DAILY BRIEF
TUESDAY 16TH JUNE, 2015
NEWS
Two quit
The CLICO board has collapsed. In a major slap to Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran, and in a most unwelcome development for the Government, two directors of the CLICO board, Jagdeesh Siewrattan and Denyse Mehta, have resigned on principle, citing the Central Bank Governor's “unfair, unjust and insensitive” dismissal of ex-chairman Gerald Yetming and managing director Carolyn John. The board, which is supposed to consist of five directors, now has only Krishna Bodhai and Wendy Ho Sing, the new executive chairman. But with this fragmentation of the CLICO Board, created by the resignations, there is now no quorum. Siewrattan's letter of resignation, dated June 12, 2015, and Mehta's letter, dated June 14, 2015, both copied to Minister of Finance Larry Howai, have come in the wake of the June 5 dismissal of Yetming and John, following the controversy over payments to former CLICO directors. Read more...
Bandits kill cop’s brother in robbery
With his feet and hands bounded, Barrackpore father Ramcharan Maharaj was helpless as he was shot dead by bandits who invaded his family home early Monday morning. Police said Maharaj, 45, the brother of Cpl Vishuamath Maharaj, was asleep at his home at Cunjal Road while his wife Amelia, 37, was preparing breakfast and his son, Gabriel, 17, was in his bedroom. Around 2 am, when Amelia, a traffic warden, opened their front door, she was ambushed by two bandits, one with dreadlocks and the other with a gun. The bandits tied up the family using plastic straps before filling several bags with jewelry, cash, perfumes, wallets, purses and cellphones. They also took two television sets. Before leaving, the gunman shot Maharaj in his right temple and escaped in his silver Toyota Corolla car, which was later found abandoned in Lengua. Read more...
Floods all over
The parched, harsh months of the dry season have given way to the rainy season and as expected nighttime and morning showers yesterday brought in that annual Trini phenomena associated with showers — floods. Rainfall led to confirmed reports of flooding in downtown Port-of-Spain, parts of Diego Martin, central Trinidad and south Trinidad. South Quay in Port-of-Spain was a veritable river of brown water, causing motorist and pedestrian traffic to come to a crawl. The rainfall activity was due to the passage of a tropical wave over the Southern Caribbean which was interacting with the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This was the first heavy rainfall for the rainy season since the Met Office declared the start of the 2015 rainy season on May 29. The Met Office underscored that TT is not under any tropical storm threat, watch or warning, as of yesterday. Read more...
BUSINESS
Professors arrive for launch of UTT School of Business
Singaporean professors Chin Tiong Tan, former president of the Singapore Institute of Technology and Kulwant Singh, Deputy Dean of the Business School, National University of Singapore, have arrived in T&T for the formal launch of the UTT School of Business. While here the professions will also participate in the Singapore Experience II which will focus on new business models in a diverse and competitive environment, leadership in national development and the role of business schools in economic transformation. Professor Narayan Pant, Dean of Executive Education, INSEAD will deliver a message via video presentation at the Singapore Experience II Forum. The Singapore Experience II Forum is a continuation of the Singapore Experience I which started under the auspices of Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim when he was CEO of the National Training Agency (NTA) in 2001. Read more...
Lower oil could hasten diversification
The current climate of low oil prices could see T&T accelerate its drive to diversify the national economy, Minister of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications (MTIIC) Vasant Bharath said. Commenting in an interview he gave to global publishing, research and consultancy firm Oxford Business Group (OBG), Bharath said with data showing foreign direct investment (FDI) in non-hydrocarbons production increased by over 90 per cent from 2012 to 2013, T&T was clearly “on the right track.” Recent successes, he added, would be bolstered by a push to secure strategic investment for targeted, non-oil fields, including the maritime industry, ICT and tourism. “Many of these opportunities are packaged to attract the kind of investors we need,” he said. “A sustained drop in oil and gas prices certainly focuses the conversation on diversification. Sustained low oil prices may cause us to look at the timelines and milestones for diversification objectives and determine how they can be brought forward.” Read more...
Howai admits to shortfall in THA allocation
Minister of Finance Larry Howai said a $102 million shortfall in the Tobago House of Assembly’s (THA) budgettary allocation has not yet been addressed. In response to questions, Opposition Senator Shamfa Cudjoe during debate on the Variation of Appropriation Bill, he said: “The issue here for us is that the Ministry of Finance should have been more proactive with the THA to have this matter sorted out.” Howai said the THA has been very proactive seeking to resolve the issue. “It is not that they have not reached out, it is that we have not been proactive in getting out the information then and we did not reach out and we take responsibility for that,” Howai said. He added that some work had to be done to determine the actual sum of the shortfall.“The assumptions being made are reasonable and it is being worked out with the THA so I do not think that it is an issue that cannot be sorted out between the THA. Read more...
Nestlé TT says its Maggi products safe
Nestlé T&T Ltd has assured local consumers that its Maggi product range is safe. Denise D’Abadie, consumer relations and public affairs manager, told the T&T Guardian the Maggi noodles recently pulled off shelves in India are not sold locally. Products sold locally by the brand include a range of soups, dehydrated seasonings and coconut milk. “We had tests done on all the products and they came back safe for consumption,” D’Abadie said. She said products had been taken off the market after concerns had been expressed by consumers but officials of Nestlé were in talks with local authorities to decide “what our next steps will be.” D’Abadie said the noodles were not available in Trinidad. Although she could not state the extent of their losses, D’Abadie said the local company had been affected by the Maggi product scare in India. Nestlé’s instant noodles were pulled for shelves in after food-safety inspectors in New Delhi said they found dangerously-high amounts of lead in the product. Read more...
REGIONAL
All hands on deck for the 2015 Jamaican Diaspora Conference
The sixth biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference is an incubator of ideas for dialogue and discussions. It is quintessentially becoming more mainstream and critical to the nation and the Caribbean region to engage more than three million Jamaicans living abroad. This year's conference allows the Diaspora to explore investment solutions and increase wealth, as well as, an opportunity to appoint, direct and establish the sovereignty of Jamaica through investment, trade, healthcare and education. Prime Minister Portia Miller Simpson addressed a record gathering of over 1,000 attendees from all over the world in conjunction with friends of the Jamaican Diaspora; North America, Central America, Africa and Europe.Simpson Miller urged "All hands on deck to develop the nation" for the development of the island and praised the Jamaican Diaspora for its outstanding contributions to the country ranging from stakeholders and families, which also included a call to action to Brand Ambassadors and Jamaicans abroad to "protect the standards and resources of Brand Jamaica and, to protect the geographical brand through advertising while, providing protection against businesses and their reputation." Read more...
INTERNATIONAL
How children are trafficked into Europe
The 13-year-old boy looks off into the distance. He is slight of build with pale, almost yellowy eyes. When you see him you feel as if he has seen far too much already. He is carrying a burden far too heavy for his age -- but despite his ordeal so far, smuggled across continents from Africa to Europe, and now living in a care home, his future could be far worse depending which route he takes next. A CNN investigation spent months retracing the smuggling route from Egypt to Italy. Speaking to social workers and authorities, children and parents, there is evidence that many of the children were smuggled into Italy by the same criminal networks, who once they are in country, use them for illegal activities.The Egyptian government agency charged with advising lawmakers on child protection matters told CNN that they believe in some cases the parents are guilty of trafficking, paying for their own vulnerable children to be smuggled so far from home in the hope of securing the family's future. Read more...
16th June 2015