KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - The Belize government is to launch a national bank that Prime Minister Dean Barrow said should place pressure on commercial banks to reduce lending rates to consumers in the future. Barrow said the National Bank of Belize Limited will have a start-up capital of BDZ$20 million (one Belize dollar = US$0.50 cents) that will come from PetroCaribe funds.
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KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Deputy Leader and Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Investment, Dr Christopher Tufton, is pushing for Jamaica to conduct a comprehensive examination of the economic and social impact of its large and growing diaspora community to inform the country's policy strategy on diaspora affairs.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - TEACHERS WHO have reached the retirement age but who are still working in the public sector in that capacity are to be sent home as part of Jamaica's agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Schools employing teachers who are beyond the retirement age are to be notified that they must regularise by September, Jamaica has indicated in its commitment to the multilateral. The plan was included in a ministry paper tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday, which includes the letter of intent governing the agreement.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Richard Byles, the co-chair of the oversight committee which has been established to monitor the implementation of Jamaica's programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), says the team assembled is not for window dressing. "I am a serious business person. I am not there to do anybody's bidding, and everybody that I have heard named to the committee, they are serious people too," Byles told The Gleaner yesterday.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - JAMAICA will get nearly US$2 billion in loans over the next four years from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under the Extended Fund Facility approved by the IMF yesterday. Nearly US$1 billion in funding from the IMF, starting with an almost immediate drawdown of US$207 million, will complement just over US$1 billion in funding from both the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, bringing the total loan package to nearly US$2 billion.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Stabroek News -The delivery of health and education is to get a further boost with the arrival of yet another batch of United States Peace Corps volunteers. The American embassy here announced, through a press release, that 30 more Peace Corps trainees arrived in Georgetown today to complement their 35 colleagues already in service. The new trainees will make up the 25th group of Peace Corps volunteers to serve this country and will be officially sworn in on July 3, after completing their pre-service training.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - THE Central Bank of Barbados will today unveil a new family of Barbadian banknotes – for the first time since the institution issued notes in 1973. The launch of the new series coincides with the Bank’s 41st birthday. The new notes have the same value as the current series, but will feature modern designs and upgraded security features. De La Rue Limited printed the bills and representatives from this British-based company will be on the island for the launch.
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.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government Wednesday said it would move to amend the existing libel and defamation legislation so as to ensure that journalists were not jailed “for the malicious publication of any defamatory libel.” Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, speaking at a news conference following talks with a delegation from the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) and the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA), said she would take a note to Cabinet on Thursday t
ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Prime Minister Roosvelt Skerrit has confirmed that his Health Minister Julius Timothy had been flown to the French island of Martinique for medical treatment after he collapsed at his office on Wednesday. “Last night he complained about numbness in certain parts of his body,” Skerrit said on state-owned DBS radio, adding that “in due course a medical update on his progress will be given and we ask all Dominicans to pray for his well being”.