ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has announced that it will continue to benefit from the PetroCaribe agreement.
According to a Government statement, at the recently concluded 9th Ministerial Meeting of PetroCaribe and the Summit of Heads Venezuelan it was agreed that the PetroCaribe programme will continue in its current form .
The Organisation of Amercan States (OAS) Secretariat through the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Program (CSEP) and the Energy Efficiency Working Group of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), hosted a workshop on energy efficiency designs for office and public buildings in tropical climates. The event took place at the Bay Gardens Inn in Rodney Bay from February 28th through March 1st, 2013. The CARICOM Secretariat is a Partner of the CSEP Project.
ST JOHN: Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Minister John Maginley will speak to Chinese authorities later this month in Beijing about renewed efforts to tap into their tourism market. The announcement came as newly appointed Chinese ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda Ren Gongping paid a courtesy call on the tourism minister. Maginley believed the time had come for Antigua and Barbuda and, by extension, the Caribbean to do more to attract the attention of Chinese holidaymakers, adding that such a lucrative market would augur well for small states like his.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Minister of Labour Dr Errol Cort has reassured the aviation industry that “extensive” consultations would have to take place before government acts on suggestions to designate that industry an essential service.
“I am aware of the recent call by the CEO of LIAT for the aviation sector to be named an essential service in this country,” Dr. Cort said.
“While we are open to all ideas before we move ahead of anything, there will certainly be extensive consultation on that and any other matter.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Noted financial crime expert and money-laundering author Jeffrey Robinson said if Caribbean governments wait it out, the United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will not be around in five years.
“FATCA worldwide is still born. FATCA will eventually die because there will be too many big jurisdictions who will simply refuse to comply,” he said.
“It won’t work because there will be non-compliance by the Caymans and there will be non-compliance by Switzerland … The Chinese are not going to report.”
WASHINGTON D.C., United States – A major United States publication says Antigua and Barbuda will be a “Caribbean headache” for President Barack Obama’s new nominee of chief trade negotiator - Michael Froman.
Bloomberg Businessweek says Michael Froman has “plenty of negotiating work ahead of him.
“With so many challenges ahead, you can forgive Froman if fixing a dispute with the tiny country of Antigua and Barbuda doesn’t rank high on his to-do list.”
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC - The Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP) is warning criminals it will continue to pursue its mandate obligations to the country even as they adopt new strategies to carry out their illegal activities in Antigua and Barbuda. “The counterdrug efforts remain consistent but increasingly challenging as the criminals are learning from our successes against them and altering or innovating their techniques to evade detection,” said ONDCP director Lieutenant Colonel Edward Croft.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Computer technology expert Yves Ephraim has pointed to growing incidents of cyber attacks in the country as a new report points to its damaging effects on small businesses in particular. Ephraim, managing director of Pegasus Technologies, told OBSERVER Media that in his line of work, he has seen repeated examples of cyber attacks which lead him to the conclusion that the scourge is growing locally. “I think it happens more often than we really like to admit. Some people don’t even know that they are being hacked but we are under attack,” the IT expert said.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – After threats of sanctions and of ignoring United States copyright laws just a few months prior, Minister of Finance Harold Lovell is sounding the most optimistic he has in recent times that a settlement with the US over the online gaming issue will be reached. Lovell, in an interview with OBSERVER media, said negotiations with the US have lead to some “interesting options” being on the table. “There is still some distance between our position and their position and we are satisfied that over the last three weeks we have seen the gap narrowing gradually,” he said.