Caribbean RoundUp

Antigua and Barbuda

The Antigua and Barbuda government will soon officially seize the multi-million dollar super yacht, Alfa Nero, that has been moored at the Falmouth Harbour for more than a year on the southern coast of the island.

Port manager Darwin Telemaque, speaking on the state-owned ABS TV, said several proposals had been received and he expects that when the yacht goes under the hammer it ” is going to leave because people are literally waiting to grab at this piece of machine. We have quite a few offers, proposed auctions and even offers to buy outright,” he said from different countries including Bulgaria, Monaco Australia, France, New Zealand, Algeria and Saudi Arabia.

Under the island’s laws, the port manager gave the beneficial owner of the Alfa Nero 10 days public notice, which began March 21, to present documents of ownership and to remove the vessel from the territory of Antigua and Barbuda.

“Consequently, the vessel will be seized and offered for sale by auction in the interest of the safety of the harbor and the well-being of the economy and the people of Antigua and Barbuda,” the government statement added.

Parliament has already passed an amendment to the Port Authority Act, providing” the clear direction which the administration requires in order to ensure that the vessel, after 10 days of advertising, will by the law become the property of the state.

However, the government said that no owner has stepped forward since the vessel has been sanctioned by the US and the UK and that discussions with US government officials have taken place.

The yacht is said to be valued at US$81 million, is owned by Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, who has been sanctioned by Western countries following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

The US government has said that Guryev, 62, who made a multi-billion dollar fortune from the Russian fertilizer company, PhosAgro, is the owner of Alfa Nero.

CARICOM

Guyana is expected to record the highest growth among Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries this year, while Haiti will record under one percent growth in 2023, according to the latest World Economic Outlook released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently.

Guyana, which is now recognised as an oil-producing country following the discovery of the product a few years ago, will record economic growth of 37.2 percent this year.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has the second highest predicted economic growth of six percent this year. Antigua and Barbuda with a growth of 5.5 percent, while Dominica and Barbados are projected to record economic growth of 4.9 percent for the year.

St. Kitts and Nevis will record economic growth of 4.5 percent this year, while the Bahamas’ economic growth is projected at 4.3 percent. Belize, Grenada, St. Lucia and T&T will all register growth of 3.0 or just over 3.0 percent this year.

Suriname will record economic growth of 2.3 percent the year, while in the case of Haiti, where political and social unrest has engulfed that country, the economic growth this year will be 0.3 percent.

In its report, the Washington- based financial institution said that the global economy’s gradual recovery from both the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains on track.

It said China’s reopened economy is rebounding strongly and that supply chain disruptions are  unwinding, while dislocations to energy and food markets caused by the war are receding.

“Simultaneously, the massive and synchronised tightening of monetary policy by most central banks should start to bear fruit, with inflation moving back towards targets, ” the IMF said, adding that it is latest World Economic Outlook is that growth will bottom out at 2.8 percent this year.

Guyana

The Guyana government says it is working with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on a new initiative to eradicate five key diseases in the country.

The Minister of Health said Chagas, bush yaws, filaria (big foot), leishmaniasis or leprosy have been identified by the government to be eradicated in a few years. The government remains confident that these diseases will be eliminated with the technical support from the two United Nations health organizations.

Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said while addressing the commissioning of the Paramakatoi Smart Hospital in Region Eight that, “we have been working with them on a number of projects. Right now we are working to eliminate filaria in Guyana. We are hoping that in a couple years from now, we can declare Guyana to be filaria-free. So, that is one of the projects we have with PAHO.”

Adding to his statement, he said the government remains optimistic that leishmaniasis, which is caused by infection with leishmania parasites, which are spread by the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, along with the Chagas’ disease which is caused by a bug, will also be eradicated from Guyana.

Haiti

Haiti’s Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry has described as “barbaric acts,” the murders of three police officers on April 9 by members of the “Timakak” gang during an ambush.

The General Directorate of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) is extending condolences to the families of the slain police officers and said the officers from the Intervention Brigade, assigned to the Thomassin Sub-Commissioner, were “cowardly murdered” in Thomassin 32, a neighborhood on the mountainside south of Petion-Ville, where many upper-class citizens reside.

“To the families, to the brothers in arms of these valiant police victims, we send our sincere condolences and we assure them of our solidarity. We renew to the Haitian people our unshakable determination to do everything to achieve the creation of a climate of security and stability in the country which is too bruised and bereaved,” Henry said.

The National Union of Haitian Police Officers said so far this year, 21 police officers have been killed in the line of duty. The United Nations has called for the deployment of an international “specialised support force” too impede Haiti’s accelerating tumble into extreme violence after more than 530 people have been killed for the year already.

“Clashes between gangs are becoming more violent and more frequent,” the spokesperson for the UN human rights office Marta Hurtado warned, and that the security situation is spiralling out of control.

The situation in the French-speaking Caribbean Community country has deteriorated significantly since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, and opposition politicians as well as removal of the prime minister.

Jamaica

President of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), John Mahfood, says the upcoming Expo Jamaica  2023 provides the opportunity for businesses to jump-start exports coming out of the covid-19 pandemic.

“We see this as an event to re-energise our manufacturers, who are now gearing up and putting behind us the recovery mode or survival mode and now looking to expand their businesses overseas.”

Mahfood said the event takes place on April 27-30 at the National Indoor Sports Centre and the National Arena will enable Jamaican businesses to meet and develop relationships with various buyers and distributors from all over the globe over a short period of time and at one location.

He said it would be difficult and costly for local entrepreneurs to make these contacts if they had to travel to seek these markets by themselves.

The JMEA president said that the business sector had faced challenges due to COVID-19 and that “Jamaica has bounced back in a strong way.”

“We are at a point where we have to be thinking strategically about growing our businesses. We have many years of good fortune to come, and this is the greatest opportunity for our business people to step up and step out of the conservative mode that we have been in, and that is what I hope we will see from this expo,” he said.

This is the 48th edition of Expo Jamaica and it will be held under the theme “Connecting the World to Jamaica.”

St. Lucia

Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre recently said that the police have been given the green light to use “all available means within the law” to deal with the upsurge of crime on the island, following the recent murders of four people, including a two-year-old toddler in the southern town of Vieux Fort.

“There can be no excuse for that level of criminality,” Pierre told reporters, adding ” we have to wipe out that criminality.”

Pierre deplored “this senseless gang violence” after paying a visit to Vieux Fort where he noted that the residents of Bruceville “like every other community in St. Lucia is made up of men and women who want the best for their children.”

Recently, a woman was shot and killed while laying on her bed, a man succumbed to gunshot injuries at Cedar Heights, while a woman and her two-year-old grandson were shot dead in their beds.

The government has sought and received the assistance of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS) in preserving law and order in Vieux Fort following a spate of murders in recent weeks.

Pierre, who will be among Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders meeting in Trinidad and Tobago for a special symposium on crime in the region, told reporters “criminality must stop and I make no excuse for it. I am going to say to you, the government will use all the resources. The police have been instructed to use all available means within the law, all available legal means to wipe out that criminality in this country,” he said, adding “this animalistic behaviour cannot be tolerated.”

“This message is clear, social interventions, the community outreach, the empowerment will continue. But criminality must stop and all legal means will be used to wipe out that criminality,” Pierre told reporters.

— Compiled by Devika Ragoonanan