CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Barbados
The Caribbean Development Bank
(CDB) has reiterated a call for urgent
attention to be taken to address the
challenges facing the cash-strapped
regional airline LIAT.
CDB President, Dr.
Warren Smith has
pointed to the airline’s
financial problems
and the impact of high
taxes on intra-regional travel.
He told the bank’s annual news conference
that there is urgent to improve
the financial performance of LIAT
because its sustainability depends on
addressing that issue.
Smith said the bank is anxious for
a turnaround in the performance of
the regional aviation system, particularly
the Antigua-based carrier, which
has received financial support from the
regional development institution.
LIAT, whose major shareholders are
the governments of Antigua and Barbuda,
Barbados, Dominica, Grenada
and St Vincent and the Grenadines has
also received financial support from the
CDB which, according to Smith, currently
stands at an estimated US$300
million.
In January former Barbados Prime
Minister Owen Arthur was appointed
chairman of the board of directors following
the resignation of Jean Holder
due to its financial problems.
Caribbean
The Caribbean Development Bank
(CDB) has projected the region’s economic
growth to increase to 4.1 percent
in 2020. The increase to 4.1 percent
from one percent in 2019 is influenced
largely by the growth in Guyana when
oil production begins this year.
This, while the
International Monetary
Fund (IMF) is projecting
global growth
to increase modestly
from 2.9 percent in 2019 to 3.3 percent
in 2020 and 3.4 percent in 2021.
In a release, President of the CDB, Dr.
William Warren Smith noted that this
growth will be uneven and urged the
borrowing member countries (BMCs) of
the bank to pursue policy reforms conducive
to sustainable rates of growth.
Speaking at the CDB’s news conference
in Barbados, Dr. Smith said economic
growth will remain lopsided and
below the sustainable rates needed for
long-term resilience.
He said BMCs like Barbados, Grenada,
Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis must
stay on course with their home grown
socio-economic reform programs.
Dr. Warren Smith said the Bank was
determined to assist BMCs to reach the
2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
He cited the work which the CDB did
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Barnoness Scotland meeting with Prime Minister Browne in Antigua recently. See story on Page 22 Gov’t of
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in 2019 to assist BMCs in meeting these
goals through modernizing infrastructure
and economic reform.
Grenada
A new multi-million dollar 100-room
luxury hotel is to be built on the east
coast, which the Grenada government
says will impact “significantly” on the
island’s rural community.
Prime Minister, Dr.
Keith Mitchell said that
the Six Senses Hotel
Project in La Sagesse,
St. David’s, is being
developed by the Dubai-based Range
Developments, an investment and hospitality
company, operating across the
Eastern Caribbean.
He said the government of Grenada
fully supports and welcomes the work
of Range Developments, which has an
outstanding record of delivering the
finest, world-class resorts in the Caribbean.
The hotel is scheduled for completion
by November 2022.
Dr Mitchell said the project will
impact significantly on Grenada’s rural
economy, especially through the creation
of jobs in both the construction
phase and when he hotel beings operations.
In addition Six Senses will offer visitors
a more unique experience, given
its location outside of the traditional
tourist belt.
Jamaica
A team from the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO) has begun
training laboratory staff in Jamaica on
how to test for the coronavirus (Covid
19) that has killed more than 1,000
people in China.
Chief Medical Officer,
(CMO) Dr. Jacquline
A Bisasor-McKenzie,
provided an update on
measure implemented
by Jamaica to deal with the virus saying
that Jamaica is developing its own
capacity to test for the virus.
She said that not every country is
going to have the capacity, but we have
a National Influenza Center that is
located at the University of the West
Indies, “we are fortunate to be given
this opportunity to be able to do our
own testing.”
The CMO said, in the interim, testing
is being done at the US-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
and at the Trinidad-based Caribbean
Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has
its own training and is now able to test
and the sample taken from the person
who recently returned to the island
from China was isolated and tests for
the virus can be sent immediately to
CARPHA.
St. Kitts
Prime Minister, Dr. Timothy Harris
said legislation aimed at decriminalizing
the use of marijuana for medicinal
purposes will be debated in Parliament
this week.
St. Kitts will be joining a number of
CARICOM countries that have done so
in recent months.
According to the
order paper, Harris
will table the Cannabis
Bill, 2020, which seeks
to establish the Medicinal
Cannabis Authority “in order to provide
for the lawful access to medicinal
cannabis as an alternative treatment for
persons who are suffering from a qualifying
medicinal condition.”
The legislation will also provide for
a comprehensive licensing scheme to
regulate the cultivation, supply, possession,
production and use of medincinal
cannabis.
It will also seek to establish a board
with responsibility for the policy, strategic
direction and governance authority.
The government said the new legislation
takes into account the unanimous
recommendations of the National Marijuana
Commission, which presented its
report after a near two year period.
Suriname
A large group of protestors recently
gathered outside Suriname’s Presidential
Palace in Paramaribo to demand an
end to the reign of the National Demo-
Continued on Page 18
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