NEWS

Bharath to govt on St Augustine development: Meet with us

Former minister of food production, land and agriculture Vasant Bharath yesterday called on the Prime Minister to meet with him and members of the TT Agricultural Society to discuss the future of the St Augustine Nurseries and to prevent any development in the area. Speaking before a press conference at the Valpark Chinese Restaurant, Valsayn, Bharath said urban development was of concern not only for farmers but also for the public, citing TT's sizeable food import bill as a reason to revitalise the agriculture sector. Read more here

T&T, El Salvador sign MOU on financial intelligence-sharing

The di­rec­tors of the Fi­nan­cial In­tel­li­gence Units (FIU) of El Sal­vador and Trinidad and To­ba­go have ex­e­cut­ed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU) to es­tab­lish a frame­work to fa­cil­i­tate the time­ly ex­change of in­for­ma­tion and in­tel­li­gence that is rea­son­ably con­sid­ered rel­e­vant to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion of a mon­ey laun­der­ing or fi­nanc­ing of ter­ror­ism case. The MOU was ex­e­cut­ed at the Caribbean Fi­nan­cial Ac­tion Task Fork (CFATF) XLVI­II Ple­nary held dur­ing No­vem­ber 19-23, 2018 in Bridgetown, Bar­ba­dos. Un­der the MOU, each FIU can of­fer, spon­ta­neous­ly or up­on re­quest of the oth­er FIU, any in­for­ma­tion and in­tel­li­gence at its dis­pos­al that may be rel­e­vant to such an in­ves­ti­ga­tion to the ex­tent per­mit­ted by the laws of each coun­try and in ac­cor­dance with its poli­cies and pro­ce­dures. Read more here

POLITICS

Closed Uganda High Commission cost $7m a year

Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon says the TT High Commission in Uganda was closed because the desired agriculture and energy objectives were not achieved and the annual operating cost of $7 million annually could be better spent elsewhere. She was responding to a question in the Senate yesterday from Opposition Senator Taharqa Obika who asked whether a prior assessment was done to forecast the effect of the closure of the High Commission. The Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, in a statement on its website, announced the closure of the High Commission at Kampala, Uganda from November 30, 2016, and urged TT nationals and other people wishing to access services to to contact the High Commission at Abuja, Nigeria. Read more here

BUSINESS

T&T must be wary of China factor

Trinidad and To­ba­go can­not dis­re­gard the “Chi­na fac­tor.” That was the ad­vice from Wen­dell Mot­t­ley, a for­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, who al­so warned that Chi­nese loans can be­come “an al­ba­tross around our necks as they have be­come in some parts of Africa, but that’s not the Chi­nese’ fault.” Mot­t­ley fo­cused on grow­ing Chi­nese in­vest­ment in the re­gion in his con­tri­bu­tion to a sem­i­nar on Growth and In­ter­na­tion­al Part­ner­ships host­ed by Am­ChamTT at the Roy­al Ho­tel, San Fer­nan­do, yes­ter­day. Not­ing that Chi­na’s ef­fort to gain in­flu­ence in the re­gion has caused the Unit­ed States to re­spond ac­cord­ing­ly, Mot­t­ley said T&T will have to be very so­phis­ti­cat­ed as it ma­noeu­vres part­ner­ships with the two coun­tries. He asked: “As a coun­try, are we tak­ing loans or wel­com­ing in­vest­ments?” Read more here

T&T economy in ‘market failure’

Trnidad and Tobago’s economy has plunged into what economists are calling ‘market failure’, as an uptick in natural gas prices and production are masking underperformance the rest of the economy. Read more here

REGIONAL

Collared By Crime - Security Concerns Hinder Jamaica's Move Up Prosperity Index

Jamaica scored poorly in the category of safety and security but still gained four places, moving into the 54th position in this year's Legatum Institute Prosperity Index, which captured data from 149 countries. The ranking placed Jamaica eighth of the 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in the ranking produced over the past 12 years by the Legatum Institute, which is an independent educational charity based in London, England. Following the release of the index yesterday, director of policy at the Legatum Institute, Dr Stephen Brien, told The Gleaner that Jamaica has seen the greatest increase in prosperity in the region over the past five years and would have scored even higher if the security conditions in the island were better. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

'The word Jew was not a common insult when I went to school...it is now.'

Rachel always thought it was best to hide her religion from her high school students. The trouble started a few years ago when she let slip to a student that she was Jewish. "I found swastikas scribbled in their textbooks, they drew penises around my name on the blackboard, and they'd yell like 'Hey, Jew' at me during class," said Rachel, a teacher in Berlin. "It became harder... to do my job." Rachel, whose name has been changed because of safety concerns, went to her headmaster, and then to the police, but she said neither took her complaint seriously and would not intervene. Read more here

Lion Air crash: Investigators say plane was 'not airworthy'

Indonesian investigators have said the Lion Air plane that crashed last month killing 189 people was not airworthy and should have been grounded. The Boeing 737 Max plane crashed into the Java Sea shortly after departing from Jakarta on 29 October. A preliminary report has found technical problems had been reported on previous flights. The 737 Max is a new version of Boeing's original 737 and has become its fastest selling plane. The preliminary report details what is known by authorities about the short time the plane was in the air, but investigators said it did not give a definitive cause for the accident. Read more here

28th November 2018

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