CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
Prime Minister Gaston Browne said
there appears to be a general consensus
on the way forward regarding the
issues Antigua and Barbuda has had
with Barbados as it relates to the sale of
its shares in the cash-strapped regional
airline, LIAT.
He said the “consensus will result in
the recapitalization of LIAT as well as
the restructuring of LIAT to place it on a
path to sustainability.”
The prime minister
said he was not in a
position to give details
at this time, “but to say
that the issues that we
have had, there has been some convergence
and there is now a consensus on
the way forward.”
Antigua and Barbuda currently holds
a 34 percent of the shares in the airline
and had discontinued its interest in purchasing
some of the shares owned by the
Barbados government.
The Barbados government had initially
indicated it wanted US$44 million
for its LIAT shares that Prime Minister
Browne has said was too steep and that
while his government wanted a bigger
stake in the regional airline, it had no
intention of “giving away money.”
Antigua and Barbuda had sought to
acquire the LIAT shares owned by the
Barbados government through a takeover
of the liability of the government to
the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB),
and would have given it 81 percent of the
airline that employs more than 600
workers and operates 491 flights weekly
across 81 destinations.
The other shareholder governments
of LIAT are Dominica, St Vincent and
the Grenadines and Grenada.
Caribbean
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
recently launched its “I AM CARICOM”
campaign designed to improve
the visibility of the regional integration
movement, as well as promote the CARICOM
identity.
The Guyana-based
CARICOM Secretariat
said in a statement that
the campaign which
was launched during
the 10th meeting of
Caricom Committee off Ambassadors,
is also intended to increase citizens’
engagement with the CARICOM Single
Market and Economy (CSME) and
engender ownership of the imminent
Caricom Strategic Plan 2020.
The current strategic plan, which
ends in December 2019, is the Community’s
first and is a direct response to the
need to target “a narrow range of specified
time-frames, focusing on a few practical
and achievable goals” in relation to
the regional development agenda.
Caribbean Life, D 4 ec. 27, 2019-Jan. 2, 2020
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Gaston Browne. Gov’t of Antigua and Barbuda
The CSME allows for the free movement
of goods, skills, labor and services
across the 15-member grouping.
The Secretariat said the campaign
aims to assist Caribbean people “to
understand Caricom, its purpose, people,
geography, institutions, governance
structure, policies and plans and to fully
engage citizens of the Community in
the process of developing and implementing
strategic interventions that
affect their lives.”
Guyana
Guyana has intensified its fight
against Trafficking in Persons (TIP)
with the launch of Standard Operation
Procedures (SOP) for investigating and
prosecuting cases.
The move is a collaboration
between the
government, the International
Organization
for Migration (IOM)
and the US Department of State.
Minister of Public Security and Chairman
of the Ministerial Taskforce for the
Trafficking in Persons, Kemraj Ramjattan,
said the SOPs were part of a larger
effort to protect the rights of TIP victims.
He said that with wealth, Guyana
is going to become a magnet for such
crimes and that all stakeholders needed
to be singing from the same hymnbook
that is why having SOPs are important.
Regional Coordinating Officer for the
Caribbean and Chief of Mission for IOM,
Robert Natiello, said, while the SOPs
were a significant milestone, it marked
the beginning of hard work for the
stakeholders.
He added that they would have to
work, hand in hand, to implement the
SOPs and urged them to become familiar
with the document, quickly.
Jamaica
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck is urging
Jamaicans to report criminal activities
to law enforcement authorities and
not to fear of being murdered.
He said persons
must muster the courage
to speak out and
expose criminals and
wrongdoers because
“far too many of us want to live without
having to come forward, but what’s life
is not about.”
Chuck said the indiscipline and the
disorder that “we see right across Jamaica
must stop” and called for an end to
the culture of not reporting criminal
activities.
Instead, he told the Child Diversion
Sensitization Session that Jamaicans
should stand up for what is right and
help put these criminal element behind
bars.
Child diversion is the process of implementing
measures for dealing with children
who are accused or recognized to
have infringed the law, without resorting
to formal judicial proceedings. The
national program is being introduced
under the Child Diversion Act that was
passed in 2018.
Last year, 1,287 people were murdered
and so far for this year more than
1,060 people been killed island wide.
Grenada
Pure Grenada, the Spice Island of
the Caribbean has been named “one to
watch” in the ABTA Travel Trends Report
2020, the only Caribbean destination to
be included in the UK benchmark report
since 2018.
I n d e p e n d e nt l y
selected by ABTA
experts, inclusion is
based on a range of
factors such as accessibility,
major events and celebrations and
areas that are experiencing a revival.
ABTA (Association of British Travel
Agents) has been a trusted travel brand
for over 65 years and helps UK holidaymakers
travel with confidence.
The ABTA names stands for support,
protection and expertise, giving consumers
confidence in products they buy
from ABTA members.
ABTA has more than 4,300 travel
brands in its membership, providing a
wide range of leisure and business travel
services.
Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA)
CEO, Patricia Maher, said the BTA Trav-
Continued on Page 22
THE NEWS FROM BACK HOME
Antigua PM speaks on LIAT
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