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KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - The Business Processing Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ) is among several interest groups scheduled to meet with tax administrators at the Ministry of Finance and Planning today to discuss the likely impact the removal of tax incentives could have on their members.

"Yes, we have been invited to a meeting in Kingston," Yoni Epstein, chairman of BPIAJ, told The Gleaner yesterday. "We are working assiduously to prepare our presentation and would prefer not to comment on the matter until we hear what they (the Ministry of Finance) have to say."

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Some $15 million has been set aside in the 2013-14 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-size hotels through the use of renewable energy.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Nation News - The late Margaret Thatcher was impossible to ignore and was one of a handful of leaders who lent her name to an era.
This is the view of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart who, in signing the condolence book for the former British Prime Minister, said no one could deny that between 1979 and 1990 Baroness Thatcher made a profound impact on the politics of Britain and the world.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC- Dr. Olive Lewin the well known Jamaican musicologist, folklorist and founder of the Jamaican Folk Singers is dead.

Lewin, 85, who died on Wednesday, dedicated her life to keeping the nation’s traditional songs alive by researching, collecting and recording anthologies for the benefit of future generations.

In the 1980s Lewin also spearheaded the Jamaica Memory Bank Project, at the direction of Prime Minister Edward Seaga, which focused on the recollections of Jamaicans from all walks of life, recording and transcribing their stories.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Nation News - Government is being told to “come clean” with the people since the Central Bank’s call for an about turn in economic strategy reflects what the Opposition was saying all along.
That was Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley’s reaction to the bank’s statement that Government’s medium term fiscal strategy (MTFS) must be brought back on track and a new adjustment strategy implemented.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - THE Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) will soon be presenting a Budget in Parliament for the benefit of the people of Grenada, and though it has been described as a “Holding Budget” until the final Budget comes on stream in December, Mitchell is expecting the proposals contained therein to offer some measure of hope to Grenadians.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - There is no need for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) ‘rescue mission’ for Barbados. This was the assertion coming from Central Bank Governor, Dr. Delisle Worrell, following a contraction in the economic performance of the first quarter of 2013, and with virtually flat projections for the economy. Speaking at press conference at the Central Bank to discuss the economy’s performance, the Governor, “So long as you have foreign exchange reserves and the exchange rate is secure then there is no possibility of an IMF programme.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Nation News - Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has made it clear that his country is not pumping any funds into LIAT until the regional airline gets “its act together” and reduces its wastage. Speaking yesterday at a Press briefing at Highgate Gardens, St Michael, Mitchell, who is embarking on his fourth term as leader of the “Spice Isle”, said that LIAT continued to be an inefficient operation. “I will not continue to invest in an operation if it continued to be inefficient and not responsible,” he said.

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC- The three week old strike by Civil Servants has cost the country well over EC$3 million, according to Cabinet Secretary Darryl Montrope.

The Government started to assess the financial cost of the work stoppage, when the strike came to a halt on Tuesday.
According to Montrope, preliminary figures for the Customs Department alone indicate that the Government lost over EC$2 million in revenue at an average of EC$200,000 a day.

ROSEAU, Dominica, Apr 10, CMC – Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has stoutly defended the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) and PetroCaribe saying they underscored a determination of a people to write their own script for their future socio-economic development.