CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
The Antigua and Barbuda government
has defended its decision to enter
into a US$83 million agreement with
Global Ports Holding (GPH) for the
development of the cruise port in the
capital.
Prime Minister, Gaston Browne said
the agreement with the London-based
GPH will change the landscapes of the
island.
The agreement
allows for US$21 million
to end the bond
with Antigua Commercial
Bank (ACB),
US$40 million to construct
the new pier, US$25 million
to construct new shops, five million
grant to fund local entrepreneurship
and a further two millions US dollars
to improvement at Heritage Key.
The GPH, established in 2004,
promotes itself on its website as the
world’s largest cruise port operator
with an established presence in the
Caribbean, Mediterranean, Asia-Pacific
regions, including extensive commercial
port operations in Turkey and
Montenegro.
Browne said at this time “our cruise
product literally is the worst in the
Caribbean.”
“If we could have done it alone, we
would have done it alone. In fact we
have tried,” he added.
Bahamas
The Bahamas government is moving
to restructure the country’s education
system, including free tuition at
the University of the Bahamas, so as to
ensure the next generation is equipped
to deal with a changing global environment.
This was revealed
by Prime Minister,
Hubert Minnis during
a radio and television
broadcast recently.
He said that education remains at
the “very core or our economic and
social development.”
The prime minister said reform of
the educational system must impact
every stage of learning from pre-school
to university and other education and
training agencies.
Minnis said that his administration
is committed to expanding access to
technical and vocational skill training,
for many more Bahamians.
He said that early childhood education
is also being enhanced with the
Bahamas Early Start (BES) Project,
which would fortify the sector by
focusing on the equitable delivery of
comprehensive, and quality childhood
development for all children from the
earliest stages of development.
Prime Minister Minnis said that
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
Dr. Ainka Granderson, manager of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute’s climate change programme in Trinidad and Tobago.
See story on Page 36. Inter Press Service / Jewel Fraser
three and four-year olds whose parents
could not afford to send them to preschool
now have access to pre-primary
education, to prepare them for first
grade.
Barbados
The Barbados government has reiterated
the need for the Caribbean to
remain a zone of peace and insisted
only the Venezuelans could decide
on the future of the South American
country.
Prime Minister,
Mia Mottley told Parliament
during the
recent 2019-2020
budget debate “instability
in Venezuela will
undermine peace in the southern and
eastern Caribbean, as we are already
seeing in Trinidad and Grenada.”
“We have been in a zone of peace
in the Caribbean for so long that we
are in danger of underestimating how
important it is for us to have a peaceful
region,” she said.
CARICOM leaders at their recent
inter-sessional summit in St. Kitts-
Nevis reiterated their position of noninterference
in the internal affairs of
Venezuela.
Caribbean
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)
has unveiled its Strategic Plan 2019-
2024, under the theme “unlocking
Caribbean L 4 ife, April 5–11, 2019 BQ
Potential”, which will chart the Court’s
direction over the next five years.
President of the CCJ and chairman
of the Strategic Planning Committee,
Justice Adrian Saunders said
the implementation of
the strategic plan will
help to move the CCJ
forward.
The CCJ said in a
statement that lessons learned from
the Trinidad-based Court’s first strategic
plan period, which ran from 2012-
2017, served it well in the design and
execution of its new strategic agenda.
The Strategic Plan 2019-2024 contains
six strategic issues, which are
further broken down into 14 goals and
41 strategies that will be used to effectively
fulfil the CCJ’s aim of unlocking
the potential of the organization.
The CCJ said the plan is already
guiding its operations as each of the
units of the Court has used it to develop
their work plan for 2019.
Grenada
Grenada has been selected as the
venue for the 5th regional meeting of
the Caribbean Internet Peering and
Interconnection Forum, (CariPIF),
which is set for June 12-13, 2019.
The international event, which
draws Internet giants like Facebook
and Goggle to the region, is focused on
developing the internet in the Caribbean
by improving policy and building
relationships between network operators
and content providers.
The announcement was made by
Caribbean Network Operators Group
(CaribNOG) and the Internet Society,
co-organizers of the unique annual
event that it brings together policymakers,
regulators, private sector leaders
and academics.
CariPif plays a key role in bringing
together different parties to form
the relationships and
agreements necessary
to increase local traffic
exchange across
the region said CaribNOG
director and co-founder of CariPif,
Bevil Wooding.
He said the event presents an opportunity
for Grenada and the region to
showcase the steps being taken to
accelerate Internet development in the
Caribbean.
Wooding said in addition, the forum
will address the peculiar policy and
regulatory challenges that have made
internet connectivity, access and
affordability difficult in some Caribbean
countries.
CarPIF, launched in Barbados in
2015, was created to promote the development
of Internet exchange points
and greater regional and international
connections between Internet service
providers and other network providers.
Continued on Page 8
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