Archive for 2011

JAMAICANS will soon begin to feel the real heat from the recrafted 2011-2012 Budget, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) spokesman on finance and planning, Dr Peter Phillips has predicted.

Speaking at the PNP’s West Rural St Andrew constituency conference at the Oberlin High School in Lawrence Tavern on Sunday, Dr Phillips told party supporters that last week’s tabling of the Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure in Parliament was destined to have far-reaching consequences

“There has been a collapse of ...

Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, and a team comprising senior engineers from the Ministry of Public Works and Communication, recently visited the Essequibo island of Leguan and interacted with rice millers. Some of the concerns raised by millers  were the condition of the road which they use to transport their crops; the unavailability of efficient transportation to move  crops to and from Georgetown; losses they suffer at spring tide; and the desilting of the drainage system to ...

Barbados was an economic powerhouse in the Americas and the British Empire when globalization had its initial stirrings in the 17th century.

Indeed, Barbadians were in the vanguard of what is now referred to as “Western capitalism” and the linchpin of that economic system was a mix of an aggressive drive for wealth by early Bajans whose family roots were in England, the lucrative sugar industry and the Atlantic slave trade in the Caribbean.

That historical picture was painted in Charleston, South ...

Higher international prices of agricultural commodities are starting to affect local food prices.

Wheat prices on the world market, which have steadily increased over the past year because of bad weather in wheat-producing countries like Russia, pushed domestic prices of breads and cereals up in July, the Central Bank says in its latest repo rate report.

Breads and cereals on the local market climbed 3.7 per cent on a 12-month basis up to July this year, from 2.3 per cent in June.

There ...

Some U.S. residents were forced to evacuate their homes Thursday and the military moved more than two dozen ships out to sea ahead of Hurricane Irene, a huge storm that could prove to be the biggest to strike the United States in six years.

The Category 3 storm was “pounding the northwestern Bahamas,” the National Hurricane Center said. It was centered 65 miles east-northeast of Nassau, and about 670 miles south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Maximum sustained winds were at 115 ...

Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said yesterday she intends to taking the “strongest, most aggressive approach possible” to rid Trinidad and Tobago of criminal elements as well as “those who direct, fund, influence or otherwise support these nefarious activities”.

Addressing a sod turning ceremony for a new police station in Arima, east of here, Persad Bissessar said that her administration has provided “lots of funds” in the fight against crime since it came to office 16   months ago.

She said in addition ...

The U.S. State Department no longer urges American citizens to avoid all travel to Haiti, but says they should still “carefully consider” before traveling to the island. The new travel warning issued Monday softens language from one released in January, when the country was suffering election-related violence, that “strongly urged” citizens to avoid all travel. The current one cites crime, a renewed cholera outbreak and an inadequate infrastructure as concerns. The Jan. 20 advisory noted that “the number of victims ...

(Trinidad Express) More than US$1 billion from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) is now in jeopardy as a result of the severe turbulence being experienced in financial markets and the recent downgrade of the US credit rating.

Governor of the Central Bank, Ewart Williams, made the disclosure while speaking at the launch of the Economic Bulletin report for July 2011 at the bank’s conference room in Port of Spain yesterday.

“We are now trying to calculate what has been the impact ...

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S. — A new report by Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory (FAR) department examines the exponential rise of Chinese investments in South America, particularly in Brazilian and Argentine agribusiness.

Highlights of the report, released on July 28, include:

• China’s investment projects in South American agriculture reflect a combination of factors: its interest in securing long-term food supplies and expanding its sourcing options; a move to diversify investment portfolios from U.S. treasuries into commodities; and a ...

After facing challenges concerning permission to land in Trinidad and Tobago, the newest regional airline, REDjet, finally took to the skies from Barbados and touched down at the Piarco International Airport yesterday afternoon.

Speaking at a press conference at the Grace Adams Suite at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) before the inaugural flight left Barbados, Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy, stated that Government is quite happy to have this REDjet service between Barbados and Trinidad because Trinidad is a significant ...