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Beyond the IMF — Solutions for growth

KINGSTON, Jamaica - FOR the last 40 years, Jamaica has continued to suffer from a low growth rate, which averages approximately of 0.8 per cent per annum. The national debt now stands at $1.7 trillion, about 140 per cent of our GDP, which has effectively forced us to return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance. The tragic state of our economy is further compounded by a high energy bill, declining productivity, and an import bill that is unsustainable.

Bahamas to learn agriculture processes from Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica - EVEN AS Jamaica struggles with a growing food import bill projected to go past US$1 billion for 2012, representatives from Caribbean neighbours The Bahamas are in the island looking to copy our good agricultural practices, looking at ways to improve their food security. Member of Parliament Arnold Forbes and the other six members of the Bahamian delegation were special guests at the official launch of the annual Jamaica 4-H Clubs Achievement Day expo, at the Medallion Hotel, St Andrew, on Monday.

Minister wants stronger law to deal with people who wilfully transmit HIV

ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC - Health Minister Dr, Clarice Modeste is concerned about people who are wilfully transmitting the HIV virus to others and believes that legislation should be enacted to deal with them once there is evidence that a person is being exposed to the virus as a means of revenge.
"There are those who are saying when they discover their positive status, I am not going down alone," she told the Parliament Wednesday while contributing to the 2013 budget debate.

ABHTI vows to focus more on sustainable tourism

St. John’s Antigua- An official of the Antigua & Barbuda Hotel Training Institute (ABHTI) yesterday promised to consider placing more emphasis on sustainable tourism after attending a Caribbean Tourism Organisation conference in Trinidad & Tobago. Ercil Charles Jr, head of academic affairs at ABHTI told OBSERVER media the institution has always placed emphasis on sustainable tourism education, but added, however that specialised area could take on more prominence in the classroom.

Government pledges to deal with money laundering, drug trafficking

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana Wednesday pledged “strong political will” in dealing with drug trafficking and money laundering. “We also appreciate how important it is in addressing macro-economic stability and also in addressing the rumours and allegations about money laundering and the parallel economy in Guyana; the rumours seem to be getting more intense these days,” President Donald Ramotar told a Financial Crimes Stakeholder workshop.

Mr Bunting’s dark night of the soul

KINGSTON, Jamaica - MR Peter Bunting, the national security minister, might have used his "dark night of the soul" description out of the true context meant by 16th-century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic, Saint John of the Cross, whose poem of the same title speaks of the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God. But the reaction, some might say overreaction, to his speech is not about his wrong use of the term.

Caribbean crime and Antigua

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - St. John’s Antigua- Last week, news broke that masked gunmen had robbed a group of cruise ship tourist in St Lucia. Apparently, a bus tour of the Soufriere Botanical Gardens turned into a nightmare scenario when their bus was hijacked by three masked men who proceed to threaten and frighten the tourists while robbing them of their valuables. This incident follows closely on the heels of another shocking incident in Barbados where two British tourists were shot. Like the St Lucian incident, this was a brazen act.

Minister calls for pooling of RSS Resources

St. John’s Antigua- National Security Minister Dr Errol Cort has suggested Regional Security Systems (RSS) member states pool resources to strengthen the RSS Air Wing to help clamp down on the burgeoning drug trade and influx of guns into the region. He told OBSERVER media, “I don’t believe that it would be useful at this point for individual RSS countries to try setting up their own aircraft capacity.

Air Passenger Duty: ‘Stinging us for everything we’ve got’

KINGSTON, Jamaica - IT IS automatically added to every flight out of the UK, but when The Voice spoke to Caribbean-bound travellers at Gatwick Airport, some had never even heard of air passenger duty (APD).
The travel tax has been rising year-on-year making billions in revenues for the government, but pricing out ordinary people from travelling to the tropical region.

PM looking at CARICOM-US summit

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad- Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday explored the possibility of holding a CARICOM-US summit in T&T, according to a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister. Persad-Bissessar did so in Washington yesterday when she met with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to discuss ongoing bilateral issues. She is in the US attending an OAS Americas-Africa business forum which she will address this morning.

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