PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Former Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West Jack Warner would face expulsion from the United National Congress (UNC) if he contests the by-election as an independent candidate.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday said the party’s constitution does have certain sanctions and provisions that prevent a member from contesting a seat as an independent candidate.
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua - Recently, there were two very interesting and important pieces of news in the local and international press that many people in Antigua & Barbuda might have overlooked.
The first was the announcement that President Obama had picked Michael Froman to be the new United States Trade Representative (USTR). The second was that Antigua may be looking for a partner to launch a website to help collect on the US$20+million per year award by World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding the gambling dispute with the United States.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Gone are the days when every fruit vendor in T&T had a variety of bananas. Over the last few years, “sikyè”, “silk”, “gros michel”, and “lacatan” bananas are seldom seen in our market and local grocery. Why does T&T import thousands of tonnes of bananas annually when such a desired fruit can be grown locally?
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Once again Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran is predicting a level of growth in the economy which seems unrealistic. On the release of the April 2013 monetary report on Tuesday, the Governor projected a 2.5 per cent growth in gross domestic product for 2013.
This comes after his projection last year that the economy would grow by one per cent failed to materialise; 0.2 per cent was the figure for 2012.
JetBlue Airways, the low-cost carrier that has become a major player in the South Florida and Caribbean market, said Thursday it plans to begin offering daily nonstop service to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from New York and Fort-Lauderdale-Hollywood. The announcement of JetBlue’s continued expansion into the region comes as a new Haitian start-up prepares for its Mother’s Day inaugural flight from Nassau, Bahamas to Port-au-Prince.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The board of Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) did not meet yesterday as scheduled because vice-chairman Mohan Jaikaran and other directors were absent. Jaikaran, who is also the chairman of WIN Communications Ltd (WINTV), was among five directors who were a no-show yesterday. The other absentee directors were Gizelle Russell, Avedanand Persad, Venosh Sagewan-Maraj and the Jamaican representative, Dennis Lalor.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Just as soon as the airline begins to show signs of fractured operations, there is a flurry of Caribbean government “actions”, and a plethora of expert articles on what ails the airline and what should be done to make it better. Almost no one seems to remember the principle of structured transformation: the time to make changes/improve the way you do business, is when things are going well; not when you have your back up against the wall. “If it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it”, alas, is very much alive and well.
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – The shareholder governments of the regional airline, LIAT, will meet in Barbados on Friday, but a planned meeting in Bridgetown with Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar will not materialise, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has said.
He told a news conference that his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart was unable to attend the meeting because Parliament would be meeting on the same day.
LIAT shareholder governments are Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and Dominica.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - TRINIDAD-BASED Caribbean Airlines (CAL) assumed responsibility for Air Jamaica flights as well as the right to use the Air Jamaica brand name in 2010. But it is clear that Jamaicans still have lingering sentiments about Air Jamaica, which have not been transferred to the new majority owners.
There is also resentment over the recent decision by CAL to reduce its flights to Jamaica and earlier claims that the airline has been dispensing with some, if not all, of its former Air Jamaica pilots.
ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – A three-day regional workshop aimed at promoting regional economic integration as part of an International Financial Corporation (FIC) implemented initiative to automate the Bureau of Standards’ clearance for imports began here Wednesday.
“With this initiative we seek to help government agencies connect more efficiently, thus making import clearance easier and reducing logistics costs that are still a challenge for many businesses in the region,” said IFC trade logistics specialist Lazare Ristic.