GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Former Jamaica Prime Minister Percival Patterson Monday night urged an overhaul of CARICOM’s Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and he expressed grave concern about the real value of the CARICOM Passport. While he said CARICOM has made progress in a number of areas, the former long-serving Caribbean leader identified several areas that needed very urgent attention. Though member states now issue CARICOM passports, Patterson said the initiative currently appeared useless.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - There is a general cry that “things are bad in Antigua.” Some are doing well, some are not doing too well and some are “catching hell.” Perhaps we can try to emulate Dickens and say “It was the best of times and the worst of times,” but such a description of the state of Affairs in Antigua & Barbuda would be incorrect. Whereas Dickens was writing specifically of the state of affairs in London or the whole of England or perhaps Paris, he was not attempting to state of a global economic perspective of living in that uncertain era.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - A debt of approximately $200 million owed by the Barbados Government to the University of the West Indies – most of it to the Cave Hill campus – has started to have a negative impact and ripple effect on several operators within the business community.
DAILY NATION investigations have revealed that the Barbados-based campus which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year appears to be struggling to pay its creditors and has racked up millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has successfully partnered with several international groups and countries through the regional Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) project in launching the first renewable energy project on the island.
The 6-kilowatt photovoltaic power system at the Nelsons Dockyard Shirley Heights Lookout was aided by the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, and the governments of the United States of America and Germany.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Antigua & Barbuda is unwilling to consider any monetary settlement below US $21 million annually to end the gaming dispute with the US, according to Finance Minister Harold Lovell.
Lovell said a one off US $10 million settlement, which was once put on the table by the US to end the gaming dispute between the two countries, was far off the mark.