill, friendship and cooperation” that has characterised their relationship with Venezuela following the electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro. Maduro, who had been chosen by the late Venezuelan Leader Hugo Chavez, was sworn into office over the weekend following his victory at the polls earlier this month. The ceremony was attended by several Caribbean leaders.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Margaret Thatcher and Hugo Chávez came from opposing ends of the political spectrum but, in a curious way, they shared a common trait_ both were capable of arousing, in death as in life, great admiration and devotion, on the one hand, and deep loathing on the other. In the latter respect, reactions to their death in their respective countries make for an interesting comparison. Mrs Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday was a grand affair, just the type of thing at which the British excel.

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY_ Guyana-born HIV Expert, Dr. Deborah Persaud, has made the Time Magazine list of 2013 World List of ‘Top 100’ Influential People.
Persaud, a top researcher at Johns Hopkins Pediatric, was propelled into the spotlight in early March when she and colleagues Hanna Gay, M.D., of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Katherine Luzuriaga, M.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, announced the first functional cure of HIV in an infant.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana Wednesday pledged “strong political will” in dealing with drug trafficking and money laundering. “We also appreciate how important it is in addressing macro-economic stability and also in addressing the rumours and allegations about money laundering and the parallel economy in Guyana; the rumours seem to be getting more intense these days,” President Donald Ramotar told a Financial Crimes Stakeholder workshop.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - The presidential elections in Venezuela indicate that the country, without the influence of former President Chávez’s extraordinary charisma and influence, remains essentially democratic in form and practice as it has tended to be since the end of the Jimenez dictatorship, with the polarization between the current two main parties now reaching extreme limits.