Category: Regional

Montserrat’s new Constitution goes into effect September 1

TIMES INT'L

Chief Minister Reuben Meade said that the new Constitution for Montserrat goes into effect from September 1st this year. Meade said that the constitutional reform is now completed after over five years of discussion, and that his administration has successfully negotiated with Britain the Montserrat Constitution Order. “We recognise that many persons would have liked to see more radical changes. However, this Constitution improves upon the 1989 Constitutional Order; and there is a mechanism for change, where appropriate and justifiable,” Meade said. He told legislators during the budget presentation earlier…

Read More

Speed up policy implementation in education – Mottley

TIMES INT'L

The pace of implementation of policies for education in Barbados must be sped up. That is according to Member of Parliament for St Michael North East, Mia Mottley, who was speaking on the fourth day of the Estimates Debate in Parliament. “I believe that we are trending in the right direction, but our problem comes back down to pace of implementation. It is not so much a political issue, but it is an issue of managing 4,000 bodies across 120 schools, and getting some kind of uniformity of application on…

Read More

Larger cruise lines not buying into idea of Antigua as homeport

TIMES INT'L

Major cruise lines have rejected a suggestion for Antigua & Barbuda to become a regional home port. Tourism Minister John Maginley, who led a local delegation that was taking part in the world’s largest cruise industry tradeshow – Seatrade Cruise Shipping Miami – said that while the executives for some small lines supported the suggestion, large cruise lines have not bought into the idea. “We asked a couple of the larger ships if they wanted to call in Antigua, because we have a lot of airlift and people are looking…

Read More

ACM flays Jamaican MP over media impasse

TIMES INT'L

The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) has criticised Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) parliamentarian Everald Warmington over his current impasse with the local media. “The Association of Caribbean Media Workers, in unqualified solidarity with our colleagues in Jamaica, wishes to roundly condemn the conduct of parliamentarian Everald Warmington, following a legitimate query by CVM Television anchor Kerlyn Brown during a live television interview on March 8, 2011,” ACM President Wesley Gibbings said. “We understand that a subsequent question on the issue put to him by CVM’s Manager of News and…

Read More

Caricom saddened by Japan quake

TIMES INT'L

The unprecedented disaster in Japan, spawned by the largest recorded earthquake in that country’s history, has deeply saddened the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the regional grouping said in a statement last Friday. In a message to the Embassy of Japan in Trinidad and Tobago, acting Caricom Secretary General Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite said that the people of the Caribbean Community shared Japan’s grief over the tragic and escalating loss of life, and the displacement of thousands of Japanese through the “unimaginable effects” of this disaster. At this time of grave difficulty, Ambassador…

Read More

TT PM calls for sharper focus on women

TIMES INT'L

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who chairs the Office of the Commonwealth, has issued a statement to mark Commonwealth Day, celebrated on Monday, March 14th, in which she called for more initiatives to help female entrepreneurs. She said: “It is truly a fitting theme as we embark on a new decade of this millennium, where we have three women at the apex of this august organisation – Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, as Head of the Commonwealth; myself as Chairperson of the Commonwealth; and the incoming Chairperson, Julia…

Read More

Remittances to Caribbean to rise this year – IDB

TIMES INT'L

US$58.9 billion received in 2010 Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean are likely to rise this year after stabilising during 2010, although a weaker dollar and higher inflation are reducing purchasing power in many countries, according to the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). Measured in U.S. dollars, money transfers made by Latin American and Caribbean migrants to their countries of origin reached US$58.9 billion in 2010, virtually unchanged from US$58.8 billion in 2009, when remittances saw a 15 per cent drop caused by the global economic crisis,…

Read More

St Lucia PM says general elections will be held this year

TIMES INT'L

Prime Minister Stephenson King has said that general elections will be held this year in St Lucia. Dismissing speculation, King said that he would drag out the date to March 2012, in keeping with the constitutional deadline. The two main political parties – the ruling United Workers’ Party (UWP) and the main opposition St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) – have in recent weeks stepped up campaign activities in anticipation of the polls being held this year. The island’s oldest newspaper, The Voice, has been publishing opinion polls that favour an…

Read More

Barbados foreign reserves decline by $60M

TIMES INT'L

The foreign reserves of Barbados declined by $60 million in January, despite the record number of tourist arrivals, Opposition spokesman on Finance and Economic Affairs, Clyde Mascoll, said yesterday. He told the Daily Nation this performance was not a good sign, and required some explanation from Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler. Sinckler responded on Wednesday night, saying Mascoll was being “neither intellectually nor practically genuine on the matter”. “Mascoll must know it was the former administration that entered into an agreement to make a $30 million payment for the Dodds…

Read More

St Lucia to maintain ties with Libya

TIMES INT'L

St Lucia’s Prime Minister Stephenson King says that, while he supports the march towards democracy in Libya, his government is not considering severing diplomatic relations with that country. Pressure has been mounting on Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi to step down, as a popular uprising against his over-40-year rule continues unabated. The BBC Caribbean reported the St Lucian leader as saying that his government is continuing to monitor developments but was not in favour of breaking ties with Tripoli at this time. The United States on Friday announced that it has…

Read More