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Health City Surgeon at CMEx Award 2019

Health City Surgeon To Receive Cmex Award
Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil

Health City Cayman Islands clinical director honored at CMEx Leadership Awards

Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil, clinical director and chief cardiac surgeon of the highly acclaimed Health City Cayman Islands, will be honored at the 2019 Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx) Leadership Awards on December 14 in Miami, Florida.

Since joining Health City at its inception in 2014, Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil, known as “Dr. Binoy”, has been instrumental in saving the lives of adult and pediatric patients from the Caribbean and Central American region.

In keeping with Health City’s humanitarian mission, Dr. Binoy’s surgical team performed cardiac surgery for over 400 children from around the world, including several countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Many of them were complex cases for which local expertise was not available, and the children would likely not have survived for long without the surgery.

The provision of heart surgery for children whose families cannot afford the cost was a dream of the late Mother Teresa and her physician Narayana Health founder, Dr. Devi Shetty, who carried out her wish when he set up several clinics throughout India and Health City Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.

Dr. Binoy was the lead physician for the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) programs at Narayana Health and is past president of the ECMO Society of India. In 2017, he was instrumental in establishing Health City as the Caribbean’s only regional center for ECMO, which is an advanced form of life support that acts as an artificial heart or pair of lungs during treatment.

With over 20 years of treating diseases of the vascular system he is proud of the treatment and care provided by Health City for many specialties, and is elated to have been recognized for the CMEx Leadership award: “This recognition is a tribute to the caring and dedicated staff who often work beyond the call of duty to provide the necessary services for all our local, regional, and international patients.”

The Cayman-based doctor graduated from leading Indian universities with initial medical training at the Government Medical College. He holds a Master of Surgery in General Surgery from Jawaharlal Institute of PostGraduate Medical Education and Research, and another Master of Surgery in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery from King Edward Memorial Hospital. Dr. Binoy also served as a senior registrar at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia, before rejoining Narayana Health as a consultant.

Health City Cayman Islands, built to fulfill the vision of founder Dr. Shetty, provides accessible and affordable world-class tertiary care and has made several achievements since opening in April 2014. By December 31, 2018, Health City had treated more than 72,600 outpatients and over 7,900 inpatients.

The Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited institution has achieved a surgical site infection rate of less than 1.3 percent, a near-zero incidence of bedsores and more than 4,800 total procedures have been performed to date, including over 600 cardiac surgeries and more than 1,200 orthopedic surgeries.

Health City recently broke ground for a cancer treatment center that will utilize radiation treatment technology not available anywhere else in the Caribbean. Construction is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2020. Dr. Binoy anticipates an exceptional standard of care for cancer patients at Health City as well as significant cost savings compared to similar treatment overseas.

Other CMEx honorees include leading Caribbean journalist and entrepreneur Janet Silvera; veteran airline executive Christine Kennedy of Delta Air Lines; Chef José Andrés & World Central Kitchen; Muriel Wiltord, Director of The Americas for the Martinique Promotion Bureau; Commissioner of Tourism of the U.S. Virgin Islands Joseph Boschulte; Frank Comito, CEO and Director General of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA); Andy Ingraham, President and CEO of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers (NABHOOD); Neki Mohan, Television News Anchor and Reporter; Marlon Hill, a leading business lawyer; and Richard Garafola, Senior Manager, Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Providing a neutral platform for the industry’s movers and shakers to address pressing tourism concerns, CMEx, which is partnering with the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association Education Foundation (CHTAEF) and the Errol and Nita Barrow Educational Trust, also lends a helping hand to Caribbean and American communities by sharing expertise, financial and in-kind assistance.

Waste Management During the Holiday Season

SLSWMA

The Saint Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority encourages all residents to contribute to a clean environment this holiday season by containing all garbage until the scheduled collection day for their respective communities. Greater personal responsibility is critical at this time due to the increase in consumption which results in an increase in the quantities of solid waste generated. Residents who require immediate disposal of waste are encouraged to transport all waste material to the Deglos Sanitary Landfill or the Vieux-Fort Solid Waste Management Facility. Note that disposal of residential waste is free of charge.

SLSWMA Holiday Season Collection Schedule

This year Christmas Day and New Year’s Day fall on a Wednesday. As such there will be no garbage collection on Wednesday, December 25, 2019 (Christmas Day) and Wednesday, January 1, 2020 (New Year’s Day). The Deglos Sanitary Landfill and the Vieux-Fort Solid Waste Management Facility will also be closed on those days.

Households who receive the collection service on Wednesdays are asked to pay attention to announcements over the media, the Facebook page or through twitter for the revised collection dates.  The Authority can also be reached at 453-2208 or WhatsApp at 724-5544. 

To the residents of the Gros-Islet, Castries Inner, Anse La Raye/ Canaries, Soufriere, Micoud and Praslin Zones note that the Wednesday, December 25, 2019 and Wednesday, January 1, 2020 collection days will be rescheduled (see attached collection schedule). Please take heed of the rescheduled date if your community is to remain clean throughout the holiday season.

SLSWMA Holiday Season Bulky Waste Collection Schedule

Those who dump indiscriminately or transport waste from their homes/businesses to other communities are encouraged to stop the practice.  Instead do what is required to keep Saint Lucia clean and be mindful that poor solid waste management is harmful to human health and the environment.

Dominica Labour Party 2019 Win

CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet of Saint Lucia)
CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet of Saint Lucia)

Congratulatory message to Dominica from CARICOM Chairman

On behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), I congratulate the Dominica Labour Party and its leader, the Honourable Roosevelt Skerritt, on a resounding victory in the General Election of 6 December.

The people of Dominica demonstrated their confidence in the policies and leadership of you and your party by returning you for yet another term of office. The people have spoken and the results must be accepted in a manner that ensures peace and calm in the country.

I look forward to working with the re-elected Government of Dominica in seeking to ensure the goal of a climate resilient country and Region is achieved as we continue to pursue our quest for sustainable development.

LPG (20 lb) – $32.12 per cylinder

LPG (Cooking Gas) price increase

LPG 20, 22 and 100 lb cylinders (cooking gas) prices have increased.

The Public is hereby notified that in keeping with changes in international oil prices and Government’s application of the modified market pass-through petroleum pricing mechanism, the retail price of gasoline and kerosene remains unchanged. The retail price of diesel, LPG 20, 22 and 100 lb cylinders has changed. The price changes take effect from Monday December 02, 2019:

  • Gasoline remains unchanged at $2.91 per litre or $13.24 per gallon
  • Kerosene remains unchanged at $1.79 per litre or $8.12 per gallon 
  • Diesel decreased from $2.94 to $2.92 per litre or $13.37 to $13.29 per gallon
  • 20 Pound Cylinder (9.07 kg) increased from $32.01 to $32.12 per cylinder 
  • 22 Pound Cylinder (9.98 kg) increased from $35.49 to $35.61 per cylinder 
  • 100 Pound Cylinder (45.36kg) increased from $203.89 to $204.42 per cylinder 

The Public is informed that the next adjustment of the retail price of fuel products will be on Monday December 23, 2019.

Digital Music Industry & Regional Artists

Digital Music Industry

Caribbean Export Supports Regional Artist to Leverage the Digital Music Industry

The billion-dollar Global music industry has changed rapidly over the past 10 years alone.  Some may argue that the digital age has made it that much more accessible with social media platforms supporting artist and new music discovery.  However, the introduction of streaming shook up the industry causing adaptation and change to enable artists capitalise through the monetize digital music.  

Digital Music Industry & Regional Artists 1

YouTube along with other social media platforms has birthed stars allowing unknown artists to reach parts of the world they couldn’t imagine and creating a demand or following for their music long before any record label picked them up.  But how do artists get discovered online? And how can the Caribbean musicians leverage digital platforms to export their music globally?

These are some of the questions the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) is attempting to answer with its Business of Music (BOM) programme.  “Understanding of the digital music industry is imperative if an artist is going to succeed and the Business of Music training programme aims to build the capacity of artists, managers, producers and those involved in the music industry” informed Allyson Francis, Services Specialist at Caribbean Export.

Since 2017, the Agency has worked with Business Support Organisations (BSOs) specifically the Coalition on Services Industries (CSIs) from across the region to enable those involved in the industry to participate in BOM sessions via the online self-learning platform, and face to face workshops.  A new dimension to this training was the instructor led webinars. Over 120 people have participated in these initiatives thus far and most recently, the Agency held a two-day workshop in collaboration with COSCAP (Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Inc.) and the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) and the ‘knowledge company’ Music Ally Ltd in Barbados.

The workshop welcomed twenty-three (23) participants from nine Caribbean countries who gained insight on topics such as the mystery of YouTube’s algorithm and how to optimise it; how to develop a lean and mean online campaign; how to leverage tools such

Digital Music Industry & Regional Artists 2

as Chartmetric amongst others.  Participants also performed digital health checks to get a better understanding of how they or their artists are viewed online and increase their understanding of how their music can be discovered.

“This isn’t an age now where you can simply sit back and relax and hope that people get involved with you and your music simply by making music available.  You’ve got to be regularly interacting with people” stressed the CEO and Co-founder of Music Ally Ltd – Paul Brindley.

“You have to go where the music fan is so that means making sure that all of those channels are absolutely properly optimised, so your Youtube, Spotify, all the social media platforms and make sure they are all linked together” he continued.  “Make the music fans life as easy as possible and so think through the eyes of the music fan and think, how are they going to discover me?”

“Our managers, musicians, artists need to leverage the tools that are out there and do everything they can to increase their chances of being discovered” commented Francis.  “At Caribbean Export we are committed to providing the necessary support, but we can only take you so far.”

One participant from Saint Lucia Akeem Anderson, artist and producer from Onel Sound Productions summed up his experience, “The last two days have been nothing but beneficial.  The majority of us who have been in attendance are pretty much individuals who have gotten our feet wet already in the business and in the industry. We’re getting some gigs, we’ve had some success, we have a little bit of notoriety.  However, the information that they’ve disseminated is going to allow us to chisel in our characteristics and our skills, honing in on our good qualities and strengths and maximise our resources however limited or expansive that they may be in to reaching not just a regional audience but also an international audience and getting the revenue we desire for our work and our intellectual property”.


Renewable Energy Statistics Workshop

renewable energy

The Caribbean Renewable Energy Statistics Workshop will be convened from 27-29 November, 2019, at the Accra Beach Hotel.

The event is being hosted in partnership with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) and the Latin American Energy Organisation (OLADE).

The workshop is the final activity of CARICOM Energy Month which is being observed under the theme ‘Empowering people, building resilience’.

Representatives of the media are invited to cover the following:

EVENT: Opening Session, Caribbean Renewable Energy Statistics Workshop
DATE: 27 November 2019
VENUE: Accra Beach Hotel, Bridgetown, Barbados
TIME: 9 o’clock

Representatives of the media are asked to be present at least 15 minutes before the start of the Opening

Saint Lucia Cannabis Commission Press Launch

Saint Lucia Cannabis Commission

Saint Lucia Cannabis Commission Press Launch

Date: Friday, 22 November 2019
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: GIS Studio

Saint Lucia Cannabis Commission Press Launch 3

No. 1 Caribbean Cruise Destination

St. Thomas - Best Caribbean Cruise Destination

St. Thomas has been named the number one Caribbean cruise destination

The “Best Caribbean Cruise Destination” honor was bestowed upon the island by Porthole Cruise Magazine’s readers in its 21st Annual Readers’ Choice Awards, the results of which are published in the November/December 2019 issue.

Readers' Choice Awards

Award winners were determined by thousands of readers and online fans of the magazine, who voted for their favorites in 51 cruise-related categories.

“We are encouraged by this accolade, which tells us that even as we work on improving our visitor experience, we have an excellent foundation upon which to build,” said Joseph Boschulte, Commissioner of Tourism.

At the recent Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association’s Cruise Conference and Trade Show in Puerto Rico, Governor of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) Albert Bryan Jr. shared essential developments within the sector. These include dredging projects, the addition of a new port in the Charlotte Amalie harbor, improvements on Main Street and upland plans for Crown Bay.

“I always look forward to seeing the results of our Readers’ Choice Awards because our readers are discerning travelers who have stunningly high standards for every part of the cruise experience,” said Bill Panoff, publisher and editor-in-chief of Porthole Cruise Magazine.

“For St. Thomas to be voted the Best Caribbean Cruise Destination in the 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards truly illustrates St. Thomas’ stature as the gateway to the Caribbean and the absolutely stunning way that all the island has to offer – the landscape, the music, the food, the hospitality – really exceeds our readers’ expectations,” he added.

Commissioner Boschulte said the cruise industry is a critical pillar of the tourism sector and he was motivated by Governor Bryan’s declaration to position the USVI as the number one tourism destination in the Caribbean by employing robust public-private partnerships.

Porthole Cruise Magazine is a leading cruise-travel magazine, available on newsstands and online.

Bay Gardens Resorts wins 9th award

Bay Gardens Resorts wins 9th Business Award
Waltrude Patrick, General Manager of Bay Gardens Beach Resort & Spa (third from left), and Berthia Parle MBE, Retired General Manager (far right), celebrate with team members at the St. Lucia Business Awards ceremony last weekend.

Bay Gardens Resorts has captured its ninth St. Lucia Business Award.

Last weekend, at the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture annual awards ceremony, the first Green Globe Gold-certified hotel in St. Lucia won the Environmental Stewardship award for initiatives such as reducing single-use plastics, reducing energy usage and boosting use of locally sourced produce. Also nominated in this category were the Saint Lucia Development Bank and portable desalination plant inventor, Invictus.

An elated Executive Director Sanovnik Destang said: “It is a great honor to have won our ninth award, and we are proud of our staff and leadership team for their efforts to sustain, protect and make St. Lucians and visitors think deeply about making strong commitments to the environment.”

Bay Gardens Resorts has won for marketing excellence an unprecedented four times, and earned Business of the Year in 2014 and 2015. It also won the Entrepreneur of the Year award on two occasions: Managing Director Joyce Destang OBE in 2014, and Julianna Ward-Destang, Managing Director of Splash Island Water Park, the first open water sports park in the Eastern Caribbean, in 2016.

Bay Gardens Resorts has successfully phased out single-use plastics in favor of biodegradable vessels and utensils made from wood, paper, compostable plastic or sugar cane bagasse.

The company, a first-time winner of the Environmental Stewardship award, has also stopped using Expanded Polystyrene (Styrofoam) products at its properties. Other ecological innovations include GEM Link occupancy sensors in guest rooms, which reduce energy for each occupied room by 20 percent.

Additional initiatives include converting air conditioners to energy-efficient inverter units, upgrading lighting with LEDs across its properties, and implementing a farm-to-table menu that reduces its total food miles.

Now in its 10th year, the St. Lucia Business Awards promote and foster excellence in the local business community. Awardees benefit from training and are featured at meetings and seminars hosted by the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture.

3.5 Mil BBD for CARIFORUM Firms

3.5 million BBD to Support Firms to Export and Grow

3.5 million BBD to Support Firms to Export and Grow

  • $3.5 million BBD has been allocated to CARIFORUM Firms
  • 55 companies will receive grants of up to $66,000 BBD
  • Funds have been provided by the European Union via the 11th EDF Regional Private Sector Development Programme

he Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) in cooperation with the European Union has awarded over $3.5M BBD (€1.5M) under their 2nd Call for Proposals for the Direct Assistance Grant Scheme (DAGS).  

The 2nd call for proposals was launched in April of this year and the Agency received 104 grant proposal applications from across the region and fifty-five (55) proposals have been approved for grant funding.

“It is widely acknowledged that the most significant impediment noted by CARIFORUM business when it comes to business development and expansion is the lack of access to finance” informed Damie Sinanan – Manager, Competitiveness and Export Promotion at Caribbean Export.  “The Direct Assistance Grant Scheme aims specifically to tackle this issue to enable more companies to export and grow.”

The total grant funding awarded to CARIFORUM firms under the 11th EDF now stands at over $8.3M BBD or €3.7M and the Agency intends to award more grants in the upcoming year.

Grant funding has been used for a range of projects including food safety certification, equipment modernisation to enable increased production, marketing and branding, product development amongst others.

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