Caribbean RoundUp

Bahamas

Attorney General Ryan Pinder says the Bahamas government has formally submitted a legal brief to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) addressing positions filed by various countries regarding climate change.

The ICJ is the principal judiciary of the United Nations (UN) and the only international court that hears disputes between nations. It was established in 1945 by the UN Charter and is located at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

In a recent statement, the ICJ said that, in total, 91 written statements have been filed in the Registry.

“Pursuant to Article 106 of the Rules of Court, the Court may decide to make the written statements accessible to the public on or after the opening of the oral proceedings in the case,” it said.

In March, Prime Minister Phillip Davis said the Bahamas is calling on the ICJ to make “clear the legal obligations of states to reduce harmful policies and protect current and future generations from the most devastating impacts of climate change.”

Pinder said that the ICJ’s advisory opinion will provide much-needed guidance on the responsibilities of states to address climate change.

“It will strengthen the legal framework for climate action and hold states accountable for their contributions to the crisis,” said Pinder.

Caribbean

Students and educators from Caribbean countries will benefit from a multi-million dollar donation that will allow people to benefit from SAS, an integrated software suite for advanced analytics, business intelligence, data management and predictive analytics.

A statement from the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat said that a US$10 million donation of training and access to SAS artificial intelligence (AI) software and computing capacity will support the goal of training 10,000 higher education students and educators in AI.

The SAS collaboration will initially focus on the Caribbean with the goal of training 10,000 students and educators over five years.

“This supports the Commonwealth Secretariat’s priorities of promoting digital transformation and sustainable development and building a diverse global work- force capable of supporting Al-driven transformation,” the Secretariat said.

The Secretariat said that the intention is to build a more diverse, global Al workforce by bringing Al software and computing resources to Commonwealth countries.

It said the donation includes AI capabilities and content that will not only help higher education students learn how to use AI but also how to do so responsibly.

The project is an initiative of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Commonwealth AI Consortium (CAIC), which aims to build technological capacity with an emphasis on small states and young people.

Grenada

The Grenada government has granted citizenship to more than 8,000 people under the Citizenship by Investment Program (CBI) since coming to office more than two years ago .

Under the CBI, Grenada provides citizenship to foreign nationals in return for making a substantial investment in the socio-economic development of the country.

Figures show that the government received EC$EC$753.4 million (One EC dollar US$0.37 cents) in revenue under the CBI program during the period July 2022 to June 2024, when 8512 people received citizenship.

The CBI program began in 2014 under the former New National Party (NNP) administration who during the eight-year period of 2014 to June 2022, the then government approved 7,472 new citizens.

This year marks the the tenth anniversary of the program and review of the data from the Ministry of Finance and IMA website show that the total number of citizens approved through the program is 15.984.

China and Nigeria according to the IMA breakdown has the highest number of approved new citizens and is responsible for almost 50 per cent of approved applicants. Several other countries include the United States, India, Lebanon. Ukraine, South Africa, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Great Britain. Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Turkey, Argentina and Hong Kong.

Guyana

The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB)said they already surpassed its half-year target for 2024 with over 360,000 metric tonnes of rice having been produced in the first quarter of the year.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said that the GRDB has set the 2024 target of rice production to approximately 710,000 metric tonnes.

“For the first half of the year, we have already surpassed our target and we achieved a production of 362,030 metric tonnes,” Mustapha said.

Figures show that production has also increased incrementally during the years 2022 and 2023.

“When we look at the rice industry, we are seeing also a lot of revenue coming in… For exam- ple, in 2023, it brought in US$212 million.

“For the year almost US$127 million have already been generated by this industry,” Mustapha noted.

The GRDB said it has set a target of 750,000 tonnes for next year.

Mustapha said he believes the target would be reached based on the progressive increase in rice production..

Jamaica

During an emergency press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister recently, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr. Horace Chang says surveillance cameras will be installed in correctional facilities.

“We have just concluded a contract to introduce a camera system, a more extensive system, in the correctional facilities and build out the intelligence service within there,” Chang stated.

He advised that a new Commissioner of Corrections, who has extensive experience in security, has been appointed and “will be working with the entire correctional services to, in fact, strengthen our intelligence product from the area and apply the law as required.”

The build-out of the surveillance infrastructure in the prisons is expected to complement changes made to the Corrections (Amendment) Act in 2021.

These amendments facilitated tighter control of prohibited articles being transported in and out of correctional facilities. The legislation also covers a number of additional offences.

The emergency press conference due to a gun attack at Cherry Tree Lane in the central parish of Clarendon in which eight persons were killed and nine injured.

St. Lucia

The St. Lucia government has welcomed its lowest unemployment rate for the first quarter in over 15 years.

Figures released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) show that the size of the labor force in the first quarter of this year stood at 108,808, with the employed labour force being 96.434.

The figures show that the unemployment rate is 11.4 percent for the first quarter of this year as compared with 16.3 percent for the corresponding period last year and 16.15% in 2022.

In a statement, the government said it is pleased that its policies are enabling a robust private sector expansion for increased job creation so more St Lucians can attain financial freedom from good-paying jobs.

“The latest quarterly employment report from the Central Statistical Office confirms the job market got off to a historic start this year,” it said, noting that since July 2021, the government has implemented trailblazing initiatives like the Youth Economy Agency, MSME Loan-Grant Facility and Community Tourism Agency to provide direct support to local entrepreneurs to help grow their businesses.”

It said, in addition, a range of targeted government policies like value-added tax (VAT) amnesties, tax reforms, business incentives and a surge in foreign direct investment “continues to drive down unemployment and inspire economic growth.”

– Compiled by Devika Ragoonanan