I really can’t say I was impressed with a lot of what took place at last week’s heads of government conference in Georgetown. In fact, I was mildly surprised that given the sort of urgency that was placed on the Summit – although this state of urgency mainly came from regional commentators – that there would have been more introspection on the governance of the community.
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Expect mass migration of desperate people to Trinidad and Tobago from the Eastern Caribbean countries looking for a better life. That was one of the dire warnings from Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister Patrick Manning of the consequences the country faces if it did not engage in an economic and political union with Eastern Caribbean countries.
Even more chilling was his next declaration that Port of Spain could “pay in blood” if it failed to enter into the union with the smaller island states.
Is he trying to scare the population into supporting his latest foray? – which by the way is not getting wholesale support if one can judge comments made by the numerous callers to a number of talk programmes on the radio stations in Trinidad.
Having heard about the proposed union back in August 2008, I must admit to feeling a bit disappointed that the major reasons came down to this – and I’m wondering whether Mr. Manning is not exaggerating his case a bit too extreme.
According to the proposal, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia are seeking to achieve economic integration by 2011 and political integration two years later.
All four countries belong to the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping which has set a 2015 deadline for the formation of a single economy.
The countries met in a mini-summit in Port of Spain in August 2008, which was also attended by the Foreign Ministers of Barbados and Guyana as observers.
Then, Mr. Manning flew off to five other CARICOM countries over a 36-hour whirlwind trip to sell his idea to the other leaders who included Prime Minister Bruce Golding of Jamaica, Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas and Dean Barrow of Belize.
I have not had the privilege of getting a copy of the Vaughan Lewis report outlining the modalities for getting towards the ambitious time-lines of the proposed union. But prime minister Manning so far in his public utterances has not stated whether the arrangement will involve the full integration of goods, labour, a common currency, free movement or whether countries would have to give up some sovereignty and pooling it.
He hasn’t clarified either whether under the political union, that I can take up my bags and freely move into one of the islands or whether more Vinceys, Lucians and Grenadians will be able to migrate to the twin-island, just as easily.
Mid-last week, the prime minister came to the Parliament and announced several economic stimulus initiatives to bail out the struggling economies of the Eastern Caribbean.
These include the opening of an aircraft maintenance facility in Grenada, expanding a ship maintenance facility in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, labour intensive plastics industries in the eastern Caribbean from primary products of aluminum and polypropylene from Trinidad and investing in quarrying facilities in Dominica.
For Jamaica, he said government was ensuring that sending liquefied natural gas (LNG) into Jamaica was now a national priority of his country. And he also hoped to get alumina from Jamaica for the aluminium smelter plant, projected for construction later this year once it gets the necessary environmental clearance permit.
Sorry, Guyana, you were not included for any investment projects, even though you are struggling just as much as those eastern Caribbean islands.
Mr. Manning told the Parliament that he was very concerned about the economic conditions in the Caribbean – and pointed out that in terms of their debt, international agencies have put a limit on it to GDP ratios of 50 percent.
If it crosses 50 percent, there is cause for concern – and he detailed how badly countries were faring.
At the end of 2008, the debt to GDP ratio in St. Vincent and the Grenadines was 67 percent; in St. Lucia – 71 percent; in Barbados, 95 percent, in Dominica, just under 100 percent and in Grenada, it was just over 100 percent.
The debt to GDP ratio in Antigua and Barbuda is 120 percent; about 180 percent in St. Kitts and Nevis and Jamaica, it is about 130 percent. In Trinidad and Tobago, the debt to GDP ratio was 27 percent at the end of last year.
He also highlighted the countries reserves position, normally measured by the cover for imports in months.
The reserves of the Bahamas reflect import cover of 2 months; Belize of 2.8 months, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, 2.5 months, Guyana 2.5 months, Jamaica 2.3, Netherlands Antilles 2.9 and in the case of Trinidad and Tobago, it is 11.3 months of import cover.
The poverty index in the Eastern Caribbean ranges between 20 and 37 percent while unemployment is between 15 and 25 percent.
I’m all for economic cooperation between Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, our major export market for manufactured goods. At the same time, there continues to be strong sentiments in the twin-island that Mr.Manning ought to do much more to improve infrastructure and services in his own country before trying to help others.
It may also not be the most appropriate time for talking about investing in other countries when government revenues have been significantly reduced because of the global financial crisis.
Suspicious minds including my own, however see him trying to use the petro-dollars to wield and extend influence in the Caribbean, given Venezuela’s growing dominant role in the region through the Petrocaribe initiative.
Mr. Manning’s announcement of initiatives for Caribbean countries also came shortly after a summit of leaders of the 18-nation Petrocaribe organization in St Kitts and Nevis earlier this month.
There was glowing praise from the Caribbean for the four year old Petrocaribe. Mr. Golding described it as a model of cooperation within the region and among developing countries, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said it is rooted in a new paradigm of South-South partnerships while St Kitts and Nevis leader, Dr. Denzil Douglas saw it as one of the most progressive agreements made in theWestern Hemisphere.
Venezuelan leftist President Hugo Chavez also promised to strengthen the alliance that allows the nations to purchase Venezuelan oil on better terms.
The leaders at that meeting heard how the Petrocaribe initiative had developed important energy projects and boosting the socio-economic development of member countries.
Between 2007- 2009, 14 countries have activated the crude and oil product supply mechanism and reported an increase of the volumes shipped from 59 thousand barrels daily to 121 thousand barrels daily, equal to a 105% increase over the period.
There has also been investments in infrastructure projects to facilitate the development of fuel distribution systems in member countries, such as Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis and Nicaragua, reaching a potential distribution capacity of 727 thousand barrels.
An additional 5 thousand barrel fuel storage tank is being built in the electric plant of St. Kitts and Nevis to increase the electric power generation capacity while St Vincent and the Grenadines now has an LPG bottle filling plants project with a capacity of 20 thousand gas bottles per month.
Petrocaribe’s Energy Security Treaty includes the expansion of the power distribution network through the construction, financing and expansion of power generation plants in Nicaragua, Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Eight refining projects which will have a manufacturing capacity of around 580 thousand barrels per day, with an investment of about US$24 billion will be located in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, Jamaica and Dominica.
A very impressive record from a four year old initiative, which has bumped off Trinidad and Tobago’s state-owned Petrotrin as the region’s dominant petroleum supplier.
But coming back to Mr. Manning’s latest idea of an economic and political union with the Eastern Caribbean countries, I’d really like to hear much more – perhaps debate it in the Parliament – before I’m sold on it.
But right now, I’m not too convinced.
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No one can ignore the spate of criticism that has been levelled at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in one way or the other within recent months.
We’ve seen some leaders using the most provocative language to express their disdain at the slowness and the backwardness of the community; governments using not-so-subtle threats against each other over issues that impact on their citizens while there continues to be widespread disenchantment with the apparent acute under-performance of the Georgetown-based Secretariat.
Instead of integrating and moving cohesively as one region, one voice in a highly competitive globalised world, things seem to be falling apart in the Community but the gate-keepers continue to ignore the wider implications as they are too engaged in their own issues.
Countries are fiercely protecting their own little piece of sovereignty, they are engaging in their own bilateral relations whether it is getting grants from donors or buying favours from the Taiwanese or even having big business provide quick money to them.
The leaders have met at least three times over the last six months. There was the March meeting of the Bureau in Belize; the Americas Summit in April in Trinidad and a month later, a special meeting in Trinidad to discuss the global economic impact on their countries.
Yet, there is perplexing silence on stemming the decline in the Community. It’s business as usual for them.
In their talks, there has been no conversation on their concerns about the state of the community; how to improve the image of the community; what are some of the fundamental policies and programmes that can be adopted and how can they engage the stakeholders – the ordinary people, who matter the most – in pointing the way forward for the community.
Next month, the leaders will meet for their annual Summit but in the midst of a major economic and financial crisis, it simply cannot be business as usual. There must be some thoughts on what the region wants to become; where it wants to go and what actions we have to take to get there.
Frankly, we’re tired of the noble sounding speeches – a lot of them though short on substance, the tired old cliche about regional integration and the vague and predictable communique that follows at the end of their talks. It’s the same-old, same-old, as the young people tend to say.
Have they wondered why few media houses even bother to report on them? Or why Caribbean issues are not part of the vibrant talk shows on radio or the television debate or even why ordinary members of the public are not even demanding the electronic media focus on CARICOM issues?
The leaders need to get real with the times – our populations demand no less.
They need to start somewhere. For example, the Vision for a Single Economy put forward by Girvan & his team was only a sketch and needs to be expanded in light of the current crisis and the flagship Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) has to be put on fast forward.
An innovative and ambitious strategy or a Road Map must be developed with specific targets in such areas as ‘rights of establishment across national boundaries.’
For the wider Caribbean, the negotiations with the Dominican Republic must be brought forward for rapid attention and this should also be seen as a stepping stone for Cuba to be embraced in an enlarged “Caribbean Community of Independent Nations.”
This could then lead to a Caribbean-wide functional cooperation programme by a S&T Research and Innovation Consortium to deal with health, medical sciences and nutrition, building on the George Alleyne’s Caribbean Commission on Health & Development report.
The S&T Research Consortium is an idea in which CARICOM Research Institutes can design programmes to be innovative so as to transform their economies with innovations on new methods, new products, new software etc., so that serious productivity takes place.
It is also essential that CARICOM forge a common foreign policy and strategic alliances. This is made even more crucial for the up-coming meeting on an agreement to replace the Kyoto Agreement in Copenhagen in December – and also the reform of the global financial architecture, with UN reforms plus the WTO Doha agenda.
The road Map for a transformed CARICOM has to be results-based and tangible for people to benefit from investment for job creation in food, energy, health and education.
None of this, however, can be done with an ineffective and ‘meetings factory’ Secretariat and therefore a radical managerial overhaul of the Guyana-based institution is essential.
It can’t be that the Secretariat’s main function is planning meetings after meetings or agreeing with the easy way out by setting up task forces upon task forces and committees upon sub-committees. The top management of the Secretariat also need to stop second guessing the politicians and instead offer innovative ideas.
In the 1999 Consensus of Chaguaramas, Heads of Government articulated a vision for accelerating the regional integration movement and agreed among others that “the structure and functioning of the Secretariat should be examined with a view to re-organisation and strengthening in key areas to give it the capacity to do the work expected of it”.
A team of Consultants was appointed to conduct the study. The 2002 Archer-Gomes report, ‘ A Review of the Structure and Functioning of the Caribbean Community Secretariat’ said the region’s response to the changing global political economy seems to lack the sense of urgency that the West Indian Commission sought to convey in the title of its Report “Time for Action”.
The seven year old report said a good example of this lack of urgency is reflected in the manner in which deadlines are set and ignored so regularly, that some Heads argue against the setting of deadlines.
“One of the main reasons for this inaction is the fact that CARICOM lacks the appropriate machinery to ensure that decisions taken are implemented. The CARICOM Secretariat, is structurally weak by design, and is incapable, as structured, of performing the tasks that the integration movement needs and is expected of it.”
Perhaps what is needed now are top notch strategic planners such as Girvan or Brewster who could be tasked with a turnaround plan which will include a performance audit of the current structure of the management.
As the point has been made time and again, major corporate entities go about their business this way so why shouldn’t the CARICOM Secretariat?
And while it may be a good move for the Regional Negotiating Machinery to get political oversight on principle, it cannot be advanced by a decadent laid back Secretariat.
What is needed is an overhaul of the Secretariat into a lean and streamlined agency that relies more on information technology for teleconferences.
As the incoming Chairman of CARICOM in this crucial moment of our time, Guyana President has a major responsibility of getting CARICOM back on track. It cannot be delayed.
In the same passion that he talks about climate change to the international community, he needs to take up the challenge of the Caribbean Community head-on and move with radical surgery to halt its downward spiral.
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From all accounts, last weekend’s Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain was a major success for the fact that leaders of the 34 countries across the western hemisphere were able to dialogue even though there were deep differences and it took place without the rancour and acrimony which pervaded the Summit in Argentina four years ago.
While many leaders heaped praise on the Trinidadian government for staging a memorable summit, Port of Spain cannot take full credit for the ‘feel good’ atmosphere which emerged from the bilateral meetings and plenary sessions.
Indeed, I’d say it was the now- famous charm of US President Barack Obama which defused the tension that overshadowed some of the meetings. Indeed Summit watchers were expecting fireworks to take place based on defiant pre-summit statements coming from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega and Bolivia’s President Evo Morales.
At the opening session, President Ortega’s 50-minute rambling, delivered mostly off-the-cuff and which harshly criticised the US interference in his country threatened to throw the summit’s ambience into glum and gloom.
But the US President, meeting Caribbean and Latin American leaders for the first time, jokingly told the agitated Nicaraguan leader,” I’m grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old” causing leaders, their delegates and invited guests at the colourful ceremonial opening to chuckle, breaking the nervousness with some relief.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning, host chairman also attempted to lighten the atmosphere, poking some Caribbean fun at Bolivia’s President Morales, inviting him to have some doubles or corn soup to make up for the loss of meals he would have endured during his hunger strike to force opposition parliamentarians to support certain pieces of legislation.
Then there was the historic photo of the handshake between a polite US President and a gregarious Hugo Chavez who dropped his native Spanish tongue to declare in English to Mr. Obama, ” I want to be your friend.”
It would be interesting to hear the psychologist and body language readers explain the significance of this meeting and the famous handshake, whose photo was splashed across the Internet and newspapers the world over.
On the following day, Mr. Chavez, known for his flamboyance greeted the US President prior to the start of the first plenary with a pat on the back and a mischievous grin as he presented a book, ” Open Veins of Latin America” written from Eduardo Galeano in 1971, to Mr. Obama, perhaps to bridge the ideological differences between the two countries.
Oh yes, this was the same Mr. Chavez – a major critic of Washington and of former President George W. Bush, whom he once compared to the devil – who promised to roll out his artillery to deal with the young US President in Port of Spain.
Perhaps the dancing parang serenading group of Trinidadians who greeted El Presidente daily at the Kapok hotel where he was staying helped to soothe the anxiety he might have brought from Caracas and put him in a good frame of mind for his meetings.
But it was not always smooth sailing in the closed door meetings as the issue of Cuba and its reintegration in the Inter-American System dominated the discussions.
Taking advantage of the presence of the new US President, many countries pressed hard on Washington to eliminate the 47-year old trade embargo against Communist Cuba and called for an end to the exclusion of Havana from the Summit process.
Countries across the Caribbean and Latin America showed they were not appeased by the crack in the decades-old U.S. embargo allowing U.S. telecommunications firms to start providing service for Cubans and ending limits on family travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans in the United States to Cuba.
But President Obama said hoped the new measures would encourage Cuba’s one-party state to implement democratic reforms long demanded by Washington as a condition for removing sanctions imposed after Fidel Castro took power in 1959.
While Cuba prevailed at the Summit, the issue of the global economic crisis and its impact on countries of the western hemisphere was forced to take a distant second place.
Apart from the US$750 billion – out the US$1.1 trillion rescue package by the recent G20 meeting – being made available to the International Monetary Fund, President Obama told leaders that Washington will also work to ensure that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) can take the necessary steps to increase its current levels of lending and to carefully study the needs for recapitalization in the future.
He also announced the creation of a U$100 million microfinance growth fund to help small lenders in the Western Hemisphere continue making loans despite the global recession.
The fund will provide stable medium- and longer-term sources of finance to microfinance institutions and microfinance investment vehicles to help rebuild their capacity to lend during this difficult period.
A recent report showed 565 microfinance institutions in the region were providing US$9 billion in loans to about 9 million microenterprises in the region. The lenders face a potential shortfall of US$750 million this year.
Micro and small businesses provide most of the jobs in the hemisphere, making it imperative to ensure that credit is available to small lenders.
Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow zeroed in on the impact of the global crisis on small economies which presented severe challenges and its consequences were being felt in the financial sector, the real economy and on the social sector.
Describing the Caribbean economies as extremely open as reflected in an average trade/GDP ratio of more than 70 per cent, he said added to that, foreign investment accounts for a very significant proportion of total capital formation.
Further, the Community?s highest earner and largest employer – tourism – is crippled in consequence of its market being predominantly drawn from the two regions most severely affected by the crisis – Europe and North America.
Some Caribbean tourist locations have already reported a drop of more than two thirds in visitor flows and hotel occupancies.
Host Chairman of the Summit, Mr. Manning noted that economic statistics released by the IMF in January 2009 indicate that the world economy grew by just 0.5 per cent in 2008 but is expected to record negative growth for the first time in 60 years in 2009.
While the economies of the Western Hemisphere fared much better in 2008 growing on average by 4.8 per cent, economic growth is expected to slow sharply in 2009 to around 1.0 per cent.
The countries of the Americas, according to Mr. Manning, now face higher than expected declines in the price and volume of exports, restrictions in access to trade financing, difficulties in accessing other kinds of external finance and reduced remittances from migrant workers.
The current economic slump has depressed commodity prices, constrained the growth of investment, weakened labour markets and lowered business and consumer confidence.
Countries are also not immune from the negative social consequences of the current global crisis which is threatening to derail the hard-won gains that were achieved over the past two decades and he affirmed that there is need for greater economic and commercial ties among the countries of the Americas, the restoration of credit flows to finance international trade and measures to arrest the abrupt decline in exports.
During the private sector forum preceding the Summit, Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Jose Miguel Insulza also painted a gloomy picture for the hemisphere as the global slowdown has led to a decline in the volume and price of exports, which over time will affect even economies with more diversified foreign trade.
Economies will feel the adverse consequences of drops in remittances, in direct foreign investment, in credit, and in the demand for services like tourism, he said on the eve of the Summit.
According to ECLAC and IDB data, Latin America and the Caribbean could reverse the progress they have made in the fight against poverty.
In the past six years, economic growth combined with improvements in the labor market lifted almost 40 million people out of poverty in the western hemisphre,
In addition, increases in the wages of urban workers and in social spending helped drive down inequality.
But the present crisis, along will higher food prices and an expected further increase in energy costs, endangers these achievements, and more than 12 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean run the risk of falling below the poverty line in the next two years, according to Insulza.
The worsening labor market indicators and the decline in remittances will also have a negative distributive effect.
Under current circumstances, the OAS chief pointed out that public policy is facing the challenge, not only of stabilizing economic growth through anti-cyclical measures but also of designing instruments for protecting the most vulnerable population from the effects of the crisis.
In the meantime, we wait to see how countries of the western hemisphere will come together to work with each other in the same spirit of cooperation displayed at the Port of Spain Summit, to assist each other economically.
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Prime Minister Patrick Manning did promise that Trinidad and Tobago will reap the benefits of hosting this coming week of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, costing taxpayers over US$80 million.
We just did not know that the benefits would have come in so quickly!
So far, the gang-related killings, a daily norm in the country, seem to have taken a holiday and the murder rate which had been spiralling out of control since the start of the year has suddenly halted.
The prime minister also promised that the country would be the most secured in the run up to the summit and during the summit – and so far, he has delivered on that.
No doubt, this has to do with the increased police and army presence throughout the country and increased patrols in several hot spots along the east-west corridors of the country where gun-riddled bodies were dropping to the ground like flies.
Security forces have also been beefed up with assistance from soldiers and police officers from other Caribbean countries including Guyana.
An impenetrable security net has also be cast over Trinidad and Tobago as American, Venezuelan, Canadian and Brazilian security forces are teaming up with local law enforcement to protect the air and maritime spaces.
Many nationals, however, are wondering, what happens after the Summit. Would the momentum be kept up where there’s a police presence along the highways and byways and would the security forces continue to keep the criminal gangs under control or even break up the groups whose relentless murderous activities have put an ugly stain on the image of the country?
Another immediate benefit for the citizens is the cleaning up of Port of Spain of homeless persons and other indigents, the mentally-ill included.
The homeless who have been roaming Port of Spain, sleeping in parks and on pavements under the eaves of shops are being removed from the streets under the guise of a comprehensive programme to sanitize the capital city.
The government doesn’t want to link the removal of the indigents from the streets as part of their beautification programme leading up to the Summit taking place from April 17-19 and insists it is part of a larger plan to clean up the bustling city.
A flurry of activity of the clean-up and upgrade preparations and white-washing is also evident from the Piarco International Airport, along the route to Port of Spain and its environs and in the capital city which is hosting the summit of 34 democratically-elected leaders including US President Barack Obama.
The city of Port of Spain is also getting a welcome mini facelift.
Part of the main artery into the city is being widened, parks including one that was taken over by vagrants are being cleaned, benches and fire hydrants repainted, trees trimmed, flowers pruned and even part of a sea jutting into the capital which previously featured derelict boats is being cleared of the unsightly rotting debris.
Local government minister Hazel Manning, wife of prime minister Manning said that the beautification planning which has been on-going since last October will ensure that the country?s physical appearance and aesthetics were dramatically enhanced.
A highway beautification programme is also underway to improve the appearance of all the main transport corridors for the Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, also being hosted in Port of Spain later this year.
A controversial berm project which includes a wall stretching several miles along the Beetham Gardens, a depressed and crime-infested community on the eastern outskirts of the capital is due to be completed by the end of this month.
Residents there have been protesting what they say is government’s intention to block off their community, mainly comprised of poor families, from foreign dignitaries when they pass along the nearby roads, sandwiching their place of residence.
Attorney Martin George commended the Government for the various beautification and clean-up exercises they were urgently and zealously pursuing for the Summit visitors.
However, he asked whether other communities in the country were not good enough to attract government attention and intervention to clean up and beautify and improve their surroundings.
“It is a serious question, because we are beginning to look like in days of old, when you were small and your parents had some important visitor coming to the house and they would be scrubbing, cleaning, mopping, dusting, polishing, all in a desperate effort to put on a good show,” he wrote in the Trinidad Guardian some weeks ago.
The country, he said, seems to be stuck in a culture and mentality of worship of everything foreign while ignoring and neglecting its own.
A letter writer to the newspaper, Svenn Grant said he couldn’t help but notice all the work being done in preparation for the Summit of the Americas.
“I don’t know the full itinerary, but I would like to lobby for the Prime Ministers and Presidents to visit Maracas Bay. If these distinguished men and women do so, the roads will be finally cleared of the debris, and repaired from the damage of last December?s landslips,” he wrote.
After the neglect of upgrading and maintaining infrastructure, members of the public could be excused for showing sarcasm and their tongue-in-cheek response at the government’s almost desperate action to clean up and beautify areas that will be traversed by the foreign dignitaries and their delegations.
In related Summit news, it seems government is determined to have a smooth and peaceful summit without distraction from any public demonstrations.
Police Commissioner James Philbert announced that three requests for public demonstrations during the days of the summit were denied.
Two weeks ago, prime minister Manning met with two umbrella trade union bodies separately and asked them to cooperate with the government, be on their best behavior and help the country put on a good show for the Summit.
Newspapers here also report that seven Scotland Yard police officers have arrived in the country to train local enforcement in crowd control tactics and settling public disturbances.
The officers from the Metropolitan Police Service in London were reported as being instrumental in keeping hundreds of rioters and protestors at bay during the G-20 Nations Summit in London last week.
But David Abdulah, president of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Non-Governmental Organisations (FITUN) was reported as saying that neither tear gas, rubber bullets nor batons will not prevent them from marching.
FITUN, the local organiser of the Fourth People’s Summit being held in parallel to the leaders’ summit has planned a march through the streets of Port of Spain on the second day of the Summit.
Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday roundly condemned the move by some trade unions to refrain from protest action until after the Summit, saying that it is not in the interest of workers whose livelihood are currently under threat.
By cutting a deal to go easy on the Prime Minister until after the summit, trade unions are compromising their leverage to force the government to act in the best interest of the workers.
After the summit, the government would not have to worry about its public image so everything goes back to normal where the suffering of the general citizenry is ignored and infrastructure and society are neglected, Panday said.
The former trade unionist noted that there were several labour issues that are undermining the interest of the working class and there is no time like the present to press the government.
Thousands of workers are being sent home as a direct result of government policy and mismanagement of the economy while there has been an invasion of labour, not only from outside the country but from outside the hemisphere, depriving qualified nationals of the opportunity to work and support their families.
The labour fraternity, he argued, has a responsibility to their membership and the nation to capitalize on the global attention that the summit will bring.
According to Panday, going soft on the Prime Minister, the labour leaders will lose a valuable opportunity to safeguard the welfare of workers.
” You will have the Prime Minister cornered like never before and that opportunity, once squandered will never come back,” declared Panday.
In just a few days time, we will know whether trade unions will defy the police to highlight grievances of their members or give in to the government for a smooth and peaceful summit.
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In less than one month’s time, Trinidad and Tobago will host the Fifth Summit of the Americas, bringing together 34 democratically-elected leaders of the Western Hemisphere to continue building the foundation for action to improve the lives of some 800 million people who live in this space.
The leaders attending the Summit, no doubt, will be under additional pressure as the meeting comes at a crucial time when their countries along with the rest of the entire world is struggling with financial crises.
The fall out from the global credit crunch in the larger region has had devastating consequences on hundreds of thousands of people who are now without jobs, businesses have been forced to scale down operations, some permanently shutting their doors while many others still are looking for government help in continuing their operations.
The Caribbean is already bearing a heavy burden from the fall-out of the global financial crisis.
Last week, CARICOM leaders at their Inter-Sessional meeting in Belize agreed to pursue a regional strategy to minimize its impact as far as possible and also to seek greater access to funds – although fast drying up – from the international financial institutions to confront their economic challenges.
They have also mandated the Committee of Central Bank Governors to provide proposals by the end of this month on how the region could collaborate to tackle what Secretary General of CARICOM, Edwin Carrington described as the greatest crisis which has left no country unscathed.
Describing the impact on the Caribbean as manifold, Mr. Carrington said for example, the major tourism industry has been severely affected, leading to negative spin off effects in related industries and activities including transportation, both air and land, handicraft creation and sales and entertainment, causing significant loss of employment and income for the self employed.
Remittances to needy relatives in the Caribbean are fast falling to pittances while the energy sector, including its downstream industries in Trinidad and Tobago has been adversely affected as both demand and prices have plummeted
Further, Mr. Carrington pointed out, the regional financial sector has been severely rattled by the near collapse of CLICO and the action by US authorities to charge American Allen Stanford, two executives and three of his companies of leading a fraud scheme involving over US$8 billion.
According to the charge, the scheme offered “improbable, if not impossible, returns” through the company’s offshore banking operation in Antigua where the Stanford group is the largest private sector employer, with close to 1000 workers and which supports scores of businesses that supply his companies with services and products.
Indeed, it is natural that the struggling Caribbean and Latin American countries will be looking for assistance from U.S President Barack Obama who has not been able to enjoy a honeymoon period in the White House since his January 20 inauguration, getting straight down to tackling the financial nightmare by pumping hundreds of billions of dollars to kick-start the economy.
Many countries including those of us in the Caribbean are waiting to see the start of a turn-around in his economic recovery plan, as it may signal the beginning of the momentum for the rest of the world.
But economists and financial analysts the world over are warning that the worst may yet to come as they have not seen a peaking of the global financial crisis.
The Summit taking place in Trinidad next month also presents important opportunities for the leaders of all 34 countries to solve problems and show a willingness to collaborate on workable solutions that ultimately will sustain economies, save jobs and impact positively on the lives of the 800 million people of the Hemisphere.
Enforcement of decisions – an issue that has plagued previous summits – is absolutely crucial in making the Port of Spain Summit a success.
It is essential, as host prime minister of the Summit, Patrick Manning pointed out that the Summit move beyond the rhetoric and into action.
The last Summit held in Argentina is well remembered as being confrontational and which seemed to have lacked the hemispheric consensus to move the Summit process forward.
The Port of Spain summit also presents an important dialogue between President Obama and the Latin American and Caribbean countries, that felt neglected under the past George W Bush administration, particularly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when the Washington administration focused their attention towards Afghanistan and the Middle East.
The neglect also resulted in a growing influence of China and Venezuela on CARICOM and Latin America, when they moved in to fill the vacuum created by the U.S.
Venezuela?s Hugo Chavez has been offering preferential financing for countries interested in buying petroleum while China began courting countries in the hemisphere in its effort to reduce Taiwan?s international allies.
Mr. Obama, during his presidential campaign vowed that the US will restore its ?traditional leadership in the region on democracy, trade and development, energy and immigration.?
We take him at his word – yes, we can.
The smaller CARICOM countries will also try to forge a solid relationship with the new Obama administration as the US is their major trading partner and the home of the largest number of migrants from the Caribbean.
Their concerns include expanding the range of goods and services in the CBI; the issue of security in the Caribbean regarding the transshipment of illegal drugs and all the inherent problems with that in fueling crime; the issue of deportation and health issues such as HIV/AIDS.
An issue that can no longer be ignored – and one that needs to be dealt with at the Summit’s sidelines is the looming question of Communist Cuba which does not belong to the Inter-American family.
During his campaigning for the Presidency, Mr. Obama made commitments including removing all restrictions on visits and remittances by Cuban-Americans to their families on the island.
The White House has already moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions raising hopes that the U.S four-decade-old economic embargo could be eventually lifted.
Prime Minister Manning who met with six Latin leaders over the past few days admits that Cuba is a main topic for them.
There’s no pretension on the part of the very assertive countries in Latin America or the Caribbean that Cuba must now be brought into the hemispheric family at some point.
Latin American and Caribbean countries already carry out thriving trade, economic and social relations with Havana. Many of them have turned to Cuba for assistance in their Health and Agricultural sectors and have taken advantage of their top rated medical services for complicated and delicate surgeries.
Trinidad and Tobago’s decision to host the fifth Summit will be a significant achievement, becoming the smallest country – and the first Caribbean country to host the hemispheric meeting.
Ambassador Luis Alberto Rodriguez, the National Coordinator for the Fifth Summit of the Americas and his team continue to work long hours preparing and negotiating the Draft Declaration of Port of Spain which relates to the theme of the Summit, ” Securing our Citizens’ Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustaimability.”
Three-quarters of the Declaration have been approved and a final round of negotiations will take place on Monday in Port of Spain involving the representatives of the Summit Implementation Review Group, the political and negotiating body responsible for coordinating the Summit agenda, follow-up on Summit mandates and preparing for future Summits.
The National Secretariat headed by Rodriguez, a Trinidadian – who is easily mistaken as a Latin American – has also received kudos from advance delegations from countries on the preparations leading up to the Summit.
But in the final analysis, the success of the Port of Spain Summit will be determined by our leaders’ determination to implement decisions, without delay.
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Caribbean countries are bracing – and are warning their populations – about stringent economic times as the fall out from the financial global crisis continues to descend on them.
Jobs have already been lost, not only in the tourism sector on which most of the regional countries depend on, but also from manufacturing and processing and even media as advertising dollars evaporate.
In just one month, close to 3,000 jobs were slashed in Jamaica. Trinidad has seen close to 200 workers being temporarily displaced from Arcelor Mittal steel and K.C Confectionery, while scores of employees are being laid off from their jobs in the tourism sector in other countries.
Instead of sending home workers, some companies are employing other cost-saving methods such as temporarily reducing salaries or cutting down the number of hours for workers.
In response to the growing number of people losing their jobs in Jamaica, President of the Private Sector Organisation, Christopher Zacca warns that companies need to guard against decimating their businesses in the name of cost cutting.
“When you look at cutting cost and becoming more productive, you don’t start with jobs. Jobs can’t be the first place you look. It has to be a part of an overall package that has to depend on a particular scenario in each business,” he said noting that companies could be losing some of their best talent, and weakening their organisations in the process.
Big and decades old companies in Jamaica such as GraceKennedy Limited, Gleaner Company and the bauxite/alumina operations, financial houses such as JMMB and Capital and Credit group, the high profile Digicel, port operator APM Terminals among others have all announced redundancies as business declines and markets falter.
In Grenada, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas emphasized that the Caribbean is not immune to the global credit crunch and warned his population to brace for the negative fall out from it.
“Almost every Caribbean country is now recording lower tourist arrivals, lower tourist expenditures, lower private investment, and in many cases job losses. Many major investment projects and ambitious plans have been halted in Jamaica, Bahamas, St Lucia, Anguilla and here in Grenada,” he said last week.
The construction of many planned housing for the wealthy, financed by pre-sales has disappeared.
Tighter credit conditions and slower growth will also negatively impact government?s revenue and ultimately its ability to meet policy goals including improved health services, better education and safety nets for the vulnerable, according to Thomas.
The fall out of the global crisis was impacting Grenada which has found itself in a highly leveraged position, with a declining productive sector and a structure where ninety cents on every dollar goes toward operational expenses and debt.
Across in St Lucia, Prime Minister Stephenson King outlined the bleak global economic landscape and its negative impact on tourism and foreign investment on the island.
The government, he said was considering measures that could support economic growth.
?The vulnerable, poor and indigent will not be ignored as we are carefully examining a number of social safety-net interventions. My government will take on board the various recommendations arising from the consultative process that we have started,” he said, appealing to St Lucians to focus on improving productivity while remaining prudent in spending and consumption.
Similar advise was given to Barbadians by their Prime Minister David Thompson who assured that all caution will be taken to ensure that employment is not reduced while special attention will be given to protecting the essential social services.
Addressing the role of the private sector during the unstable economic conditions, Thompson urged businesses not to use the current global economic situation as an excuse to retrench workers.
?Wide spread unemployment is not good for business or for social cohesiveness and stability. It makes more sense to accept a smaller profit margin in these trying times and stay in business a while longer than to insist on maintaining current profit margins by laying off workers and then going out of business due to lack of demand,? he advised.
Trade unions were also told to be cautious in their wage demands when negotiating for higher wages on behalf of workers.
Guyana’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh also warns the country that recovery from the current global recession will be long in coming, and no country will be spared the accompanying trauma.
” Our foreign direct investment projects now face the prospect of scarce and costly financing overseas. Our commodity producers and our exporters now face depressed prices and reduced external demand.
“Our Diaspora communities now face conditions that could threaten migrant remittance inflows to, and visitor arrivals in, Guyana. Our development partners now face harsh budgetary choices of their own that could adversely affect the availability of development financing for countries like ours. These are the externally imposed risks we face today,” he said while presenting the country’s budget earlier this month.
Despite the harshness of the external economic environment and its inevitable negative impact, Dr. Singh said the government will continue to work assiduously to protect the stability of the macro-economic environment that is necessary for private investment and growth in the economy, for the protection and creation of jobs, for the generation of incomes, and for the protection of the welfare of the most vulnerable.
The global crisis also requires individual effort and discipline, both at the corporate and personal levels.
More than ever before, he said, the success of the economy will depend on the efficiency with which companies operate and on the productivity with which citizens work.
“As demand contracts and prices decline, the investments that will prove feasible and the companies that will survive and grow are those that are able to produce goods and services of quality and at costs that can compete with the rest of the world,” he added.
Trinidad and Tobago, the most vibrant economy in the Caribbean has neither been spared.
In fact, energy minister Conrad Enill painted a gloomy outlook for the oil and gas sectors, noting that three companies have already pulled out from investing in the country while government is revising major energy downstream projects in light of falling oil prices.
Trinidad and Tobago has already suffered a major blow to its revenue as the prices of its major exports- oil and petroleum products, ammonia, urea, methanol and steel- have fallen considerably on the world market.
Additionally, due to decreased demand worldwide, there have been a number of temporary plant closures as well as reduced output at the major Point Lisas industrial estate which houses scores of downstream industries, further aggravating government’s declining revenue pool and compounded by the reduced sales of natural gas at the industrial estate.
Two energy companies faced with challenges of accessing capital have pulled out from participating in the 2005/2006 bid round.
One of the company’s pulling out is London-based Tullow – which along with another UK-based company Centrica Resources were granted approval for the award of a production sharing contract with Trinidad and Tobago’s state-owned oil company, Petrotrin to explore and develop a shallow marine block, located off Trinidad’s east coast.
The second company withdrawing their interest is the Trinidad Exploration and Development Company (TED) which was engaged in discussions with the government for two energy blocks.
Venezuela-based Sural Group has also pulled out from the Alutrint smelter project over difficulty in sourcing international credit.
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Jamaica’s Minister of National Security, Colonel Trevor MacMillan last week gave a chilling description of the current crime situation facing the Caribbean. “Merciless, terrifying and frighteningly magnified,” were the words he used to describe the violent environment that has befallen many countries in the region.
His words are ringing true as almost two months into the new year, many countries are already seeing an increase in criminal activities including violent assault and murders and perhaps the beginning of a trend for the rest of the year.
In places such as Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana and even tiny St Kitts and Nevis, criminal gang-related murders are featuring prominently in the increasing rate of homicides.
While Jamaica has had criminal gangs dating back to the 1960s when the two main rival political parties used them to enforce their political agendas and drive fear and terror in the hearts of their opponents, these are a new crime phenomenon that has descended in most other countries in the region.
In St. Kitts, the government there, already seeing a pattern of criminal gangs and increase in the murder rate recently hired retired FBI chief Mark Mershon to reduce the crime wave on the island of 46,000 people, which recorded a staggering 23 murders last year.
Guyana also battled gang members who were responsible for the massacre at Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek – heartless and unconscionable over the horrible murders of their victims including young children and the elderly.
Towards the end of a brutal and bruising 2008, head of the Guyana Police Force Criminal Investigation Department Seelall Persaud admitted that criminal gangs have been ?causing headaches for the police force ” – a bit of an understatement though, considering the fear the gangs perpetuated on the South American country.
Despite dismantling some gangs and seizing illegal guns at a rate of nearly three per week, Persaud reported that the surge in gang-related violence and organised narcotics and firearms trafficking were the main factors triggering a 36 per cent increase in general crimes, and nine per cent in serious crimes, including murders last year.
In Trinidad and Tobago, there is a terrifying increase in gang related murders.
The Express newspaper reports that over the last six years when the police began compiling gang violence, the twin-island state has seen gang-related murders increasing from 30 in 2002 to 296 last year, a numbing increase of almost 900 per cent.
A forensic scrutiny of the 2008 murder rate of 544 – the deadly year ever since the country’s 1962 independence – indicated that 296 or 54.2 per cent were victims of gang-related violence.
The 2009 trend is even more horrifying as up to last Tuesday, there were 87 recorded murders in the country – with a staggering 77 being gang-related.
For the corresponding period last year, the murder rate figure was 57. In 2007, also in the same period, police recorded 37 killings.
The police report that there was an estimated 40 criminal gangs operating in the country in 2004. By mid-2005, it moved to 66 gangs with roughly 500 members. At the end of last year, the police specialised gang monitoring unit said there were 81 gangs with over 1,200 members.
Trinidad and Tobago’s National Security Minister Martin Joseph notes a correlation between the illegal narcotics trade and the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons – and the latter’s link to criminal gang activities.
The weapons, he said, are used to protect contraband goods, intimidate users and competitors, protect turf, coerce recruits into gangs, maintain discipline within these gangs and to execute those who threaten to curtail the lifeline of the trade.
Last December, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) said criminal gangs, called Maras have become major security threats in Central America and in some countries of the Caribbean.
This new cross-border phenomenon and security challenge, he said, has traceable links between gangs in the United States with partner groups in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Jamaica, among other countries.
There are 300,000 gang members in Central America. In some countries, gang members exceed the police force. Some of the gang members have killed as many as 10 people by the time they reach age 15, according to Ramdin.
In Jamaica, Amnesty International reports that people living in inner-city communities are left at the mercy of gang leaders who use the vacuum left by the state to control huge aspects of their lives — including the collection of ?taxes?, allocation of jobs, distribution of food and ?scholarships?, and the punishment of those who transgress gang rules.
Criticizing the Jamaican authorities for willfully neglecting poor Jamaicans by failing to tackle the corruption and violence, the organization said violence in these communities is particularly high when rival gangs are ?at war? over territorial control. Entire populations are shut down by barricades and unable to leave their homes after 5pm. As a result, children don’t go to school out of fear and adults don’t go to work because transport is suspended.
It’s clearly not an easy task for the police service, national security ministries and regional security units and organisation to outlaw these dangerous criminal gangs. But there can be no throwing up of hands in the air in surrender.
There are a myriad of underlying reasons why young men and even women are finding criminal gang membership attractive or how easily it takes for them to be coerced into becoming part of it.
Deputy Commissioner of Police in Trinidad Gilbert Reyes makes a link between the young gang members and the education and economic systems when he said that many young people leaving the secondary school system find themselves unemployable and were thus graduating to gangs and doing serious criminal activities.
In El Salvador, OAS deputy secretary general Ramdin visited a center for youth gang members and spoke with two twenty year young Salvadorians, who had killed as a member of youth gangs.
Questioning them how they had reached this point in their life, one answered that with no parental control he ended up in the streets and in the company of criminals and subsequently joined a youth gang, while the other indicated that problems at school led him to use drugs and become a Maras member.
It does seem that clearly defined interventions are needed across the sphere to steer young and gullible young people – particularly those who feel marginalised, frustrated and excluded - away from a life of criminal activities.
Some of these interventions could include public education and awareness programmes in schools, communities and in the mass media; mentoring programmes involving adult men as many juvenile gang members are reportedly from single female-headed households and participation by the police in activities – government and non government – related to youth violence and gang members.
Combatting criminal gangs who pose a threat to the security and stability of our countries is indeed a serious challenge facing governments, law enforcement and society in general.
It is an uphill battle, but one that must be fought without any surrender with the ultimate objective of returning our Caribbean countries to their peaceful state.
We expect no less.
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The tourism sector in the Caribbean, enjoying some stability after the devastating fall-out of the 9/11 events in the United States, is again facing major threats – this time from the world wide global credit crunch.
Hotels around the Caribbean are reporting sharp declines in occupancy rates, jobs are being scaled down in the hospitality industry and some projects under construction have been canceled and others suspended.
Despite the gloomy outlook on the tourist industry, hoteliers, tour/travel operators and tourism association spokespersons during last week’s staging of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association’s (CHTA) Marketplace 2009 in St Lucia remained upbeat that they can also ride out the rough times.
John Taker, Purchasing Director, Virgin Holidays admits to the challenges such as global economic crisis, addressing consumer confidence around security in the region and the recent UK changes to the Air Passenger Duty which takes effect at the beginning of November. Charges would be levied on four band structure set at intervals which will be based on the distance travelled from London set at 2,000 mile intervals.
” I cannot stress enough that just like our achievements to date, a regional focus and collective approach will ensure that we meet such challenges in a way that drives progress for us all. We have a firm eye on the first quarter of the year and I am pleased to confirm that despite the current economic climate, Virgin Holidays is in an excellent position to be entering the challenges ahead we all face as an industry,” he told journalists.
Katinka Lira Vado, Public Relations Manager of the Cancum Hotel Association said expansion of hotels are continuing apace in the Mexican tourist resort region while robust promotion and marketing is taking place in other markets to attract tourists.
From January to November last year, hotel occupancy in Cancun averaged 71.1 percent while in December, the occupancy rate was higher at 95 percent. This month, Cancun is looking at a 75 percent occupancy rate.
In the case of St Lucia, Colin Hunte, President of the Hotel and Tourism Association said the island is taking advantage of the slowing down of the sector to improve its product as it rolls out a new marketing strategy and a branding image for the island which targets the high end market.
CHTA President Enrique De Marchena notes that the credit crisis also comes at a time when the Caribbean was already under-performing with tourism increasing by less than 2% each year for the past two years.
He estimates that national economies will suffer as the tourism industry represents between 22% of the GDP to 75% of the GDP to the various countries of the Caribbean.
In addition, the fall out from the tourism industry will have a spin-off effect on the construction industry, food supply, agricultural and retail businesses among others.
De Marchena, a native of the Dominican Republic said Caribbean Marketplace, normally the most important marketing event of the calendar year for the destinations, hoteliers and wholesalers from around the world, “has been elevated to an essential conference during these difficult economic times.”
“We are all looking to develop solutions together for moving forward during these difficult times in our global economy,” De Marchena added.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) warns that Central America and the Caribbean will be most affected by stagnation in tourism caused by the global financial crisis.
According to ECLAC’s Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean, about 75 per cent of tourists to the English-speaking Caribbean come from developed economies that are experiencing a recession.
In the first eight months of 2008, ECLAC said, tourist arrivals in the Caribbean grew by only three per cent.
Between June and August, demand for tourism services in the Caribbean came to a “standstill due to the lower number of visitors to the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda and Puerto Rico ? four destinations visited mainly by United States and European travellers,” according to the UN agency.
It added that Caribbean tourism began experiencing “strong deceleration” between June and August, due to “increasing deterioration of real income and consumer expectations, the volatility of exchange rates, and restraints on consumer loans due to the financial crisis.”
Another UN agency, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) estimates that in 2008, regional tourism grew between two per cent and three per cent, compared to 6.6 per cent in 2007.
It projects that tourism to the region will expand even less in 2009, estimating that it will be somewhere between zero per cent and two per cent.
ECLAC notes that tourism was one of the economic activities in the region that had flourished most in recent years and that its importance had increased “as a generator of value-added and income.”
In the Caribbean, tourism-related exports comprised about 20 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) while in Central America, it was an average five per cent.
Tourism expenditures in the English-speaking Caribbean ? with the exception of Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago ? were equivalent to 15 per cent to 41 per cent of GDP.
As they did in post 9/11, the Caribbean is going all the way out to try to counter the negative fall-out from the global crisis to spur demand for vacations to the region and keep the Caribbean competitive.
The CHTA Executive Committee is discussing a number of initiatives with the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) including fast tracking the implementation of the Caribbean Sustainable Regional Marketing Fund, a proposed response to the UK Air Passenger Duty, jointly identifying mechanisms for reducing hotel operating costs with a view to minimizing continued staff layoffs and development of an action plan for swift implementation.
De Marchena also noted that while other regions in the world were removing barriers to travel, the Caribbean was in fact going in another direction by imposing visa and other costs to visitors.
There is also need to shorten the gap between CARICOM decision making and implementation to promote regional co-operation.
“The public and private sectors need to integrate our efforts in the Caribbean and we need to closely work together. We need to develop a trust factor among us for intra-Caribbean cooperation,” he added.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), projecting that the downward trends in the tourism industry will not only continue but may also worsen due to the global financial crisis has prompted member states to provide short term tax relief package to the hotel industry.
In the Caribbean, one of the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis is the Bahamas which relies heavily on the US market for its tourism industry.
A statement from the Westin and Sheraton Grand Bahama Our Lucaya Resort over the weekend said 181 employees, or about 18 percent of its beachfront workforce had been let go as hotel bookings are sliding “with no evidence of improvement,” as the U.S. recession keeps hundreds of visitors at home.
The resort is owned by White Plains, New York-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Atlantis resort has dismissed about 800 workers this season, while Baha Mar Resorts Ltd. laid off some 80 employees at two Bahamas locations.
The Bahamas economy contracted last year, particularly during the second half of 2008 and most markedly beginning in the last quarter – following the height of the hurricane season and the October plummet of Stock Exchanges around the globe.
Bahamas’ Prime Minister Hubert A. Ingraham said given the extreme uncertainty as to when a resolution of the financial crisis and the rebound in global economic activity will occur, it is very difficult to assess the full implications for the economy.
“The growth of major investment inflows into resort and hotel development, which we had anticipated, is slowing down and a significant portion may not materialize in the near future,” he said.
Importantly, however, a number of significant high end developments have remained on track and construction continues on a five star resort in New Providence and construction start-ups are still projected in the first quarter of this year for one or more upscale developments in the Family Islands.
“The reality is that the slowdown of direct foreign investment is due, not only to the uncertain outlook for tourism in the present environment resulting from a loss of consumer confidence in our major tourism market, the United States, but also to the fact that many of the investors find it difficult to raise funds from their banking systems even for high quality investment purposes,” Ingraham added.
The Bahamas government, in the meantime, is accelerating construction of a number of planned major infrastructural projects around the country to help create jobs, prevent untenable levels of unemployment and related social dislocation, and improve the fixed investment stock, leading to improvement in economic efficiency.
Infrastructure development will include the upgrade and expansion of air and sea ports, the reconstruction and repaving of road networks, the construction of a number of new government administrative complexes, the accelerated completion of several other Government infrastructure projects and the construction of additional government operated schools.
Unlike the Bahamas, Jamaica’s tourism industry is still booming.
The island’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett said despite the economic downturn in the major markets overseas, Jamaica experienced a four per cent growth in tourist arrivals last year and earned US$2 billion in revenue.
“Last year, we ended the difficult year with a four per cent increase over 2007. We welcomed 1,757,000 visitors to the island, which was 63,000 more than the previous year,” he said.
The United States continued to dominate the market, accounting for 65 per cent of arrivals, which represented an increase of 1.2 per cent over the previous year.
Canada was the biggest growth market, with arrivals from that country increasing by 53 per cent in the month of November.
Bartlett credited the improved performance of the sector to intense advertising, marketing and promotion of the island overseas.
He outlined several initiatives which have been implemented to boost the sector, including a major promotion at the Port Authority Centre in Manhattan, New York where destination Jamaica was displayed on posters and banners.
The move, he said, was “to say to not only New York but the entire tri-state area that Jamaica is the place to go when you are cold.”
“We had Brand Jamaica all over the Port Authority, which is the largest hub of commuter activity in the world,” the Tourism Minister pointed out. “Our images and messages were seen by five million eyes,” he added.
Minister Bartlett noted that the promotion will continue with the branding of “every taxi in Manhattan.every dollar cab in the ethnic communities in Flat Bush, East Bronx, and the Borrows of New York.”
In addition, several airlift arrangements have been made to secure and increase flights into the island from existing and emerging markets.
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Trinidad and Tobago’s energy minister Conrad Enill painted a gloomy outlook for the oil and gas sectors, noting that three companies have already pulled out from investing in the country while government is revising major energy downstream projects in light of falling oil prices.
Trinidad and Tobago has already suffered a major blow to its revenue as the prices of its major exports- oil and petroleum products, ammonia, urea, methanol and steel- have fallen considerably on the world market.
Additionally, due to decreased demand worldwide, there have been a number of temporary plant closures as well as reduced output at the major Point Lisas industrial estate which houses scores of downstream industries, further aggravating government’s declining revenue pool and compounded by the reduced sales of natural gas at the industrial estate.
“In light of the economic reality that we are facing, the time line for several downstream projects may have to be revised. International credit for large industrial projects has become increasingly difficult to access. This can affect our upstream sector, including our plan to launch a bid round in the first quarter of 2009,” Enill said this week at a Petroleum Conference organised by the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Geological Society.
Two energy companies faced with challenges of accessing capital have pulled out from participating in the 2005/2006 bid round.
One of the company’s pulling out is London-based Tullow – which along with another UK-based company Centrica Resources were granted approval for the award of a production sharing contract with Trinidad and Tobago’s state-owned oil company, Petrotrin to explore and develop a shallow marine block, located off Trinidad’s east coast.
The second company withdrawing their interest is the Trinidad Exploration and Development Company (TED) which was engaged in discussions with the government for two energy blocks.
Venezuela-based Sural Group has also pulled out from the Alutrint smelter project over difficulty in sourcing international credit but Enill said the project will go ahead as planned.
“Credit was an issue there so we’ve had to make some changes to that structure. We expect that later on it will work out but at this point in time, credit is difficult for some of those international companies. Its moving ahead as planned. The government has put the resources in as required to move it forward,” Enill said.
The government of Trinidad and Tobago owns 60 percent of Alutrint while 40 percent was held by Sural which specializes in the production of downstream aluminium products and associated technology.
The 125,000 metric-tonnes-per-year aluminium complex is scheduled to begin construction in the first quarter of this year at a cost of between US$500 to US$600 million. The complex will also include a rod mill and a wire and cable plant.
Given the challenges facing the energy sector, Enill said Government is embarking on a fiscal regime that offers flexibility even during times of fluctuating prices.
“Fortunately for us, we have already begun the process of reviewing the competitiveness of our current fiscal and licensing regime that takes into consideration making several changes to it including, flexible fiscal terms for deep waters, marginal fields and tail end production, a new regime for ultra-heavy oil, greater clarity to the bidding process, shorter time for processing of bids and removal of complexities in the system.
“Notwithstanding, the financial environment, these terms would foster greater exploration activities in new areas and attract investment,” he said.
Following the completion of this fiscal regime, the new 2008/2009 bid round for five offshore North Coast Marine Area blocks will be launched while the 2009 deep-water blocks will be launched in the last quarter of this year.
With falling prices for the major export commodities, Chief Executive Officer of BP Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT), Robert Riley said increasing LNG exports and diverting them from the US markets to the highest priced markets in Europe and Asia offered better returns for the country.
In 2008, cargo diversions brought additional revenue of between US$90 -100 million to the country.
“In an environment where commodity prices are down and potentially the domestic industry contracts….we still see the opportunity to produce and export all of the LNG we can make and so in the current environment, the efficiency and operations of Atlantic becomes even more critical, ” Riley said.
Atlantic LNG four processing trains which have a total production capacity of 15 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) have not been operating at full capacity because of mechanical and maintenance problems.
The trains convert natural gas cooled to liquid for transport in tankers. It is regasified at terminals for transport ashore through pipelines.
Energy Minister Conrad Enill said because of lower prices for LNG in the US market, he expects more LNG cargoes from Trinidad to be sold on “spot markets” in Europe and Asia which attract higher prices.
Shareholders of Atlantic LNG are BPTT, British Gas Trinidad and Tobago (BGTT) Repsol, Suez and the state-owned National Gas Company.
Some of the shareholders have long term contracts to provide LNG to the US but softening prices have been adversely impacting revenues for energy companies and for the Trinidad and Tobago government.
Riley told the conference that to achieve the best opportunity for LNG, there is need for close collaboration among upstream suppliers, the state-owned National Gas Company and the government’s National Gas task force to reduce restrictions on cargo diversions.
BPTT, which last year produced 450,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) has been increasing LNG shipment to the UK’s Isle of Grain LNG terminal because of spot demand by European markets.
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