BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - BARBADOS will be embarking on a $450 million project to breathe fresh life into the country’s ailing sugar industry. The project was outlined yesterday by Agriculture Minister, Dr. David Estwick, prior to a meeting with industry officials and representatives of two companies which are likely to play key roles in the reconfigured sugar industry. Over the years, the sugar industry has experienced declining output, high production costs and reduced earnings from the European Union, which is Barbados’ main export market for the sweetener.
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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The Government of Barbados expressed its gratitude to Canada for implementing the Caribbean Leadership Project.
The first part of that project, the Leadership Development Programme, was launched yesterday at the Cave Hill School of Business.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Martin Cox, took the opportunity to convey this Government’s appreciation to Canada for supporting the seven-year, twenty million dollar Canadian funded initiative.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Former Jamaica Prime Minister Percival Patterson Monday night urged an overhaul of CARICOM’s Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and he expressed grave concern about the real value of the CARICOM Passport. While he said CARICOM has made progress in a number of areas, the former long-serving Caribbean leader identified several areas that needed very urgent attention. Though member states now issue CARICOM passports, Patterson said the initiative currently appeared useless.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Global growth has slowed in the past two years and is forecast to remain sluggish in 2013. Some of the biggest risks facing the world economy—the breakup of the euro currency, huge tax increases and government spending cuts in the United States, and a sharp slowdown in China—were avoided last year. But two of the biggest economies—the euro alliance and Japan—will likely remain in recession this year.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - There is a general cry that “things are bad in Antigua.” Some are doing well, some are not doing too well and some are “catching hell.” Perhaps we can try to emulate Dickens and say “It was the best of times and the worst of times,” but such a description of the state of Affairs in Antigua & Barbuda would be incorrect. Whereas Dickens was writing specifically of the state of affairs in London or the whole of England or perhaps Paris, he was not attempting to state of a global economic perspective of living in that uncertain era.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - All well-thinking Jamaicans should be paying close attention to the gun control debate in the United States. It’s been taking place for decades, experiencing highs and lows periodically. But the gun debate has taken on new wings since the mid-December massacre of 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - A debt of approximately $200 million owed by the Barbados Government to the University of the West Indies – most of it to the Cave Hill campus – has started to have a negative impact and ripple effect on several operators within the business community.
DAILY NATION investigations have revealed that the Barbados-based campus which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year appears to be struggling to pay its creditors and has racked up millions of dollars in unpaid bills.
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC-St.Lucia's Opposition Leader Stephenson King has taken a tough stance in ongoing controversy with House Speaker Peter Foster by insisting that no leader of the opposition should ever have to apologise for doing his duty. King made his position clear in a letter to Foster's Attorney Michael Gordon, who had written to him demanding an apology "within 48 hours" for remarks he made about an alleged conflict of interest on Foster's part in the ongoing public inquiry into the St.Lucia Fire Service.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has successfully partnered with several international groups and countries through the regional Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) project in launching the first renewable energy project on the island.
The 6-kilowatt photovoltaic power system at the Nelsons Dockyard Shirley Heights Lookout was aided by the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, and the governments of the United States of America and Germany.
SANTIAGO, Chile, CMC – The Organization of American States (OAS) says its Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, met with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Belize and Guatemala on the protracted territorial dispute between both countries. “The meeting's main objective was to exchange information on the tasks that both countries are committed to carry out in preparation for the referenda concerning recourse to the Court of the Hague Convention on the territorial issue,” said a statement from the OAS.