NEWS

THTA moves to boost hotel occupancy

The Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association (THTA) is to embark on a new initiative aimed at enhancing hotel occupancy and assisting with marketing strategies to boost the island's tourism thrust. THTA president Chris James said the Tourism Enhancement Fund, which is expected to be established by month's end, will allow tourists staying at the island's hotels and guesthouses to donate one dollar for each night of their visit. The money, he said, will then be put into a partnership programme for marketing and other initiatives with the Tobago House of Assembly or Tobago Tourism Agency. Read more here

Law officers hunt for last 3 prison escapees

Five of the eight men who made a dar­ing dash for free­dom from the Gold­en Grove Re­mand Yard in Arou­ca were re­cap­tured by a joint team of army, po­lice and prison of­fi­cers short­ly be­fore 7 pm yes­ter­day. The men, ac­cord­ing to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, were all held in the Las Lo­mas area fol­low­ing in­for­ma­tion the au­thor­i­ties had re­ceived. The cap­tured men were iden­ti­fied as Brent John­son, Mikhale Mo­hammed, Ker­ry Valenti­no, Joshua Janet and Stef­fon Austin. All were ac­cused of mur­der. Read more here

POLITICS

Ameen: PNM selling alternative reality

Saying the ruling PNM has failed at each of its major initiatives, including the Tobago Sandals project, UNC Senator Khadijah Ameen said senior government ministers are instead attempting to “sell” an alternative reality to TT by asserting that the economic recession is overSpeaking on the Finance Supplementary Appropriation (Financial Year 2019) Bill in the Senate yesterday, Ameen said the PNM has failed to deliver on its promises, such as Sandals, the La Brea dry dock facility, gas from the Dragon field and the seabridge. Read more here

Mark accuses Govt of $18m voter-padding scheme

The Op­po­si­tion has ac­cused the PNM Gov­ern­ment of us­ing tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey to build hous­es in four mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies held by PNM MPs to “vot­er pad” for elec­tions. “We have a lot of in­for­ma­tion on this and a lot to say on it ahead,” UNC Sen­a­tor Wade Mark told the Sen­ate yes­ter­day. Mark re­ferred to Gov­ern­ment’s Mid-Year Bud­get Re­view an­nounce­ment which al­lo­cat­ed $18 mil­lion for the Hous­ing Min­istry for works un­der the Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme. Mark ques­tioned the in­tent of that pro­gramme. Read more here

BUSINESS

A tale of two TTs

Listening to any debate on TT’s economy, it’s hard to reconcile that it’s the same country being discussed. According to the Government, after years of negative growth, perpetuated by rampant spending on the part of the now Opposition, the country is on a rebound. To hear the Opposition tell it, TT is falling hard and fast, with no real investment, stagnant GDP growth and massive job losses. This was played out most recently in, first, the Opposition’s motion of no confidence in the Government’s handling of the economy last Friday in the Parliament, and again on Monday, when Finance Minister Colm Imbert read his mid-year review of the budget. Read more here

No slight to BPTT boss, says Imbert

BPTT’s Regional President Claire Fitzpatrick says “in all businesses and, indeed, in all organisations, there are many areas of expertise” that are required, just one day after Finance Minister Colm Imbert said in the Parliament she is an auditor and “is not a geologist nor is she a petroleum engineer.” Read more here

REGIONAL

A Real Threat - Rooms On The Beach Muckraking Could Scare Off Investors, Says Lee-Chin

Saying that if he were in such a position, he would have taken back his money and pulled up stumps, billionaire investor Michael Lee-Chin yesterday expressed serious concern over the Rooms on the Beach saga. Lee-Chin, who chairs the Government’s Economic Growth Council (EGC), said the country could lose significant sums in investment should Puerto Caribe Properties Limited decide to back out of a 2017 land and beach deal in St Ann because of controversy being fuelled by suggestions of impropriety. Former Contractor General Dirk Harrison last month tabled an explosive report in Parliament on the sale of state-owned beachfront properties located in Ocho Rios to Puerto Caribe, alleging that government minister Daryl Vaz improperly meddled in the deal. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Iran tensions spotlight Trump's questionable credibility

The Trump administration, which has disdained truth and consciously snubbed its allies, is now facing a tough burden of proof and history as it barrels toward a confrontation with Iran. The White House is facing skepticism about its warnings and bombastic talk about Iranian activity after two years systematically building economic, diplomatic and, finally, military pressure on Tehran -- that was bound to trigger a response from its bitter foe. President Donald Trump's pyrotechnic approach to the presidency has solidified his base but alienated half the country, a factor that would complicate his efforts to sell Americans on another war. Read more here

EU fines banks €1bn for currency rigging

Five banks have been fined a total of €1.07bn (£935m) by the European Commission for forming illegal cartels to rig the foreign exchange market. Four banks in the "Banana Split" cartel - Barclays, RBS, Citigroup and JP Morgan - were fined €811m in all. Another three banks in the "Essex Express" cartel - Barclays, RBS and MUFG - were fined €258m. A sixth bank, UBS, was excused financial penalties for revealing the cartels' existence. Read more here

16th May 2019

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