BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - WITH the private sector backing the recently announced tourism initiatives it is going to be important to gauge whether the measures will in fact translate into an improvement in the island’s tourism industry.
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ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Computer technology expert Yves Ephraim has pointed to growing incidents of cyber attacks in the country as a new report points to its damaging effects on small businesses in particular. Ephraim, managing director of Pegasus Technologies, told OBSERVER Media that in his line of work, he has seen repeated examples of cyber attacks which lead him to the conclusion that the scourge is growing locally. “I think it happens more often than we really like to admit. Some people don’t even know that they are being hacked but we are under attack,” the IT expert said.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - THERE is an unfortunate pride that is linked to owning national airlines in the Caribbean. It is a pride that goes before a fall. Successive Jamaican governments held on to Air Jamaica although the airline bled money and depended heavily on massive financial support from taxpayers. The taxpayers' money could have been used to finance sustainable projects that would have created and maintained employment and generated revenues. But in the minds of decision-makers in successive Jamaican governments, keeping Air Jamaica flying was important for national pride.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – Haiti has launched an ambitious vaccination campaign against tetanus and the rotavirus that causes severe, fatal diarrhea in children under the age of 5. The campaign comes a year after the Michel Martelly administration launched a similar campaign against several childhood diseases, including measles and polio. “To protect children against rotavirus is extremely important, especially in a place like Haiti where we also are seeing not a lot of high access to water and sanitation,” said Dr.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she was not pressured by any Government minister into accepting the resignation of former minister Jack Warner.
The Prime Minister returned from Canada on Saturday night and said it was in fact the Concacaf findings and report by Sir David Simmons, a former chief justice and attorney general of Barbados, that cemented her decision to accept Warner’s resignation.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Trinidad and Tobago has now been challenged to entertain the prospect of a Jack Warner scenario that is still being scripted. Such is the outcome, first, of the unfolding of increasingly devastating revelations and events and, then, of his own calculating responses.
BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Australia will use its expertise in guiding the Caribbean adapt to climate change and manage its coral reefs.
Coral reefs provide benefits to the Caribbean valued at over four billion annually. The reefs of the Caribbean are of great importance in providing shoreline protection, habitat for healthy fisheries and an essential attraction for the tourism sector, the Belize Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC).
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – After threats of sanctions and of ignoring United States copyright laws just a few months prior, Minister of Finance Harold Lovell is sounding the most optimistic he has in recent times that a settlement with the US over the online gaming issue will be reached. Lovell, in an interview with OBSERVER media, said negotiations with the US have lead to some “interesting options” being on the table. “There is still some distance between our position and their position and we are satisfied that over the last three weeks we have seen the gap narrowing gradually,” he said.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Confidence is low among Caribbean businesses, with only the largest companies reporting signs of an upward swing in prospects for the future, according new research. The Global Economic Conditions Survey from ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), which gauges the views of finance professionals across the world, revealed that the Caribbean’s business community had little to feel good about in first quarter of 2013.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrives here on Monday to review the operations of the multi-million dollar Stand By Agreement (SBA) the financial institution has with Antigua and Barbuda. A government statement said that the review, which will end on May 3, is the final under the 36-month SBA. The IMF team will meet with private and public sector officials during the weeklong visit. In 2010, Antigua and Barbuda was approved for the 36-month SBA of US$118 million, but that figure was downgraded to US$107 million