CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
The Antigua and Barbuda government
says the state-owned Antigua
Public Utilities Authority (APU) will
spend EC$80 million dollars in upgrading
its facilities so as to make it more
competitive in the telecommunications
sector.
Prime Minister, Gaston Browne said
APU would invest in its own sub-sea
cable, adding that high-speed broadband
is essential to
provide wide enough
bandwidth to facilitate
all the modern industries
that now operate
globally on the Internet.
Last month, the telecommunications
company Digicel said it was seeking
a meeting with Browne after he
accused the Irish-owned company as
well as other providers with “raping”
the people of Antigua and Barbuda.
The prime minister said that this
year, APUA will invest $80 million,
to acquire its own sub-sea cable and
to democratize access to the internet
through affordable, reliable and faster
internet service to residents.
He dismissed concerns of the existing
foreign-owned telecommunication
providers.
Bahamas
The Central Bank of The Bahamas
(CBOB) is seeking to implement measures
that will ensure that banks maintain
high-quality liquid assets to survive
“stress event,”
The Bank has released a discussion
paper on Implementing Basel 111;
Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and
Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) for
a 60-day consultation
period.
The Basel Committee
is an international
forum of central bank
governors seeking to improve the quality
of banking to improve the quality of
banking supervision worldwide and the
CBOB said that the consultation period
will run until Feb. 28, 2019.
The Central Bank said that while the
Basel standard “is intended for much
more complex banking systems and
capital markets,” the standards proposed
locally will be similar and cheaper
to implement to carry out.
“This is in keeping with the Central
Bank’s intent to develop prudential
policies and regulations that balance
safety, efficiency and competitiveness
in the Bahamian banking system, while
promoting financial system stability,”
the bank said.
Barbados
The Ross University School of Medicine’s
(RUSM) new campus recently
Caribbean L 4 ife, Jan. 18–24, 2019
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Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne. Gov’t of Antigua and Barbuda
opened its doors in Barbados.
Classes for the semester started in
the new permanent home for RUSM in
Barbados.
Prime Minister, Mia Mottley and
Adtalem Global Education President
CEO, Lisa Wardell, and several dignitaries
and other community stakeholders
attended the grand opening.
Mottley said the Government and
people of Barbados warmly welcome
the students, faculty and staff of Ross
University to their new home on the
island.
The Prime Minister expressed the
hope that the visitors would “grasp
the opportunities to
become immersed in
our culture.”
She said Barbados
partnership with
Adtalem Global Education is indeed
a valuable element in this country’s
thrust to expand its reach in the area of
education and tourism.
In addition to the build-out of the
academic facilities at the Lloyd Erskine
Sandiford Center, RUSM has also completed
construction of a living community
for students at the Villages at
Coverley.
With the help of the Barbados government,
RSUM has established a busing
cooperative with local transportation
business owners to transport students
between Coverley and the campus.
The annual economic impact for
RUSM in Barbados is estimated to be
between $55-$60 million.
Caribbean
Human rights group Amnesty International
has renewed its call for all
Caribbean governments to take steps
towards abolishing the death penalty
once and for all.
This as the organization acknowledged
the 10th anniversary of the last
execution being carried out in the Caribbean.
The last execution to take place in
the region was on Dec. 19, 2008, in St.
Kitts and Nevis.
In a news release, Amnesty International
noted the ruling of the Londonbased
Privy Council in the Pratt and
Morgan vs Attorney General of Jamaica
in a case where it was ruled that no execution
is to take place more than five
years after sentencing
as such a delay constitutes
“inhumane or
degrading punishment
or other treatment.”
The historic ruling was made in l993.
At that time, at least 301 people were
known to be under the sentence of
death in the English-speaking Caribbean.
As a result of the judgment, the
death sentences of hundreds of prisoners
have since been commuted to life
imprisonment.
Amnesty International noted that as
a result of the judgment, only about 80
people were known to be on death row
at the end of 2017, 73 percent fewer
than 1993.
Trinidad and Tobago remains the
Caribbean country with the highest
number of people still on death row.
Trinidad and Tobago carried out its
last execution in 1999.
Dominica
The Dominica government has taken
back some 27 acres of land which it
had leased to the US-owned Ross University
that was relocated to Barbados
last year.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said
the property which
housed the Ross University
belonged to the
State as per an agreement
between the government
of Dominica and Ross University
back in 1994.
Skerrit said he was pleased that the
off-shore medical institution “had come
to that understanding” and as a result
Dominica is now in a better position to
continue discussions and negotiations
with a possible replacement.
Last year, Ross University left Dominica
under controversial circumstances
after having been on the island for the
past 40 years.
Prime Minister Skerrit had hinted
that his administration was prepared to
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Antigua to improve telecom
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