PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Guardian - While the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, has recorded significant increases in enrolment, the graduation rate for research degrees continues to be disappointing. Making the comment yesterday was Errol Simms, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, at the opening of yesterday’s conference on Understanding the Caribbean through the Lens of Research and Practice held at UWI.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - GRAND Turk, the capital of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), is the latest city to invite Gordon 'Butch' Stewart to establish his Sandals/Beaches resorts there in hopes of stimulating tourism growth.
The call was made by the president of the Providenciales Chamber of Commerce, Tina Fenimore, who was the first to establish a hotel on Grand Turk and is the foremost private sector spokesperson for the quaint island capital.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - JAMAICANS continued paying tribute yesterday to cultural icon Dr Olive Lewin who died in the University Hospital of the West Indies Wednesday night.
Lewin, founder of the Jamaican Folk Singers, was ailing for some years. She was 85.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller expressed profound sadness at Lewin's passing and described her as a cultural visionary.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Despite the loss in value of the Jamaican currency relative to the United States dollar, two academics and a businessman have suggested that it provides opportunities to spur economic growth.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Monday's International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement on Jamaica reads: "Fund management will submit to its Executive Board a 48-month arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility in the amount of SDR 615 million (about US$958 million, or 225 per cent of quota), with the recommendation that it be approved. It is expected that the board meeting would take place by the end of April."
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - THE anticipated approval of the IMF deal by their executive board, announced on Monday, will give Jamaica some welcome breathing space but it is absolutely no panacea to our deep-rooted economic problems. In this context, the call of the three private sector leaders of the JCC, JMA and PSOJ that it "cannot be business as usual" is absolutely correct, even understated.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will dispatch US$213 million to Jamaica immediately after its board approves the new bailout programme expected by month end, according to central bank Governor Brian Wynter.
Those funds, along with future distributions, will immediately shore up the country's depleted reserves.
The gross reserves fell to US$1.7 billion at the end of March, while the net reserves, the NIR, slumped to US$884 million, below the benchmark equivalent of 12 weeks of goods and services imports.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - CARIBBEAN Airlines' decision to cut back on the number of flights to Jamaica is being seen by the Jamaican Airline Pilots' Association (JALPA) as a first step towards pulling out of Jamaica.
For several weeks it was rumoured that Caribbean Airlines (CAL) had planned to reduce flights to Jamaica, and on Tuesday, during a sitting of Parliament's Standing Finance Committee, Transport Minister Dr Omar Davies said that no information was forthcoming from CAL.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate -
It is crucial that this Government takes the opportunity during this increasingly difficult economic period to reassess its strategy for earning revenue. As such, this administration should be commended on its continued multifaceted approach to grow the economy through the development of the manufacturing, agriculture and especially the tourism industry – the latter being the main revenue earner for the country.