– Caricom high-level forum hears
Participants at a high-level meeting on Monday underscored the need for increased advocacy for more official commitment to statistics and the mobilisation of additional resources for the field.
Those were among the issues that stakeholders in the field of statistics identified as critically important to the overall development of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
Dominican, jazz, fusion singer Michele Henderson is the winner of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) song competition, and her winning entry “Celebrating CARICOM” is now the regional body’s official anthem. Henderson beat out 57 semi-finalists and ten finalists to emerge winner in the competition which was announced last year.
She says she screamed in disbelief when she first heard the news, and she is “happy and proud” for the accomplishment.
The Bahamas is planning to introduce a new 7.5 percent value added tax, the government announced this week.
The tax will be a single VAT rate across the board, although that is lower than an initially proposed 15 percent tax.
The country’s Ministry of Finance said the lower rate would also mean fewer exemptions.
The ultimate plan is for the tax to come into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, after what the government said would be an “in-depth public education campaign and private sector preparation.”
PetroCaribe President Bernardo Alvarez made a 24-hour visit to Haiti on Tuesday to announce a “major order” placed by Venezuela’s government of tablet computers made in Haiti.
Alvarez, Venezuela’s former Ambassador to the United States, is both the president of the Venezuela-led PetroCaribe programme and the Secretary General of the regional ALBA alliance.
Alvarez was received by Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe in the country; his visit was highlighted on Tuesday with a stop at the Surtab tablet company, maker of the first tablet computer built in Haiti.
President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr. Warren Smith has singled out high energy costs as a major challenge to the region’s competitiveness.
He made the assertion at the opening of the 44th Annual Meeting of the CDB’s Board of Governors on Wednesday at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
Dr. Smith stated that for regional development and economic growth to be sustainable they must be underpinned by competitiveness on a global scale but the latter was being stymied by high energy costs.
The World Bank’s Board of Directors has approved a $45 million grant to develop tourism in Haiti.
The grant from the International Development Association aims to improve access, conservation and management at the World Heritage Site of Haiti’s National History Park and the historic centre of the city of Cap-Haitien.
The money will also go toward “establishing new destinations for travelers,” according to the institution.
Jamaica’s government is currently in the midst of finalizing a $50 million “growth and competitiveness” project with the World Bank, according to Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister Anthony Hylton.
The loan project, which will take place over a four-year period, will be executed in its first part by the Jamaica Promotions Corporation through the National Competitiveness Council.
The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) launched its latest initiative on the subject of intellectual property (IP): a series of private sector IP clinics which will take place across the region. The first of the sessions took place in Belize from April 29th-30th and three more sessions are scheduled to follow over the next two months in the region.
A meeting of Caribbean Commonwealth officials with responsibility for ICT will bring the region’s eGovernance and cybercrime issues squarely into focus. The Caribbean Stakeholders’ Meeting on the Importance of ICTs and their Impact on Regional Development takes place in Port-of-Spain from today to Wednesday.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados -- The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has welcomed Standard and Poor’s revision of its outlook from "negative" to “stable” and affirmation of its “AA/A-1+” status on long and short term foreign currency ratings.
Following review of CDB’s 2013 results, S&P made the announcement on May 16, stating that factors that contributed to the shift to “stable” include:
• The abatement of external liquidity pressures among some of the Bank’s largest borrowers