Month: January 2018

Access to financing for small businesses will now be less restrictive with the implementation of the new G$100 million Revolving Fund project. Business Minister Dominic Gaskin said the project would be executed by the Ministry’s semi-autonomous agency, the Small Business Bureau (SBB). The initiative will help to finance micro and small businesses whose goods and services are sustainable and environmentally friendly. The SBB currently invests in low carbon sectors to support the Government’s strategy to reduce carbon emissions, through loans, grants, and guaranteed collateral. However, Minister Gaskin pointed out that…

Read More

The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’s decision on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy could take as much as two years to be handed down if needs be, Vice President and Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said on Wednesday. Providing an update on the matter, the Minister said that nothing new has happened since the Good Offices Process ended on December 31, 2017 and a commitment was made to clearly outline the way forward by the Secretary General. The Secretary General undertook to make a decision after a process which ended…

Read More

The unified strength of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) has enabled it to surmount challenges posed over the past 44 years of regional integration. This declaration was made by the Caricom Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, while he urged the Community Council of Ministers to use those weapons to forge ahead. Caricom’s second highest organ held its 41st meeting at its Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown Headquarters on Monday to discuss the provisional list of items for the agenda of the 29th Inter-sessional Meeting of Heads of Government, which will be held in Haiti…

Read More

…says GTUC on Govt’s 50% severance payment to sugar workers The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) said President David Granger’s commitment to paying affected sugar workers 50 per cent of their severance is “not good enough”, while noting that addressing the workers’ concern is not a priority of the Administration. On Saturday, the GTUC said the fact that no budgetary allocation was made to cover the severance of the affected is indicative of no premium being placed on the concerns of the workers. As such, the GTUC sees this as…

Read More

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) is mulling taking the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to court over its decision to pay thousands of dismissed and retrenched sugar workers part, and not all, of their severance purportedly this month end. GAWU President, Komal Chand, speaking with the Guyana Times International on Sunday during an exclusive interview, said he has already prepared a brief for the case, and is in the process of recruiting an attorney-at-law who is familiar with industrial relations law to handle the matter. Chand said there…

Read More

The third Rupununi Music and Arts Festival, which will be hosted at the Manari Ranch, Rupununi Lethem from February 16-18 is promising an eclectic blend of music and arts. Organiser/Artiste, Gavin Mendonca, in an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), explained that this year’s three-day festival will be an environmental and an eco-oriented event, celebrated under the theme, “One People, One Place, One Experience”. According to Mendonca, patrons will enjoy camping, a festival of music from different countries, dance, yoga, spoken word, arts and crafts displays, performances, workshops,…

Read More

It was a showcase of drama both in and outside of the Wales Magistrate’s Court when multiple Police ranks were forced to subdue Felix Thorman, who admitted that on January 2, 2018, at the Parika Stelling, he tossed 73-year-old Raymond Stephens out of a hammock before he assaulted the elderly man. For this, he was sentenced to serve the next six months in jail while his wife was advised by Magistrate Annette Singh to allow Thorman to receive a psychiatric evaluation. Prior to his court appearance, the defendant threw himself…

Read More

…State’s legal advisers say not responsible for backlog of cases from SOCU British financial crimes expert, Dr Sam Sittlington, has decried the slothfulness with which cases investigated by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) are being processed, but the State’s top legal advisers have denied holding up the prosecution of these cases. Last week, Dr Sittlington, who has returned as an adviser to SOCU, expressed concern that there has been little done to take the financial crime cases, which have close to G$300 billion at stake, before the courts. On…

Read More