TRINIDAD: April 20, 2016: On April 19, 2016, Senator the Honourable Dennis Moses, Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, received His Excellency John Estrada, Ambassador-designate of the United States of America to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago at the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs.
The courtesy call on Minister Moses preceded Ambassador Estrada’s presentation of his Letters of Credence to His Excellency, Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona, O.R.T T.., S.C., President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Ambassador Estrada was accompanied by his wife, Dr. Cote Estrada and Mrs. Margaret Diop, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the United States, Port of Spain.
In welcoming the Ambassador Estrada, Minister Moses referred to the close relationship existing between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America, a relationship which was based on common principles and shared values. The Minister also reinforced Trinidad and Tobago’s commitment to strengthening the existing relations which span a number of areas. Ambassador Estrada in turn expressed appreciation for the warm reception which he and his family had received since arriving in Trinidad and Tobago. He stated that he was also looking forward to strengthening the areas of mutual interest on the bilateral agenda, during his tenure in Trinidad and Tobago.
Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs welcomes His Excellency John L. Estrada
WASA advises of service disruption to parts of North-East Trinidad
TRINIDAD: April 20, 2016: The Water and Sewerage Authority advises customers in parts of North East Trinidad, served by the North Oropouche Water Treatment Plant that there will be an interruption in their water supply on Friday 22nd April 2016 between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
This has become necessary in order to facilitate electrical upgrade works at the Plant.
Areas to be affected include:
- Sangre Grande, Guaico, Manzanilla, Coryal and environs
- La Horquetta
- Malabar Phases 1, 3 and 4
- Tumpuna Road South, Brazil Village, San Raphael
- O’Meara Road
- Carapo
- Sunrise Park, Millennium Park
- Mausica Road, Crescent Gardens
- Maloney Gardens
- Oropune Gardens
- Golden Grove Road
- Five Rivers, Arouca
Customers are advised that following the resumption of operations, it may take between 12 to 18 hours for the service to normalize to some affected areas.
For further information customers are asked to contact WASA’s Customer Call Centre toll free at 800-4420/4426.
The Authority apologises for the inconvenience and thanks customers for their patience and understanding.
TTSEC, blink | bmobile Foundation and TTSE collaborate for 4th national investor education competition
TRINIDAD: April 20, 2016: The Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) in collaboration with the blink | bmobile Foundation and the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) launched a national investor education competition titled ‘Young Investors, Creative Expressions’.
This national investor education competition, which runs from April 20 to June 30, 2016, is aimed at:
- Building and developing core investor education competencies among students and young adults;
- Educating and empowering young persons with investor knowledge so they will be capable of making more informed decisions;
- Developing creative expression among youth; and
- Encouraging young individuals to inform their families and communities about the Commission, and the importance of investor education.
The competition is geared towards persons between the ages of 14 and 30 who are either in secondary of tertiary institutions or may have just entered the world of work. These persons may also have a vested interest in the creative expression or the arts, and wish to learn more about the securities industry.
Mr. C. Wainwright Iton, CEO, TTSEC stated that “Each year we aim to involve the youth in engaging competitions that will encourage a culture of thinking along the lines of saving and investing, so that as they mature, they are able to make more informed decisions”.
This competition encourages participants to develop a short video which showcases creative expressions regarding topics related to the securities industry. Specific forms of display will be accepted which may include the artist performing a spoken word piece, a dramatic representation of the piece, a video production with voice over of spoken word piece or any other representation that will captivate and informatively showcase investor literacy.
Some of the prizes ‘up for grabs’ in this competition are: a Tablet, a Smartphone, a digital camera and cash prizes sponsored by the blink | bmobile Foundation, and over twenty thousand dollars’ worth in notional cash to be invested in the stock market courtesy the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange. There will also be a voting component where the participant submitted the most liked video will be awarded with a hotel stay for two in Tobago.
The blink | bmobile Foundation is very proud to partner with TTSEC for this project. According to Camille Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer, “the blink | bmobile Foundation is committed to contributing to the development of the nation’s youth. The foundation focuses on four pillars; education, culture, sport and health. We believe this competition will encourage young people to value the importance financial understanding and management of their hard-earned money. We anticipate eager participation from our youth”.
For more information applicants can LIKE the Commission’s Facebook page or visit the Commission’s Investor Education website at www.investucatett.com to access the rules and guidelines.
St. Joseph PIC To Launch Activities
BARBADOS: Agriculture and animal husbandry will feature prominently when the St Joseph Parish Independence Committee rolls out an initiative to get parishioners to ‘return’ to the land.
Entitled: Think Like This! Grow Like This! Eat Like This! Live Like This! the aim of the project is to encourage Barbadians to show more appreciation for local foods, with the hope of reducing the country’s food import bill.
In addition, the committee will pay tribute to the Barbados Landship Movement by giving residents of the parish an opportunity to learn and develop the Landship dance moves.
Persons interested in participating in either of these activities are asked to call Angela Hamilton at 433-8813, or 239-2227, or Marva Smith at 433-3902.
kathyann.husbands@barbados.gov.bb
Creative industry stakeholders meet
ST. LUCIA: Musicians, poets, dancers, artists, mangers and audio visual producers were among guests at the Prime Minister’s official residence, Saturday.Musicians, poets, dancers, artists, mangers and audio visual producers were among some of the Prime Minister’s guests.
“One of the key points that I understand is that we have to transform the creative sector into an exports sector,” Dr. Anthony said. “It’s not enough that we produce just for domestic consumption, but we have to learn to export – we have to compete with the wider world.”
Minister for Tourism, Heritage and Creative Industries Hon. Lorne Theophilus said this is necessary to help with the growth of the sector.
“It is the first time that they have been given this one on one audience with people who at times are a little difficult to get in touch with. It gives them an opportunity to air their views and to meet one on one, and witness how the work of the creative industries sector will benefit them and our country in the long run.”
The Creative Industries Policy was introduced in 2015.
Interested persons can contact the Ministry of Tourism, Heritage and Creative Industries for more details.
Jazz Festival classes for performing artistes
ST. LUCIA: The Saint Lucia Tourist Board has booked a range of master classes that will appeal to aspiring and experienced students of theatre, music, dance, fashion and performance poetry.
The master classes will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills from industry professionals to aspiring artistes, as an outcome of the hosting of the festival.
Under the music component, international jazz artiste Chris Standring, and 13 year-old piano prodigy Joey Alexander, will host a music master class and a music workshop on May 5 and 6 respectively, at the Saint Lucia School of Music.
Standring, who has developed a series of master classes for a range of levels, will host a two-hour class for intermediate to advanced instrumentalists. He will also dedicate one-on-one time with one or two recommended advanced students, and as an incentive, promises to allow participation in his dinner set at Windjammer Landing.
The Joey Alexander workshop targets students of varying abilities in the 9-14 age range. The hour-long workshop will focus on concentration skills, and will feature a question/answer and discussion segment.
Under the dance component, two workshops are planned. The first will be under the theme “Life as a professional dancer – Making Dance a Career” from April 27 – 29, and targets dance students from various schools. The facilitators will be Shakeena President-Beckford, Micole Aubertin-Murray and Tania Isaac – an Assistant Teaching Professor at Drexel University, a Pew Fellow (2011) and a MacDowell Fellow (2012).
The second dance workshop will be a full week of intensive training lead by working professional dancers and teachers from Europe with the objective of providing participants with technical dance training in a range of styles. The workshop will end with an informal sharing via performances from both students and instructors. The project is aimed at exposing participants to the rigor of professional dance training while developing their performance and creative skills in a supportive environment. These workshops target secondary school students currently studying Theatre Arts/Dance, Theatre Arts teachers with an interest in dance/movement, and local dancers. The two workshops run from April 25 – 30.
Under the Saint Lucia HOT Couture component, there will be a free creative business training session on May 5 from 10 a.m. -12:30p.m. The session will be facilitated by Romero Bryan, a lecturer at the London College of Fashion and Saint Martin’s School of Arts, and will deal with Concept and Fabric Research, Market Research and PR and Marketing.
A second paid workshop on Design and Patternmaking will be facilitated by Myriam Belasse, designer and owner of Atlanta Sewing and Patternmaking Services, LLC. Belasse’s workshop will run from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon on May 6. The fashion related workshops will take place at the Blue Coral Conference Room.
Joseph Marcell, who will play the lead in Shakespeare Globe Theatre’s production of Derek Walcott’s Omeros on May 3 is also expected to meet and engage Saint Lucian actors. An educational component is also being finalized for the Arts Village, and will be formally unveiled within the coming week.
Regional Testing Day launches
ST. LUICA: The aim is to test at least 100,000 people in the Caribbean by 2017.
Regional Testing Day 2016 will be launched in Saint Lucia tomorrow, with an aim to end the regional HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.
One year short of its 10th anniversary in 2017, the goal is to test at least 100,000 people in the Caribbean by 2017.
The activity is held under the aegis of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership (CBMP) on HIV/AIDS, in collaboration with the Pan Caribbean Partnership on HIV/AIDS (PANCAP), with support from Scotiabank.
CBMP Executive Director Dr. Allyson Leacock said: “We are proud to have been partners in contributing to the Caribbean region’s distinction of being the first to register success with no babies born with HIV and we are confident that our collective efforts will reap that success as we mark the 10th anniversary of Regional Testing Day in 2017.
“The CBMP-coordinated Regional Testing Day has contributed to the achievement of this strategic objective. This year’s activities will focus on expanding access to high quality evidence-based and appropriately targeted packages of prevention services while expanding access for key populations and further reducing the stigma and discrimination.
“Through the Annual Regional Testing Day activities and our collective efforts with outstanding support from Scotiabank; PANCAP, Ministries of Health and Caribbean media, have contributed to increased awareness and participation.”
Dr. Leacock said that despite these successes, national and regional responses continue to be challenged by access to prevention services and HIV testing, as well as structural barriers like the stigma and discrimination that impede key affected populations such as gay men, men who have sex with men, transgender persons, sex workers, drug users, and youth.
Since RTD was launched in 2008, 70,000 people have been tested.
Regional Testing Day 2015 was a resounding success with 16, 655 people testing across the Caribbean. Of those, 110 people tested positive for the HIV virus.
The impact of the LIVE UP social media efforts of the campaign has proven beneficial with the Facebook data for 2015 showing the use of social media by younger audiences and others totalling over 180,000 engaged and requesting information about Regional Testing Day.
St. Kitts and Nevis continues the upgrade of trade facilitation
ST. KITTS: Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 19, 2016 (SKNIS): In an effort to make the process of trading with the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis more seamless, efficient and less time-consuming the Ministry of International Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs in collaboration with the Customs and Excise Department coordinated a workshop on April 19 with that objective in mind.
Andrew Satney, Policy Adviser in the Ministry of International Trade explained that the necessary procedures to facilitate trade were being undertaken.
“We’re in the process of ratifying the Trade Facilitation Agreement and as we speak the paperwork is with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who will organize the necessary treaty instrument and send it off to Brussels (capital of Belgium) which means we’ll be part of the process,” Mr. Satney said, noting that most trading countries are expect to go along with that agreement. “As we see it in St. Kitts and Nevis, meaning we in Trade and Customs and so on, “trade facilitation” is not something we have to do for somebody, we are doing it for us. If we improve the trade and business environment, it means therefore it will reflect a positive image as a country to do business.”
Representing the Customs and Excise Department, Kennedy De Silva, Acting Comptroller of Customs, outlined how a specific process could be made more seamless.
“Essentially trade facilitation from my point of view is modernization,” Mr. De Silva said. “There’s things like risk management, where you determine, if you’re checking somebody, and you don’t have any reason to believe that the person is suspect – why delay, you allow them to go through because they are not a risk,” he said, outlining that the opposite can occur where there may be someone who comes through, who you may have reason to be concerned about, then you will have to take them out of the cue for a detailed check. “What that means is that you don’t arbitrarily go and inspect everyone – you have to pick and choose your target, so that you use your resources in a more meaningful way.”
Mr. De Silva explained that the Customs and Excise Department already employs such measures but that the new process requires that other agencies do so as well.
As outlined by Mr. Satney, the workshop included several agencies in order to reduce some of the delays that sometimes occur at the borders of a country.
“When I say at the border, I mean at Customs and the delays can also be caused by different agencies, not necessarily only Customs,” he said. “So we have with us all the border agencies who work with Customs in ensuring that goods go through the borders quickly and smoothly.”
Mr. Satney further revealed that in all trade agreements, there is an area that speaks to trade facilitation which is a very important aspect of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and other agreements that the Federation has signed on to. He added that the involvement of all personnel working in trading was necessary.
“In our deliberations and discussions in looking at who should be present at this workshop, taking into consideration what is expected in the outcome, we thought it prudent to bring in some persons in the private sector,” Mr. Satney said, noting that they would have to be involved in shipping, trading and exporting. “So within the group here, we have people from Horsfords, TDC and so on who do the business every day, so people at Customs see them all the time. “We can all work together at ensuring we have a harmonized approach to trade facilitation, because at the end of the day in order to attract business and commerce in this country, you must ensure that the environment is good for trade and business.”
The Customs and Trade Facilitation Workshop was sponsored by the European Union and is one in a series that is being conducted.
– See more at: http://sknis.info/st-kitts-and-nevis-continues-the-upgrade-of-trade-facilitation/#sthash.CvNihK4S.dpuf
Minister Gonsalves To Sign The Paris Climate Change Agreement
ST. VINCENT: Minister of Sustainable Development – Camillo Gonsalves will join delegates from over one hundred countries at a Signing Ceremony for the Paris Climate Change Agreement this week. Some sixty world leaders are expected to sign the Agreement, which opens for signature on Friday, 22nd April.
The high-level ceremony will be convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York, marking an important international push on the way to the agreement’s entry into force. All Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are invited to sign the agreement, taking note of established international practice that full powers are required to sign. A country’s signature on the agreement initiates the critical domestic process, on which depends its final entry into force.
The Paris Agreement will enter into force on the 30th day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Depositary.
Source: NBC Radio
Risk Communication, Vector Control And Spatial Analysis Training
ST. VINCENT: St. Vincent and the Grenadines will host a regional workshop during the period Tuesday, 19th April – Friday, 22nd April, 2016, on Risk Communication, Vector Control and Spatial Analysis Training. The workshop is organized by the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and will take place at the Blue Lagoon Conference Room from 8:30 a.m. daily. It will support countries in risk communication methodologies and their implementation of the use of Global Positioning System devices to enhance hot spot detection and targeted vector control.
With the threat of vectors and their associated viruses, such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika, the region is taking proactive measures to strengthen vector control approaches by incorporating the use of new technologies in the form of spatial data programmes. Such technologies, coupled with improved risk communication methodologies, will augment the efforts made by the region in vector control and help with decision making and policies.
The objectives of the training are:
- Training in risk communication;
- Training in the different components of vector control;
- Training on the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) hand held devices;
- Evaluation of the effectiveness of the GPS data collection system, using case studies from Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and
- Discussion related to the best variables to use, additional variables, best methodology and most useful graphics.
