CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
The Antigua and Barbuda government
says it is no longer interested in
buying Barbados’ chare in the cashstrapped
LIAT airline.
Prime Minister, Gaston
Browne recently
announced that the
idea of purchasing
LIAT’s shares is on
longer on the table.
“We have taken the decision, instead
of buying Barbados’s shares that we will
invest directly in LIAT — subject to the
approval of the other shareholder governments
— I don’t see why they should
stop us from investing directly in LIAT.
LIAT needs cash,” he said.
According to Browne he has already
informed Barbados’ Prime Minister,
Mia Mottley, that his government has
obtained funds that it intends to use to
purchase directly into LIAT.
The prime minister said he had indicated
to Mottley that the Antigua and
Barbuda government has $40 million
that can be made available to re-capitalize
LIAT, and that there should be a
fresh capital call in which “we will have
the existing shareholders and possibly
new shareholders recapitalize LIAT.”
The Antigua and Barbuda minister
of finance also said that he hopes that
the decision will be considered during
the next shareholder meeting, because
the government has already received a
$40 million loan commitment form the
ALBA Bank.
Barbados
The National Council on Substance
Abuse (NCSA) is supporting the Barbados
government’s initiative to legalize
and create a platform for the issue and
handling of licenses for medicinal cannabis
and its regulations regime.
Minister of Home
Affairs, Edmund Hinkson,
made the disclosure
as he addressed
the NCSA’s strategic
planning retreat at the Savannah Beach
Hotel.
He said people who are ill and people
with disabilities have been calling for
medicinal cannabis for years.
The minister said full discussions by
the Joint Select Committee of Parliament
had wrapped up with tremendous
input given from the public orally and
in writing.
Hinkson added that NCSA had also
made an input into discussions hosted
by the Joint Select Committee.
NCSA’s Chairman, Hadford Howell,
said while the agency supported the
move, it still advocated against substance
abuse of misuse.
He said there is a difference in medical
marijuana and recreational marijuana
adding that medical marijuana
Caribbean L 4 ife, OCTOBER 18-24, 2019
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President Jovenel Moïse speaks during a press conference at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019. Haiti’s
embattled president faced a fi fth week of protests as road blocks and marches continue across the country, after opposition leaders
said they will not back down on their call for Moïse to resign. See story on Page 26. Associated Press / Rebecca Blackwell
will help persons who may be suffering
from all sorts of diseases.
Caribbean
The World Bank has approved
a US$30.6 million health project to
improve regional coordination and
resilience for public health emergencies
and extreme weather events in four
member states of the Organization of
Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
The OECS Regional
Health Project will
help improve the climate
resilience of
selected health facilities
in Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia,
and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The project will also strengthen the
capacity of health systems in the OECS
region to ensure continuity of services
following an extreme weather event,
and boost disease surveillance systems
to detect and respond to infectious diseases
more rapidly.
The project is a combination of interest
free credits and grants financed
through the International Development
Association credit, the concessional
financing arm of the World Bank.
In previous years, the World Bank
has provided a total of US$157 million
in financing to support health initiatives
across the Caribbean.
Guyana
Former Guyana Vice President and
Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge
recently announced that he had formally
renounced his British citizenship to
pave the way for him to be a candidate
in the upcoming elections.
Greenidge and three
other members of Parliament
of the APNU/
AFC coalition were
forced to give up their
seats and ministerial portfolios following
a court ruling that affirmed that a
holder of dual citizenship is ineligible
to serve in the Parliament of Guyana in
keeping with the constitution.
The ruling was among several handed
down in the wake of challenges
to the no-confidence motions in the
courts.
Former legislator Charrandass Persaud,
who switched sides and voted
against the government, also had dual
citizenship.
In a statement Greenidge said he had
received confirmation from the relevant
British authorities that his application
to renounce his British citizenship had
been accepted.
Jamaica
Jamaica has launched a national
planting program that will aim to plant
three million timber and ornamental
trees over the next three years.
The program, which was recently
launched by Prime Minister, Andrew
Holness, is being managed by the
Forestry Department and will see the
foresting of 3,000 hectares of land with
two million timber seedlings, while
the remaining one million timber and
ornamental seedlings will be distributed
to the public for planting.
Holness, in his
address at the launch
ceremony, said that
the initiative was part
of the government’s
strategic response to climate change.
He said the island was already experiencing
the impacts of climate variations,
with more intense drought and
unpredictable weather, hence the need
to take urgent action.
More than 1,000 interns under the
Housing, Opportunity, Production and
Employment Program (HOPE) will be
trained and certified in basic forestry
management and engaged in the planting
exercise.
St. Lucia
The St. Lucia government is embarking
on a Health System Strengthening
Project to improve the accessibility, efficiency
and responsiveness of key health
services.
The project has four
components and Prime
Minister and Minister
for Finance, Economic
Growth, Job Creation,
and External Affairs, Allen Chastanet,
Continued on Page 14
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