Caribbean Export launches regional business competition at UK-Caribbean Forum in Grenada
Two regional companies, SMAKS the West Indian Tea Company and David Weekes and Associates are the first winners of the Caribbean Export Development Agency’s Break Point.
The regional business competition, which utilizes the Caribbean Forum-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (CARIFORUM-EU EPA) to drive entrepreneurship, was launched at the recently concluded seventh UK-Caribbean Forum in St George’s, Grenada.
Break Point will prove to be a practical mechanism for getting CARIFORUM companies and enterprises into the EU market under the EPA framework. It attempts to achieve this by giving the companies and enterprises opportunities for business-to-business relationship building and for jointly exploring investment and distribution partnership opportunities.
“For Caribbean Export this ushers in a new era of export capacity-building and enhancements, and is geared towards achieving our objective of building brands across the region that have the DNA to be globally competitive,” commented David Gomez, senior advisor of market intelligence at Caribbean Export.
“Break Point represents a paradigm shift for the Agency in terms of how we assist companies in getting their goods and services to market. More importantly, this initiative fits perfectly with the three pillars of the Agency including trade and export development, innovation and competitiveness”, Gomez added.
“The experience was extremely exciting and inspiring in terms of bringing like-minded individuals together with a common goal of wanting to strive for excellence”, said Kiran Akal, creative director of SMAKS. “The team coaches were excellent and the competitors benefited from the guidance of the Caribbean Export team throughout the process.”
“Break Point relieves a significant operational burden for young companies”, commented the second winner, David Weekes, chief executive officer of David Weekes & Associates. “Overall this is a fantastic opportunity for regional firms to become adequately prepared for the global marketplace.”
Break Point is supported by the European Union’s (EU) 10th Economic Development Fund (EDF) Regional Private Sector Development Programme, and the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI). The initiative also received 500,000 GBP from the Department for International Development (DFID) as a part of their mandate to assist in the development of Break Point and facilitate the ability of regional companies to benefit from London 2012.
The priority areas for Break Point are agro-processing, alternative energy, sports, and technology products. During the launch, six regional businesses: Bio-Tech R&D Institute Ltd. (Jamaica), David Weekes and Associates (Barbados), Merkimport CXA (Dominican Republic), NutMed. (Grenada), SMAKS, The West Indian Tea Company (Trinidad and Tobago) and Xocolat (Dominican Republic) pitched their ideas to a panel of successful business persons and venture capitalists drawn from the Caribbean and the UK.
Deutsche Bank chief Ackermann fears 'social time bomb'
The chief executive of Deutsche Bank has warned of a "social time bomb" from wealth and income inequality.
Josef Ackermann, who also heads the Institute of International Finance which represents the world's banks, told the BBC that bankers had a responsibility to be philanthropic with their bonuses.
He is due to receive a partially deferred bonus of 8m euros (£6.6m).
However, he said, he felt people in his position had to make a contribution.
"We have a social responsibility, because if this inequality increases in income distribution or wealth distribution we may have a social time bomb ticking and no-one wants to have that."
However, Dr Ackermann said he "preferred not" to talk about philanthropic gestures.
Pay disclosure
His comments come as an annual survey of chairman and non-executive directors, who sit on company boards, carried out by head-hunters Hanson Green and Directorbank found just 32% of chairman think the way top executives are paid is working.
The survey of 298 chairman and 190 non-executive directors found 45% agreed with a proposal that the ratio of chief executive pay to average employee pay should be disclosed in company reports.
Some 94% agreed that companies should have the right to claw back pay if performance changes over the medium term.
The firms said that total remuneration for the average FTSE chief executive rose by 13% in 2011.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed weekly earnings rose at an annualised rate of 1.9% in the three months to November 2011.
India court cancels 122 telecom licences
India's Supreme Court has cancelled 122 telecommunications licences awarded to companies in 2008.
The licences were issued by former minister A Raja, who is accused of mis-selling bandwidth in what has been called India's biggest corruption scandal. Mr Raja denies wrongdoing.
Government auditors say the scandal cost the country about $40bn (£24.5bn).
The judges also ordered a court to decide whether Home Minister P Chidambaram should be investigated.
Opposition MPs accuse Mr Chidambaram of failing to prevent the scandal when he was finance minister. He denies any wrongdoing.
Mr Raja is currently on trial for fraud.
India is one of the world's fastest growing markets for mobile telephones with 893 million connections.
Reports say Thursday's verdict is likely to affect about 5% of connections used by mobile phone customers.
India's telecom regulator says the affected subscribers can be transferred to other mobile operators.
Correspondents say the ruling is a setback for the government which has been hit by a series of corruption scandals in recent months.
'Unfair'
"Licences after January 2008 are quashed [cancelled]. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will make fresh allocations by auction," Justice GS Singhvi told the court.
Petitioner Prashant Bhushan called it a "historic judgement".
"It will change the manner in which corruption will be examined and dealt with in the country," he said.
Reports said some of the companies affected by the court order include Loop, Videocon, Idea Cellular, Tata Telecom, Uninor and Swan.
Uninor, the Indian joint venture of Norway's Telenor, said it had been "unfairly treated" and "was shocked" by the court verdict.
"We will study the order in detail and exercise all options available to ensure that Uninor continues to operate in India," the company said in a statement.
"We also expect the authorities to ensure that our 36 million customers, 17,500 workforce and 22,000 partners are not unjustly affected," the statement said.
The court ruling is a source of further embarrassment for the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which has been hit by several high-profile corruption cases in recent months.
As soon as the verdict was announced, opposition parties began calling for Mr Chidambaram to resign on "moral grounds".
Opposition MP Subramanian Swamy alleges that decisions over the price of telecoms licences were taken jointly by Mr Chidambaram and Mr Raja.
He says Mr Chidambaram as finance minister could have prevented Mr Raja from allocating bandwidth on a "first-come-first-served" basis.
The government says Mr Swamy's allegations are politically motivated.
On Thursday, Telecoms Minister Kapil Sibal defended the Congress Party-led coalition and blamed the opposition government that lost power in 2004 for putting in place the "faulty'' policy for allocating radiowaves.
"The prime minister was in no way responsible, nor was the finance minister,'' he told a press conference.
Blaming Mr Raja for the scandal, he said: "The then minister has been found to have committed irregularities in the allocation of spectrum [bandwidth] on seven accounts."
Mr Sibal said the court verdict had brought clarity on the policy front and the telecoms regulator would prepare guidelines for the auction of radiowaves.
Human rights group concerned about delayed justice
Human rights lobby group, Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), is once again raising concern about the time it takes the families of persons killed by the police, to get justice.
Executive Director of JFJ, Dr. Carolyn Gomes, said cases continue to languish in the Coroner’s court and that even when rulings are made by the court, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) usually takes a long time to act.
Dr. Gomes was speaking against the background of the ruling on Tuesday that Special Constable Dwayne Hoilette, is to be charged for the 2007 death of Trevor Anderson.
Anderson was shot under controversial circumstances, with eyewitnesses claiming he was deliberately killed while the police claimed he was accidentally shot, when a gun went off accidentally.
Tuesday’s verdict in the coroner’s court means Constable Hoilette will have to answer to the charge of manslaughter in the Supreme Court.
However, Dr. Gomes is now calling for the Office of the DPP to prioritise the case given it has been in the coroner’s court for more than three years.
Dr. Gomes said the delay in administering justice is a breach of constitutional rights.
She is convinced the Office of the DPP can expedite the matter, if it is so inclined.
ECCU still seeking assistance from Trinidad for BAICO and CLICO policyholders
The Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) continues to seek financial relief from the government of Trinidad and Tobago, both in support of policyholders as well as in support of regional institutions whose investments in British-American Insurance Company (BAICO) now pose a risk to the member countries.
St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas noted a health insurance fund was in place for most of last year in order to assist affected BAICO health insurance policy holders.
“Even as we continue to pursue the best possible outcomes for policy holders, however, it should be understood that final outcomes for BAICO and CLICO will not be the same – due to the assets held by CLICO,” said Douglas at a press conference.
Douglas, who is also the minister of finance, said the complex and highly technical undertaking of recapitalizing and selling BAICO is now underway.
“Final negotiations with a preferred bidder should begin this quarter, due diligence being of absolute and utmost importance,” Douglas disclosed.
He said that, at the end of this process, which could last until the third quarter of this year, regional governments wish to see “policyholders having received some relief, and a significantly strengthened ECCU insurance marketplace.”
Douglas said it is anticipated that some two out of every three of BAICO’s remaining policyholders will be assisted as a result of the efforts of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).
Caribbean News Now
Amnesty slams Haitian judiciary for dropping Duvalier case
Haiti’s judicial authorities have dealt yet another blow to the victims of former leader Jean-Claude Duvalier, Amnesty International said this week after the criminal case against the former “president-for-life” for grave human rights violations was dropped.
An investigating judge in Port-au-Prince on Monday announced that Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier will not stand trial for alleged crimes against humanity – including torture, disappearances and extrajudicial executions – but only for embezzlement of public funds committed during his rule between 1971 and 1986. The text of the judge’s decision has not been made public.
Duvalier has been under investigation in Haiti since he returned from exile in France in January 2011, after a group of victims filed complaints accusing him of crimes against humanity as well as corruption and theft.
The victims can appeal the judge’s decision and Amnesty International has vowed to continue supporting their search for justice.
“The conclusion of the sham investigation into Duvalier is a disgrace and will further entrench impunity in Haiti. No serious effort was made to determine the truth despite the multiple complaints and abundant evidence about the crimes committed and the victims,” said Javier Zúñiga, special adviser at Amnesty International, who researched the crimes of Jean-Claude Duvalier in the 1980s.
“The handful of victims that have been interviewed had been subjected to intimidation by Duvalier supporters and his lawyers. It is clear that the investigating judge left out invaluable evidence and decided not to interview all the victims that filed complaints. This is a dark day for Haiti and for justice.
“Duvalier benefited from a safe haven in France for 25 years until he returned to Haiti, where the authorities have failed to hold him to account for the crimes under international law perpetrated by his subordinates while he was in power.”
In January 2011, Amnesty International submitted extensive documentation on the grave human rights violations committed under Duvalier, none of which was considered by the magistrate.
Under international law, torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests are considered crimes against humanity when committed as part of a systematic or widespread attack against the civilian population.
No statute of limitations may apply to crimes against humanity and the alleged perpetrators cannot benefit from amnesties, even in the case of former heads of state.
Amnesty International has expressed concern that the current Haitian government lacks the will to bring Duvalier to justice.
“Recent public statements from President Martelly hinted at pardoning Duvalier. This could amount to unacceptable pressure and interference with the investigation. Inviting Jean-Claude Duvalier to take part in public official ceremonies clearly showed that the government wanted to rehabilitate Duvalier instead of holding him to account,” said Zúñiga.
“Haiti has failed to live up to its international obligations to investigate all allegations of crimes against humanity and bring their perpetrators to justice. Victims have been awaiting justice for more than 25 years, and today’s decision is a major setback to them and all Haitians. But this is not the end of the road – we will continue to support the victims at the appeal stage and in international instances if necessary.”
Caribbean News Now
Guyana residents on alert for flooding
Unusually high rainfall for the first month of the year has resulted in the East Demerara Water Conservancy reaching threatening levels.
As a result, residents of the Mahaica and Mahaicony Creek were placed on alert and advised to take the necessary precautions for flooding as government announced plans yesterday to release water from the swollen East Demerara Water Conservancy into the Creek.
The opening of the Maduni Sluice to release the water during low tide starting yesterday will relieve the swelling EDWC dams.
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said: “This is the latest of the actions we have taken to maintain the conservancy at a safe level. In most of the places where we measure the amount of rainfall, the amount of rainfall for January 2012 has surpassed by several fold the long term average for January,” he said.
However, once the waters are under control once again the Maduni Sluice will be closed and the Dermerara River outlets relied on exclusively once again.
Residents of Mahaica Creek encountered a similar situation in 2005 and 2006 when they were forced to endure deep floodwaters following the release of water from the EDWC.
Caribbean 360 News
203 local nurses for South East Region
AS part of efforts to address the shortage of nursing staff in some of the country’s public hospitals and health care centres, Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson said 96 locally trained nurses will be taking up employment at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) come Monday, and 14 at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital.
“This is good news. This is really good news,” Ferguson said after a tour of the institutions yesterday morning.
“We recognise that the challenges are great, but we are seeking to put measures in place to get better services.”
A total of 203 nurses will be placed in hospitals and health care facilities in the South East Region on Monday with the bulk at KPH.
Ferguson also stated that his ministry would be looking at measures that will keep locally trained nurses practicing their trade in Jamaica.
Egypt football riot: Club coach saw 'fans die' after pitch invasion
An Egyptian club coach has told how he was "beaten with fists and sticks" and saw fans killed during a pitch invasion which left 74 people dead.
Manuel Jose, coach of Cairo club al-Ahly, has returned home to Portugal following the riots which erupted at the end of the game against al-Masry in Port Said on Wednesday.
"I was beaten with fists and kicks to the neck, head and feet," said Jose.
"I saw our fans die before us and we were unable to do anything."
Many fans suffocated after becoming trapped in a narrow corridor as they fled the violence, according to reports.
Some people feel the police and security forces did not do enough to intervene.
Al-Ahly assistant coach Pedro Barny said: "What happened was an unspeakable catastrophe.
"From the beginning of the game, the fans of the opposing team were allowed to fire rockets and stones at us without any intervention.
"In the end, it turned into a state of madness without any role for the security in the stands.
"We tried to save the lives of some of the fans, but many died before our eyes."
Jose, 65, has played for and managed Benfica in a long managerial career, but says this experience has changed his life.
He told the al-Ahly club website : "Nothing happened to any of the players but we feel overwhelming sadness and the return flight [home to Portugal] was made in silence, full of respect for the lives of our fans who died.
"I have to think about my life differently now. Although everybody loves me greatly here, this experience has changed my life completely."
The Egyptian Football Federation has suspended all leagues in the country.
A statement read: "The Egyptian federation has decided to stop the football leagues in all four divisions for an indefinite period after the violence that occurred in the game between al-Masry and al-Ahly, which represented a tragic shock to the centre of sport in general and the football family in particular."
Nations Cup: Ghana through after 1-1 draw with Guinea
Ghana sealed their place in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals with a 1-1 draw against Guinea in Franceville.
Emmanuel Agyemang Badu put the Black Stars ahead, smashing a fierce volley in from the edge of the area.
Abdoul Razzagui Camara equalised right on half-time, with what looked like a cross from the left-wing sailing right into Ghana's goal.
Guinea chased a winner to no avail, but Mali's 2-1 win over Botswana saw the Malians through and Guinea go out.
The tournament's final pair of group games were finely poised at the beginning of the night, with Ghana, Guinea and Mali all in with a good shout of progressing from Group D.
And Guinea started the brighter in Franceville, putting the Black Stars under pressure, but unable to create any clear early chances.
The Guineans had the ball in the back of the net first, but Ibrahima Traore was adjudged just offside, after getting in behind the Ghana defence and nut-megging Adam Kwarasey in the Black Stars goal.
Almost immediately, Ghana responded with the opener and a major contender for goal of the tournament.
Badu calmly collected the ball on the right edge of the Guinea area, before flicking it up with his left and hammering it into the top corner with his right.
It was Ghana's first real clear-cut chance of the game, and they happily slotted back into their comfort zone in its wake, happy to soak up Guinea's pressure.
The Syli Nationale duly obliged, earning a series of corners that put Kwarasey under real pressure, but the Ghana goalkeeper showed much more composure than he did in Botswana's 2-0 win over Mali, punching several Guinean crosses away well.
Guinea then almost handed Ghana a second, after confusion between their defence and goalkeeper Naby Yattara allowed Asamoah Gyan to almost get in before the ball broke to Samuel Inkoom, who chipped just wide.
Ghana looked to be headed for the break in front, but Guinea got their equaliser and put themselves briefly back in contention, with a goal from nowhere, right on the half-time whistle.
Camara ran down the left channel and chipped into the box at pace, before watching it sail right over Kwarasey and nestle in the net to put the sides level at the interval.
Guinea's Mamadou Dioulde Bah earned a suspension just after the break with a second yellow card of the tournament, and it would get worse for the Stuttgart midfielder, as he earned a second of the match and was dismissed for a trip on Kwadwo Asamoah.
Guinea tried to press for a second, but Ghana closed the game out well, retaining possession, and taking advantage of the extra man after Bah's dismissal.
The Black Stars finally took the sting out of the game and added a 1-1 draw to their two previous wins in the group to send them through, while Mali's 2-1 victory over Botswana sealed Guinea's fate.
Ghana assistant coach Kwesi Appiah paid tribute to his side for getting the result they needed to advance.
"We didn't want to get into a situation of problems,'' Appiah said.
"It was just important that we qualified for the next stage.
"At the end of the day, the most important thing is making sure you qualify.''
Guinea coach Michel Dussuyer said his players had shown a good will to win, but criticised referee Daniel Bennett for decisions made during the match, including Bah's first yellow card.
"We all know that Ghana is a great team but it didn't need the help of the referee,'' Dussuyer said.
"I am very disappointed with the performance of the referee.''
Ghana will take on Tunisia in their quarter-final in Franceville on Sunday, with Mali meeting co-hosts Gabon in Libreville.