According to the Event Manager, for the St Kitts Venue Office, Val Henry, some 30 representatives from St Lucia, Barbados, Guyana and St Kitts & Nevis, will gather for their regular quarterly sessions to review and advance their work plans for all areas of the planning process related to the tournament which will be held next year from 30th April to 16th May, with the Finals taking place in Barbados.

Henry said that the meetings will include a two day session, on Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th, with the various Event Managers from the four host venues and their Regional Event Manager and other key personnel involved in the project.

The St Kitts Event Manager also disclosed that members of the Regional Security Directorate will gather for their One Day session on Wednesday 11th November while a Two Day meeting of all Venue Staff from the four territories, will take place on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th.

Henry said that these meetings come at a critical stage, with only six months remaining before the start of the competition, in Guyana, on 30th April. . He said that some of the areas that will be given careful attention at this week’s meetings include the Security Plan, Medical Plan, Sportainment, Spectator Experience, Cricket Operations, Promotions and Marketing and the Volunteer program.

The gathering in Basseterre comes on the heels of the recently held launch in Barbados for the start of ticket sales within the West Indies.

Among the senior officials expected to attend the meetings are the Chief Executive of the West Indies Cricket Board, Ernest Hilaire, Tournament Director, Robert Bryan, and Regional Events Manager  Cindy Emmanuel-McLean.

While here, the members of the ICC Project Team will take the opportunity to view some of the matches in the current series between the female teams of England and the West Indies.

According to the Event Manager, for the St Kitts Venue Office, Val Henry, some 30 representatives from St Lucia, Barbados, Guyana and St Kitts & Nevis, will gather for their regular quarterly sessions to review and advance their work plans for all areas of the planning process related to the tournament which will be held next year from 30th April to 16th May, with the Finals taking place in Barbados.

Henry said that the meetings will include a two day session, on Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th, with the various Event Managers from the four host venues and their Regional Event Manager and other key personnel involved in the project.

The St Kitts Event Manager also disclosed that members of the Regional Security Directorate will gather for their One Day session on Wednesday 11th November while a Two Day meeting of all Venue Staff from the four territories, will take place on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th.

Henry said that these meetings come at a critical stage, with only six months remaining before the start of the competition, in Guyana, on 30th April. . He said that some of the areas that will be given careful attention at this week’s meetings include the Security Plan, Medical Plan, Sportainment, Spectator Experience, Cricket Operations, Promotions and Marketing and the Volunteer program.

The gathering in Basseterre comes on the heels of the recently held launch in Barbados for the start of ticket sales within the West Indies.

Among the senior officials expected to attend the meetings are the Chief Executive of the West Indies Cricket Board, Ernest Hilaire, Tournament Director, Robert Bryan, and Regional Events Manager  Cindy Emmanuel-McLean.

While here, the members of the ICC Project Team will take the opportunity to view some of the matches in the current series between the female teams of England and the West Indies.

Senator Chastanet won the honour at the prestigious 2009 World Travel Awards in London, England over the weekend.

Senator Allen Chastanet, Saint Lucia’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation

The World Travel Awards acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry.

“It’s with great humility that I accept this award on behalf of the Government and people of Saint Lucia,” said the Senator, who saluted his fellow Saint Lucian nationals for their commitment to excellence across the hospitality industry.

At the Awards, Saint Lucia once again copped the Caribbean’s and World’s Leading Honeymoon Destination designations, while the Caribbean’s Leading Spa Resort went to The Body Holiday LeSport. The Caribbean’s Leading Hotel Brand and the World’s Leading All-Inclusive Company went to Sandals Resorts.

“As a Saint Lucian, I am deeply honored to witness such a small destination create a big bang on the world stage,” said Saint Lucia’s Director of Tourism Louis Lewis, who acknowledged that the weekend awards were additional stimulus for the Saint Lucia Tourist Board to continue striving to improve in today’s competitive travel and tourism environment.

Chastanet, who is credited with starting the world acclaimed Saint Lucia Jazz festival, was Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Windjammer Landing in Saint Lucia before being appointed the island’s Director of Tourism in the early 1990s.

He became Director of Sales and Marketing at Island Outpost in the mid-90s before serving as Director, then Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Air Jamaica for eight years.

In 2001, Travel Agent magazine named Senator Chastanet “Caribbean Destination Person of the Year,” and in 2003 he returned to his native Saint Lucia to open Coco Resorts in Rodney Bay Village.

He was appointed to the Saint Lucia cabinet in 2006 and assumed the chairmanship of the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kenneth Baugh, addressing participants at the 14th Annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference (JIS photo)

“The indispensable strategy to govern our progress and growth in the economy of developing countries must be to build partnerships with the United States of America and CARICOM . The Obama administration has ushered in a new approach to US foreign relations. The opportunity is now present for the USA and CARICOM to build a partnership based on agreed goals and objectives for achieving economic growth and sustainable development in the region,” Baugh said.

The Minister was addressing the 14th Annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference, held in Montego Bay last week.

Baugh, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, emphasised that the partnership must not just be a government to government initiative, but must be forged at the private sector and Diaspora levels.

“There are hopeful signs that the Obama administration is prepared to engage with CARICOM to forge a new era of co-operation through partnership. CARICOM Heads of Government, who met with President Obama during the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago this year, welcomed his willingness to give serious attention to the concerns of the region. They readily accepted the President’s proposal for a USA-CARICOM Summit, which is now likely to be held next year, and should give impetus to the partnership for regional development and stability,” Baugh told the conference participants.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kenneth Baugh (centre), with some of the participants who attended the 14th Annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference (JIS photo)

“For our part, as regional governments, we are challenged to create an enabling environment for trade and investment in our countries. We must build on our capacities to more effectively grasp the opportunities available under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and other trading agreements. The private sectors of CARICOM and the USA also have a role to play in building the partnership. Both private sectors need to collaborate in developing strong business relationships, which will lead to increased exports and job creation,” he added.

Pointing to the present economic downturn affecting countries worldwide, the Minister said that the lesson to be learnt in all of this is that the world must now enter into a global partnership.

“All investors must not only think of the bottom line of profit, but to expand that to the planet and to the people. In other words, responsibility to the people and to the community in which they invest,” he argued.

Dr Ashni Singh

Minister of Finance Ashni Singh during the feature address noted the importance of a diversified economic base while stressing on the importance of policy makers ensuring that policies take into consideration the realities that are confronted by the Caribbean Region.

“Countries in the Caribbean need themselves to adopt development strategies that will diversify their economic base and reduce their vulnerability. In this regard Guyana has undertaken the National Competitiveness Strategy and the Low Carbon Development Strategy,” the Minister said.

Noting the effects of the financial crisis the Minister said the meeting is being held at a time when there are still high levels of uncertainty in financial markets and the financial services industry following the worst global financial and economic crisis since the great depression of the 1930s.

“The intensity of the turbulence in international markets has surprised nearly everyone. It occurred during a period of strong world economic growth and low interest rates. It was triggered by a sudden and wide spread loss of confidence in securitization and financial reengineering as well as the failure to evaluate price risks,” the Minister said.

“In addition, the impact has been greatest on countries whose supervision of creditors has been considered to be amongst the best in the world. A striking feature of this latest episode in the financial markets of developed countries has been the relative resilience of markets in emerging and developing countries to the crisis. Indeed in many countries financial markets continue to be strong and to return very robust performances,” Minister Singh noted.

“Profitability has remained relatively strong although there has been some decline. The main risk facing the financial system in the Caribbean, is credit risk stemming from the depressed economic conditions arising from the prevailing global economic crisis. This has resulted in depressed demand and increased risk submersion which manifested itself in slower credit growth, falling financial asset prices and lower interest rates,” Singh stated.

Economic activity has declined almost everywhere in the Region with few Caribbean countries appearing to have avoided economic contraction in 2009, he said.

“The Caribbean Region has also experienced slow export growth and reduced export prices, dramatic drops in foreign investments, decline in remittances for workers in recession affected countries, and contraction in foreign aid.”

Minister Singh stated however that debates in developed countries about the impact of the global financial crisis have overlooked its impact in developing countries.

“The US Administration introduced a stimulus package of US$ 825B equivalent to the combined 2007 GDP totals of Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Hong Kong. There is a number of statements about the global recession including references to perhaps the most popular, the most current cliché, the ‘green shoots’ recovery, which implies the appearance of a global economic recovery through the positive trends and stock market prices, increases in retail sales, restoration of consumer confidence and credit growths,” the Finance Minister noted.

Other statements, he said, point to a persistence of the recession, further dividing the global economy. However, no time frame has been given for when the green shoots will positively impact developing countries.

“What is clear is that our Region cannot wait on recovery in developed countries. The poorer and vulnerable economies of the Region need financial help and decisive action urgently to preserve jobs and sustain the hard-hit sectors of our affected economies. Regional heads and technocrats have responded quickly, decisively, responsibly in stemming the effects of the financial crisis. To avert full economic decline Governments adopted both short to medium-term as well as long-term measures including fiscal stimulus policies as well as sectoral and social policies,” Singh said.

The Minister noted that the purpose and determination with which Regional Heads have responded to address the issue is essentially important. He pointed out that the Regional Heads of Government Task Force on the global and economic crisis headed by President Bharrat Jagdeo met in Jamaica in August when a series of interventions were decided upon. He noted that President Jagdeo has taken the discussions to the World Bank meetings where he argued on the Region’s behalf stressing on the need for debt relief for vulnerable Caribbean countries and small states and enhanced development assistance, the Minister said.

The Conference is being held under the theme: “Building financial sector resilience in the Caribbean,” from November 10 – 13 co-sponsored by the Bank of Guyana and the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance with participants from Central Banks in the Caribbean.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS)– Over 50 delegates from across the region are expected to converge in Barbados for the Caribbean Sub-regional Meeting on Tobacco Surveillance and Policy Development, slated for November 16 to 20.

Barbados Health Minister Donville Inniss

The meeting, a collaborative effort among the Pan-American Health Organisation - Office of Caribbean Program Coordination and the Tobacco Control Team Washington DC; the Office of Smoking and Health - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention USA; and Barbados’ Health Ministry, will look at the implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Article 5.3 of the FCTC addresses “Protection of Policies from Commercial and Other Vested Interests of the Tobacco Industry”, while Article 13 examines “Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship”.

The forum will also assess the use of tobacco surveillance data for the development of effective and evidence-based tobacco control policies.

This country’s Health Minister, Donville Inniss, will deliver the feature address at the official opening ceremony on Monday, November 16, at 9:00 am.

Tobacco use and exposure is a major risk factor in the development of chronic non-communicable diseases, particularly hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke and poor blood circulation. According to the Ministry of Health, some 8.4% of the adult population in Barbados are current smokers, comprising 15.4% adult males and 2.2% adult females.

Additionally, the Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2007 of 13-15 year old secondary school children showed an increasing trend and suggested that up to 15% of children in this age group are current smokers or have experimented with tobacco products within the recent past. The average age of initiation of smoking was 19 years.

In June 2004, Barbados signed the FCTC and ratified it in November 2005. This is a landmark public health treaty that has been signed by 168 countries. The convention uses a collective agreement through governmental agencies to advance prevention and control strategies for tobacco. It gives member states a framework and guide through a series of articles related to legislation, taxation, packaging and labeling, illicit trade and counterfeit products and public education.

The Ministry of Health, through its Chronic Non-Communicable Disease Commission, is committed to working with local, regional and international partners in continuing the campaign against the harmful effects of tobacco smoking. The partners include non-governmental organisations and the Pan American Health Organisation.

The IMF-backed program aims to pursue short-term counter-cyclical policies and reduce vulnerabilities in the economy while also laying the foundations for a gradual recovery and sustained growth, the Fund said in a statement.