CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Barbados
This year’s sitting of the Barbados
Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination
by thousands of primary school
students is likely to be the last.
Minister of Education,
Sanita Bradshaw
announced that public
consultations on
a replacement for the
exam, also known as the Common
Entrance for 11-Plus, would start next
month.
She said the hope was that as early as
next year, there would be a new method
for students to transition from primary
to secondary school.
However, government back bencher,
Gline Clarke is not in agreement and
has called for a referendum to be held
on the issue.
Bahamas
Four Haitians have been ordered
deported after they were found guilty of
breaching the Immigration Act.
Police reported that
on March 3, 2020, the
Haitians — Donna
Alain, 35, Allia Samdi,
28, David Tousaint, 37,
and Joseph Francis, 34, were found
in Grand Bahama after landing from
a place outside the Bahamas without
checking with Immigration.
When they appeared in court recently,
they pleaded guilty to the charge and
were each fined US$300 or in default
serve one year in jail at the Bahamas
Department of Correctional Services.
The four were handed over to Immigration
after paying the fine to be
deported to their homeland.
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 sustainability rates of
growth.
He said economic growth will remain
lopsided and below the sustainable rates
needed for long-term resilience noting
that BMCs like Barbados, Grenada,
Caribbean L 4 ife, March 20-26, 2020
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
Grenadian Prime, Keith Mitchell says the next Grenadian prime will be a woman. Photo by George Alleyne
Jamaica, and St. Kitts and Nevis must
stay on course with their home grown
socio-economic reform programs.
The bank president also pointed to
Barbados’ progress in bringing its debt
ratio down from 127 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) in 2018 to
under 120 percent last year.
Dr. Smith confirmed that the bank
was determined to assist the BMCs to
reach the 2030 Sustainable Development
Goals.
Grenada
Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell
has assured Grenadians that a woman
will become the next prime minister of
the Spice Island during his lifetime.
He made the statement
while delivering
the recent feature
address at the signing
of the Spotlight Initiative
– a project receiving funding
from the European Union (EU) and the
United Nations (UN) to combat violence
against women and girls.
Mitchell, who while campaigning for
the election that was held in 2018, said
he would not be contesting another
election, said his vision of having a
female prime minister, will become a
reality.
He said it will not take too long in the
future since “we already have a female
governor general in place – the highest
official in the land.”
Mitchell was prime minister from
1995 to mid-2008 when he was voted
out of office after the electorate voted
for the Tillman Thomas-led National
Democratic Congress who ruled from
2008 to February 2013.
Mitchell returned to power in the
2018 general election.
On both occasions his ruling National
Party won all 15 seats in the House of
Representatives.
During his tenure Mitchell has seen
the rise of women being elected to the
Parliament.
Currently seven of the 13 Members in
the Lower House are women, while two
others are among the 13 senators.
In the public service, 10 of the 15
permanent secretaries are women.
Haiti
The World Bank has approved US$56
million grant for urban development in
the impoverished Haiti.
The Washingtonbased
financial institution
said the funds
from its International
Development Association
(IDA) will go towards the Cap-Haitien
Urban Development Project, which
aims “to improve urban infrastructure
and public spaces to make the Cap-
Haitien city region more livable and
resilient.
The bank said Cap-Haitien, the country’s
second largest commercial center,
has the potential to become a hub
growth in the north but faces significant
challenges that are constraining
its development and reducing the quality
of life of its citizens.
It said the bank is working with the
Haitian government and other development
partners to make Cap-Haitien a
better place to live, visit and do business.
According to the Haiti Urbanization
Review, around 64 percent of the population
lives in urban areas, making it
the fourth most urbanized country in
the Latin America and the Caribbean.
But the bank said urbanization has
occurred in “an unregulated manner,
resulting in over-crowded cities.”
St. Lucia
St. Lucia’s Prime Minister, Allen
Chastanet announced last week that
the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
will hold a conference call with regional
countries to discuss the economic
impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19)
which has killed more than 4,000 people
globally and posing economic problems
for small island developing states.
In a statement to
Parliament on the
island’s as well as the
region’s preparations
and strategies for deal
with the virus for which there is no
vaccine, Chastanet disclosed that his
Continued on Page 18
THE NEWS FROM BACK HOME
Next Grenadian PM will be a woman
/www.caribbeanlifenews.com
/www.caribbeanlifenews.com