KINGSTON, Jamaica - INTERNATIONAL trade is vital to the survival and economic growth of small vulnerable developing economies (SVDEs). The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the international agency charged with negotiation of the rules which constitute the multilateral trading system. The implementation and the adjudication of disputes in the interpretation and application of the rules also fall within its purview.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - In a broadcast Sunday evening, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller provided her account of the stewardship of the Government in the year since its election. She followed up yesterday with newspaper advertisements in her role as president of the People's National Party. This newspaper welcomes these initiatives. Reporting to constituents is an important component of leadership.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - The year 2012 was a challenging one for equity investors in CARICOM. Despite solid gains on manufacturing, conglomerate and banking stocks, returns were depressed by declines on tourism, real estate, insurance, investments and retail stocks.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - WE are aware that many factors can affect negotiations between the Government and business entities wishing to set operations here.
Those factors can range from complex to the most minute detail. Either way, they most times lead to start-up delays that frustrate all parties involved.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC - With international pressure mounting on Jamaica to re-double its efforts to clamp down on human trafficking, the task force appointed to deal with this issue is pushing for amendments to already existing legislation. According to Carol Palmer, Chairperson of the Task force Against Human Trafficking, the recommended amendments will be submitted to Cabinet shortly for approval. She said the changes were aimed at increasing penalties as well as including other aspects of human trafficking that may not have been included in previous legislation.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Ambassador Derick Heaven is a man for whom this newspaper has the utmost respect and whose grasp of the intricacies of the global sugar industry is undoubted. Importantly, he has been a champion of the cause of reforming the industry, promoting the concept of a sugar cane, rather than a sugar, industry.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has acknowledged that while the record of her ruling People’s National Party (PNP) over the past 12 months “has not been perfect” her government came to office “at a difficult time” and has since restored trust, brought back respect and decency to governance while making important progress in some key areas.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A perfect example of the shortage of vision affecting CARICOM governments is their dropping of the ball on the Leucaena project in the early 1980s. Ambassador Byron Blake, former CARICOM assistant secretary general, reminded us of that last month during a sitting of the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange. For those who missed it, the Leucaena project was established in response to the energy crisis of the late 1970s.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - GORDON ‘Butch’ Stewart yesterday urged Jamaicans to hold each other’s hands and face the challenges of 2013 in an exemplary spirit of unity and teamwork. Stewart, the Caribbean’s leading hotelier, said co-ordinated teams win big games, and if Jamaicans work as a team, by “helping each other, protecting each other, and supporting each other, as never before, there is very little that we cannot achieve together”.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that by 2017 China will be the largest economy in the world, but it is not yet a developed country. If and when it achieves that status, it will represent a remarkable and unprecedented development in the world economy. Developing countries are now responsible for over half of global economic growth, according to a report released in October by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.