The quarterly magazine for decision makers
No.54 • October/December 2014
THE HONORABLE PRIME MINISTER
GASTON BROWNE
LEADING THE TEAM
Committed to
Transforming the
Economy of Antigua
& Barbuda
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No. 54
BF
DECEMBER 2010 JANUARY 2011 • Issue No. 35
Oct / Dec 2014
CONTENTS
FEATURE
ABLP: Committed to
Transforming the Economy
of Antigua & Barbuda
35.
70
63 American University Of Antigua:
Celebrating 10 Years Of Academic
Excellence
REGULARS
04.
Editor’s Focus
06.
Business Briefs
Business Tech
10. LIME Pushes for Deeper
18
76.
Broadband Penetration
12. Bitcon: Whats the big deal?
14. From Data to Dollars
16. New approach to US gaming
dispute settlement
18. Digicel turns major content provider
following cable TV acquisitions
20. Cariri and Canto to promote
Mobile Apps in region
Economy & Trade Focus
78. Antiguan IRD head reports an increase in tax compliance
80. ECLAC says Caribbean Economy
Forecasted to Grow by 2%; Growth
of 1.7% Forecasted for OECS
82. S&P: Wealth Gap Is Slowing US
Economic Growth
58. Business Spotlight
Money Matters
26. BRICS Bank Established
28. “OECS Needs Injection of
Aeropost
Board of Education
The Environmental Division
�Serious Hard’ Cash
31. A&B to get over EC$10.5
million from EU
Environmental Focus
54. Antigua Needs New E-Waste Laws
56. CARICOM and the German
Government Team up to Find
Solutions to Climate Change
Youth in Focus
90. Joel Beazer Tops Cape
91. Top CSEC student says hard
work is key
Tourism Focus
92. More Cruise Ships To Call In Antigua And Barbudas
94.
In The Know
58. the benefits of finding meaning in 98.
your work
60. Antigua’s High Commissioner to the
UK to be conferred Honorary
Doctorate
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
Book Reviews
2
Health & Wealth
Major Moves
100. Events 2014
102. New Company Registrations
46
08
AVAILABLE AT
HERITAGE QUAY, ST.JOHN’S, ANTIGUA • 268.462.3107 • WWW.ABBOTTSJEWELLERY.COM
BUSINESSFOCUS
Change with Hope and Opportunity.
With the advent of General
Elections in Antigua &
Barbuda in June 2014 the
populace voted for Change
in electing a new ABLP
Government by a landslide. In
the process we saw the Hon
Gaston Browne assuming
office as the country’s fourth
and youngest ever Prime
Minister. His stated mission
as outlined in his Party’s
election campaign was “to
Rebuild Antigua & Barbuda”.
New leadership comes with
fresh ideas and evidently
many changes. The people
voted for change and we
need to support the efforts
of the Prime Minister and his
Cabinet by giving them the
necessary support to deliver
on their promises.
Lokesh Singh
Publisher/Managing Editor
Over the past 100 days in office, our new Prime Minister has been busy with his
leadership agenda in identifying his Cabinet and outlining his plans for governing
Antigua & Barbuda and to reposition the country as an “economic powerhouse in
the region”.
We have noted the tireless and passionate efforts of the Prime Minister in leading
the charge to stimulate the economy and increase foreign direct investments. His
frequent travels and meetings with Leaders of friendly Governments and Investors
have resulted in many new major projects being unveiled. His leadership style has
been refreshing and engaging, giving us hope that he and his Government will
deliver on their promise to create opportunities for sustainable economic growth.
The Prime Minister’s efforts at engaging the private sector at the recent Business
Forum needs to be commended. He was extremely convincing in his presentation
and spoke with authority on the state of the nation’s financial position and the way
forward for positive economic growth.
The local business community is now very excited with the opportunities on the
horizon and the confirmation that they will be offered the same incentives and
concessions as those offered to international investors.
We also present a Special Feature on The American University of Antigua as it
celebrates its tenth anniversary of operations in Antigua and what a success
story this has been. We wish them many more years of continued growth and a
successful partnership with the people of Antigua & Barbuda.
Business Focus is also pleased to welcome Martina Johnson as Editor to our Team.
Together we hope to deliver many more interesting and informative issues of
Business Focus as we also look forward to the many Government and Private Sector
initiatives which will create the opportunities needed for our economy to flourish.
Publisher / Managing Editor:
Lokesh Singh
Editor:
Martina Johnson
Graphic Designer:
Deri Benjamin
Advertising Sales:
Gilda Alexander • Ann-Maria Marshall
Evol Desouza • Shari Dickenson
Cover Photography:
Johnny Jno Baptiste
Photography:
Johnny Jno-Baptise
Editorial Contributors:
Martina Johnson • Dr. Chris Bart
Brian Ramsey • Bevil Wooding • Yves Ephraim
Dr. Linroy D. Christian • Pilaiye Cenac
Dr Harvey Millar • Lyndell Halliday
American University of Antigua • Government of
Antigua & Barbuda • Antigua Observer • CMC
PC World • Associated Press
American Psychological Association
Regional Publications Ltd
Bryson’s Office Complex, Friars Hill Road,
P.O. Box 180, Suite #5A,St.John’s, Antigua
+ 1 -268- 462- 7680
mail: [email protected] E
Website: www.businessfocusantigua.com
Business Focus welcomes contributions from
professionals or writers in specialised fields or areas
of interest.
Reproduction of any material contained herein
without written approval, constitutes
a violation of copyright.
Business Focus reserves the right to determine the
content of the publication.
On the Cover: GASTON BROWNE
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
The quarterly magazine for decision makers
July /September 201 4 | BUSINESS FOCUS • The bi-monthly magazine for decision-makers | www.businessfocusantigua.com
Business Focus was elated at being granted the opportunity to present in this issue
of our Magazine this Special Feature on the new Government including an exclusive
interview with the Prime Minister.
Business Focus magazine is published every two
months by Regional Publications Ltd (RPL) in Antigua
and Barbuda.
No.54 • October/December 2014
THE HONORABLE PRIME MINISTER
GASTON BROWNE
LEADING THE TEAM
Committed to
Transforming the
Economy of Antigua
& Barbuda
Visit Us Online - www.businessfocusantigua.com
Happy Reading!
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
4
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
5
Business Briefs
Personal
trainers,
Nutritionists,
Physiotherapists, Barbers, Life coaches,
Cosmetologists,
Austiopaths
and
Chiropractors. Meetings are normally
held at the Office of the NAO located on
the first floor of the John Henry Building
on Dickenson Bay Street on Thursdays
commencing at 12:00 noon through to
2:00 pm.
According to the TATT, the determination
takes effect on the day that it is published.
The determination was signed by TATT
chairman Selby Wilson on July 31.
Beauty, Spa and Wellness
association to be formed
The Office of the National Authorizing
Officer (NAO) and Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Implementation
within the Ministry of Trade are
collaborating to help with the
establishment of a Beauty, SPA and
Wellness Association of Antigua and
Barbuda.
This is to be done under the Caribbean
Aid for Trade and Regional Integration
Trust Fund (CARTfund) project managed
by the Caribbean Development Bank
(CDB).
This project, which falls within the scope
of implementing the services component
of the European Partnership Agreement
(EPA), started in July 2014 with the
establishment of a working group
comprising of industry practitioners.
The effort is geared towards organising
and developing the sector and will
see the establishment of the national
association,and
formulation
and
implementation of a Strategic Action
Plan for the sector.
Project Officer at NAO, Ideka Dowe,
indicated that the development of
specialised tourism markets have been
recognised by the governments of
CARIFORUM as a means to economic
diversification.
It is for this reason the Spa and Wellness
sector has been identified as a regional
priority area for development.
Similar initiatives have been undertaken
in Dominica and St. Lucia.
The consultations on the establishment of
the Beauty Spa and Wellness Association
will be open to all persons operating in
the sector, extending to Yoga Instructors,
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
6
Number portability
coming to T&T
The Telecommunications Authority of
Trinidad and Tobago also announced
last week that mobile to mobile number
portability would start in T&T on February
26, 2015 and that fixed to mobile number
portability would start on May 1, 2015.
Number portability is the ability
of a customer to retain the same
telephone number when they change
their telephone provider. The telecom
regulator said the interconnection
regulations require concessionaires to
configure their network to facilitate
number portability between similar
networks, as and when directed by the
authority.
TATT said the it published a policy
document on the issue on September
30, 2012 and on January 15, 2013 it
started meeting all operators who
are required to implement number
portability. The operators are Colombus
Communications,
Digicel,
Lisa
Communications, Open Telecom, TSTT
and Three Sixty Communications.
“The authority required that each said
operator conduct an assessment of its
state of readiness so as to deduce the most
appropriate date of commencement for
the implementation of mobile to mobile
number portability and fixed to mobile
number portability,” the authority said.
The notice on number portability came
in a “determination that is binding upon
all operators so required by the authority
to implement number portability.”
eHealth initiatives take off in
the Caribbean
The PanAmerican Health Organization
(PAHO) said new eHealth initiatives are
springing up in countries throughout Latin
America and the Caribbean, in parallel to
the increasing use of new information
and communication technologies (ICTs)
in the region.
PAHO however indicated while these
initiatives have the potential to improve
access to and quality of health care, few
countries have policies in place to guide
their development or exploit their full
potential.
These were among the findings presented
in the current issue of the Pan American
Journal of Public Health (PAJPH), PAHO’s
scientific journal.
Devoted entirely to eHealth, the special
issue highlights the wide range of efforts
currently underway in the region and
presents emerging evidence about key
factors that determine their success.
“Wisely used and widely applied,
eHealth can be a strategic tool for
improving access, expanding coverage,
and increasing the financial efficiency of
health care systems,” PAHO’s Domincanborn director, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne,
wrote in the editorial.
“ICTs are already revolutionizing access
to quality comprehensive care; bridging
many difficulties and enabling primary
care to resolve more health issues,” she
added.
Business Briefs
No. 40
The authors said only seven countries in
the region have adopted national policies
on eHealth, although 19 countries have
general policies on ICTs.
The tourism minister and CEO of the
Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority,
Colin James also discussed marketing
partnerships with the airline, and
reviewed marketing proposals to aid in
putting Antigua and Barbuda in good
stead for the upcoming winter season.
Member of Parliament Paul Chet Green,
who serves as minister with responsibility
for heritage sites, also attended the
meetings with British Airways. The
minister addressed efforts to enhance
the overall tourism product, and of the
ongoing review of Antigua and Barbuda’s
heritage sites.
British Airways increases
flights into Antigua & Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda will benefit from an
additional flight with British Airways (BA)
for summer 2015.
The meeting achieved its overall objective
of improving airlift and cooperation
between Antigua and Barbuda and
British Airways.
This increase comes, following a meeting
held with British Airways officials late
September at the BA headquarters in
England, but also on the back of the
airline’s growing confidence in the
destination.
The additional flight will take BA airlift
into Antigua from six to seven daily, with
a 20 per cent increase in seats, thus
making way for additional UK tourism
arrivals.
Tourism Minister Asot Michael updated
airline executives on the government’s
long-term development plan to boost
tourism.
He
discussed
the
government’s
commitment to increasing the current
rooms on island to 5,000 by 2016 and
the near completion of the new state of
the art airport, the largest in the Easter
Caribbean, which would be ready to
receive the increased arrivals this coming
summer.
Michael added that the government has
come to an agreement with PetroCaribe/
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas
(ALBA) which will allow fuel costs to
the airline to become 10 per cent to 12
per cent cheaper. This news was wellreceived by British Airways.
Sir Viv honoured
Antigua and Barbuda’s cricketing
legend and only living National Hero Sir
Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards took
centre stage on the night of September
24 at Lords, the hollowed home of
International cricket during a celebrity
studded fund raising dinner held in his
honour.
All funds raised from the dinner would
be split between two charities, with the
Lord’s Taverners receiving 75 per cent
and with 25 per cent going to the St.
John’s Cathedral Antigua Restoration
Project.
Sir Viv, as he’s now fondly called,
graciously accepted a cheque for a
minimum agreed donation of ВЈ25,000.
This cause was chosen by Sir Vivian as
one that is close to his heart.
Asot Michael, Minister of Tourism,
Economic Development Investment &
Energy and Paul Chet Greene, Minister
of Sports, Trade, Industry, Commerce,
Culture & National Festivals delivered
congratulatory remarks on behalf of the
government.
Minister Michael stated, “I stand here
this evening, overjoyed that Sir Isaac
Vivian Richards is being honoured by the
Lords’ Taverners. Antigua and Barbuda
is a small country. Our population is less
than a hundred thousand people and, yet
we have produced some of the world’s
most outstanding cricketers.”
He continued, “Each of them has been
special, but all of them will readily
acknowledge – as I do this evening – that
Viv Richards is pre-eminent among them.
It is a pre-eminence that he enjoys,
as well, among cricketers from every
cricketing nation in the world…Sir Vivian
is a proud Antiguan who played cricket
for the honour of the West Indies and for
his country.”
The event was organized by Lord’s
Taverners and the Antigua and Barbuda
Tourism Authority.
The Lord’s Taverners is one of the UK’s
leading youth sports and disability
charities that donates over ВЈ3 million
per year to programmes that give young
people, particularly those with special
needs, the opportunity to engage in
cricket and other sports.
Dr. Didacus Jules Director-General OECS
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
7
The 3 “C’s” That Make a
GREAT Corporate Director
I
t’s not easy being a good corporate
director these days. Sure the perks and
prestige are still there. But the amount
of Regulations, Responsibilities and Risks
directors face are also at an all-time high
and represent real �spoilers’ in what used
to be a fun job. As a result, the word is out
that you should NOT consider becoming a
director unless you are prepared to accept
the challenges that now come with the
position. So what does it take to be – or
become – not just a good director, but a
great one? Having met over 2000 directors
in the 10 years since I founded The
Directors College of Canada, I have come
to the view that there are three essential
qualifications – or tests – that all directors
must meet if they are to properly do their
job as �governors’ or �uber supervisors’ of
their organisations and especially their
most senior manager, the CEO. I call them
the 3C’s of great governance.
�C’ #1: Competence. To be sure, all
Directors intuitively know that they need
to understand: the business model of
the organisations on whose boards they
sit; the complexity and intricacies of
the industries in which their companies
compete; and, the stakeholders upon
whose support their organisations depend
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
8
for sustainability and growth. That’s tough
enough. BUT, Directors today also need to
know what they should be doing as board
members and how their job is different
from Management. They especially need
to know how to effectively execute the
basic �fundamentals’ associated with their
position as �directors.’ These fundamentals
include: their two major roles (as
organisational �stewards’ and �sounding
boards’ for Management’s ideas);
their 5 major responsibilities (for CEO
supervision; strategy setting; establishing
their organisation’s risk appetite and risk
tolerance; assuring financial statement
reporting integrity; and legal compliance);
and their 3 legal duties (i.e. fiduciary duty,
duty of care and duty of loyalty).
These fundamentals are distinct to the
job of being a director. However, acquiring
the competence needed to effectively
execute them, does not come naturally to
most board members since they typically
only come to their boards as �trained
managers’ and not as �trained directors.’
It therefore would help today’s board
members a LOT if they were to register
in some sort of formal director education
programme which covers the new basics
of their job (See, for example, the CGTI
Dr.
Chris
Bart, FCPA is
a recognised
governance
a u t h o r i t y,
the author
of two best
sellers, and
Co-Founder
of
the
Caribbean
Governance
Training
Institute.
The Institute is currently providing a six
part corporate governance programme
offered one night per week over six
weeks and a major conference on
Governance of the Family Owned
Caribbean Enterprise is being planned
for Dec 1 and 2. For more information
visit CGTI’s website:
http://www.
caribbeangovernancetraininginstitute.
com/ or phone Lisa at 758 451 2500
�Governance Fundamentals Programme’
which was launched in the Caribbean
this past February to rave reviews!).
Such programmes help diligent directors
better understand their job and, most
importantly, give them the confidence
needed to perform their essential roles
and responsibilities, especially in the face
of sometimes considerable resistance
– whether that resistance comes from
management or from their fellow board
members! Accordingly, director education
is an essential qualification for anyone
interested in becoming not just a good,
but a really great, corporate director. It just
might be the ticket that keeps you from
being sued!
�C’ #2: Curiosity. As the ultimate overseer
of their organisation’s activities, one of
the board’s most important functions
is to review and evaluate the quality of
the decisions and recommendations
brought to them for approval by the
CEO. Such decisions/recommendations
should generally only be the REALLY BIG
ONES which are typically referred to as
the �strategic’ or �major capital spending’
decisions. In contrast, the �operating,’
�tactical’ or �day-to-day’ decisions and
activities are usually left totally up to
management. After all, that’s what they’re
paid to do.
So how should a group of directors
go about determining the quality and
soundness of management’s thinking on
the big recommendations put forward by
management for them to approve – or
not? The way to do this is by performing
their #1 behaviour…that is, by asking
questions. The goal of this inquisitiveness is
a simple one: to gain reasonable assurance
that what management is proposing is
actually plausible…that it really �makes
sense’ in the current circumstances in
which the organisation finds itself and
that the directors cannot identify any risk,
threat, weakness or superior alternative
which would cause them to reject what
management has put in front of them.
Interestingly, in the past, boards have been
criticised for being asleep at the switch,
and for not providing sufficient diligent
(i.e., careful) oversight of management’s
activities
by
sufficiently
probing
management’s recommendations and
proposals. Even more amazing, however, is
that when quizzed about this, long serving
and experienced directors have actually
confessed privately to me that their
reasons for this is that they did not know
what questions to ask….moreover, they
were afraid of asking a dumb question.
To counteract this fear, the Canadian
Institute of Chartered Accountants has
produced a series of monographs under
the banner �20 Questions Should Ask.’ Each
monograph provides a list of 20 questions
related to an area where directors need to
give diligent oversight – e.g., strategy, risk,
crisis, internal audit, etc. I’ve written the
one on the role of the Board in STRATEGY.
See: http://corporatemissionsinc.com/20_
questions_directors_should_ask_about_
strategy
But even without the help of the
monographs, let me say for the record:
where board oversight is concerned, there
is no such thing as a dumb question, except
one…which is, the question for which the
answer was in your board pre-reading
package. That’s THE dumb question for
sure because it shows everyone in the
boardroom that you did not diligently
prepare for the meeting. Other than that,
all questions from directors are fair game.
And if you really do diligently prepare
by reading all of the advance material, it
should be IMPOSSIBLE for you to NOT have
some questions about what management
has written – even if it’s simply to seek
clarification about some of the terms
and phrases contained in the documents.
So at your next board meeting, LET THE
QUESTIONS BEGIN!...hopefully they will
confirm the wisdom of management’s
recommendations or just maybe even save
the company from disaster!
�C’ #3: Courage. Apart from the fear
of asking dumb questions, there is yet
another even more insidious fear that
often paralyses directors and holds them
back from doing their job, asking the
tough questions and challenging the
views of both management and their
fellow directors. That fear concerns being
ostracised at board meetings and social
events (“Sorry we forgot to invite you to
the dinner at the Chair’s beach house in
Italy, Fred!”) or worse, not being asked
to stand for re-election when a director is
seen as �rocking the boat’ – especially the
status quo or cultural �pecking order.’
Boards are social organisations in which a
high level of collegiality – even camaraderie
– is often seen as a hallmark of a good board.
But such practices also have a dark side
leading to �group think’ and �sycophantry.’
Good directors therefore need to be on
guard against them and choose instead to
be courageous, doing their job even in the
face of possible negative consequences.
Indeed, the job of being a director should
not be so important to one’s own selfworth and social standing that a director
is prepared to compromise his/her own
character and personal ethics just to keep
the job or impress friends at the country
club. Unfortunately, higher director’s fees
only makes matters worse, increasing the
pressure on directors to keep their mouths
shut (and just keep cashing the cheques).
After all, who wants to lose a part-time job
that might pay up to $100,000 and where
the work is not just pretty light but also
extremely interesting.
Nevertheless, a good director has to
have the personal courage, character
and conviction to ask the really tough
questions (e.g. “When are we going to
see some of the performance benefits
promised in the strategic plan?” Why do
we need to pay the CEO so much in the
face of lackluster performance?” Why is
there not a CEO or Board Chair succession
plan in place?” “Why are there not more
women and minorities represented on the
Board?” “Why do we not have director
evaluations that mean anything?”) and to
not back down in the face of directors and
managers who may feel uncomfortable
with them. The key, however, is that
intellectual conflict should not mean
interpersonal conflict. The questions must
therefore be asked in an �inoffensively
contentious manner and tone of voice’
that does not promote domineering
self-aggrandisement or cruelly demean
others. When done in this manner, I have
found that asking the tough questions
are more often appreciated and admired
than castigated and criticised. Moreover,
oftentimes the questions are the ones
that everyone else in the room has been
waiting and wanting to be asked but lacked
the courage to do so. To be sure there is
an art and skill to doing this. But it is a
skill worth acquiring and practicing in the
boardroom.
In conclusion, the way to build better
boards is by having better directors. So
here’s the big, uncomfortable question
for Caribbean directors: to what extent
does your board have the competence,
curiosity and courage required to give
effective oversight of your organisation
and its management? And if you think that
there is room for improvement in the way
they carry out their governance oversight
function, you might also want to consider
sending them to one of the corporate
governance training programmes currently
available in the region – like the one
currently being offered by The Caribbean
Governance Training Institute. After all,
it’s not education which is expensive, but
rather ignorance. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
9
BUSINESS TECH
Pushes for Deeper
Broadband Penetration
Region’s Telecoms Providers, Ministers Fail to Agree on VOIP Issue
L
IME said it wants to see deeper
broadband penetration in the
Caribbean. CEO of LIME Caribbean,
Martin Roos, reckons that greater
consumption of data service will lead to
increased indigenous regional content,
which can be exported to the rest of the
world.
"The Caribbean is behind in relation to
smartphone penetration and usage," said
the CEO. "You must be able to consume in
order to create. "Together we must enable
entrepreneurs to tap into this global
ecosystem."
These
remarks
were
made
to
representatives of governments in the
region, and LIME's competition across the
telecommucations markets, at his address
to the Caribbean Association of National
Telecommunication
Organisations'
(CANTO). The CANTO Ministerial Breakfast
is a flagship event on the calendar of the
annual conference which is celebrating
its thirtieth anniversary under the theme,
“Strategic Alliances for Sustainable
Broadband Development.”
More specifically, Roos suggested that
governments remove taxes and import
duties on smartphone devices as part of
their market liberalisation programme
to better facilitate content creation and
entrepreneurship, especially among young
people. He believes that mobile data will
increase by a factor of 10 over the next five
years, and appealed for urgency in regional
action so that the Caribbean is not left
behind.
LIME is currently undertaking a
US$1.05-billion
investment
in
its
telecommunications network across the
Caribbean. In a later roundtable discussion
at CANTO, Caribbean telecommunication
ministers and service providers failed to
agree on how best to deal with Voice over
Internet Protocol (VOIP) platforms such as
Viber, with the providers complaining that
they were losing a significant amount of
money due to illegal practices.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
10
The providers, such as Jamaica's Digicel,
said VOIPs users use their data resources
without paying and in some markets,
access to these VOIP through cellular data
has been blocked. Digicel Group Board
Director, Patrick James Mara told the
roundtable discussion that "illegal' voice
bi-pass service avoid paying taxes and
licenses fees that other providers must
pay.
"Put simply, this is an unsustainable
situation, one that a number of industry
players have been trying to address for
some time now, and one that no one has
been able to successfully overcome, and
one that we are tackling head on," Mara
said.
"Not only are we happy to take it head on,
but a number of operators in the region
will be tackling this issue in the coming
months, because this is not something that
can be sustained," he told the gathering.
He compared the situation to drilling an oil
well, "and some hobo came along and say
I am going to pipe into this tank, take your
oil, pay you no money, because I have got
customers that I want to sell that oil". В¤
He said the situation results in a significant
loss of revenue for telecommunications
providers, and by extension the
government of countries where they
operate. Officials estimate that the losses
are in the vicinity of US$500 million
indicating that Caribbean governments
stand to lose as much as US$150 million in
the near future.
St Lucia's Science and Technology,
Information and Broadcasting Minister
Dr
James
Fletcher,
added
that
telecommunications providers are being
affected in much the same way as stores in
Castries given the fact that more St. Lucians
are shopping online and taking advantage
of the country's duty free barrels provision
at Christmas.
"Unfortunately, VOIP has done the same
thing for the service providers. There is a
demand there that is not being met. And,
like my colleague from Jamaica, I would
be a lot happier if it were a Caribbean
VOIP solution. But the solution cannot be
to get rid of VOIP, because there is a very
significant demand that these people are
providing," he said.
Dr Fletcher added that in the same way
that Ministries of Agriculture across the
Caribbean encourage persons to buy local
produce, there must be a local solution to
the VOIP issue.
"...People are not just using those VOIPS
for frivolous matters. They are using them
to communicate with family members who
before they could not communicate with;
businesses are using them," Fletcher said,
and called on stakeholders to "agree on
a way in which we can come up with an
option that works for all concerned".
He said Caribbean nationals want to be
able to call their relatives overseas and
not pay “an arm and a leg”, to the point
that they have to schedule these calls once
every two months.
"That (cheap/free frequent calls) is what
they are used to. So, to tell them that they
cannot use Skype, Vonage and Magic Jack
and not provide them with an alternative is
really asking a government, which is made
up of politicians, who every five years
have to face an electorate for re-election,
to commit suicide. It does not make any
sense," Fletcher concluded. В¤
LIME Group CEO Phil Bentley, right, shakes hands with Prime Minister
Hon. Gaston Browne.
LIME MAKES MAJOR NETWORK
UPGRADE INVESTMENT IN
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA
L
IME, one of the region’s biggest investors and employers, has
continued its network upgrade investment thrust across the region
under a major US$1.05billion capital investment programme,
called Project Marlin. The company will be investing an additional
US$14milion on network upgrade to advance the economic development
of Antigua and Barbuda, help change the lives of people and the fortunes
of businesses.
LIME plans to use this money to roll out state-of-the-art Long Term
Evolution (LTE) services, HSPA+ (4G) technology; improve wireless
broadband services to homes across the island; and double the speed
currently available.
“As the company that first connected Antigua and Barbuda to the rest
of the world, we embrace our responsibility to bring further innovation
in technology to your islands,” Phil Bentley, Group CEO said. He also
added, “Our network is the platform for the solutions of the future and
an enabler to social and economic development.”
In addition to this major network upgrade investment LIME has given
back to Antigua and Barbuda through sponsorship and various forms of
community development. Our contributions to education, entertainment
and other areas of national life amount to over US$400 thousand so far
this year. LIME has also collaborated with the government on a number
of initiatives, the most recent being the Human Entrepreneurship and
Assistive Resource Technologies (HEART) project in which LIME offers
iPad Air tablets to all day care and pre-school educators for use in the
classroom.
HEART is a multi-faceted, revolutionary ICT project that is designed
to positively impact thousands of Antiguans and Barbudans. Over the
course of the last 29 years, LIME has also been the proud sponsor of
the LIME CXC Awards. LIME has also been a long-standing sponsor of
the Inter-Secondary School Debate Series since 1986. In the area of
entertainment, LIME is currently the platinum sponsor of Antigua and
Barbuda’s Carnival, the region’s greatest summer festival.
Like its numerous sponsorship commitments to the communities
it serves, the latest multi-million dollar Marlin project is another
tangible demonstration of LIME’s commitment to the socio-economic
development of the wider Caribbean and to Antigua and Barbuda in
particular.В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
11
BUSINESS TECH
BITCOIN
By Yves R. Ephraim
what’s the big deal?
B
itcoin is what we call digital money.
It is a store of value and can be
exchanged among users within
the bitcoin network. It exist only
in electronic form, therefore there is no
physical coin or paper that you can hold.
You might ask, how can I pay for my
groceries with money that I cannot hand
over to the cashier? How practical is
Bitcoin? I daresay that the proliferation of
smart phones has made it a very practical
proposition even now. Making a payment
is easy as using your smart phone to scan a
code that the cashier gives you at the end
of tallying your grocery bill. The transaction
is immediate.
I could talk about the technology of Bitcoin,
but for now I would rather focus on what I
consider, by far the most significant appeal
of Bitcoin:
•
Anonymity
•
Low transaction fees
•
Decentralized network and authority
Anonymity
Some of the early adopters of Bitcoin
were Libertarians. Libertarians feel that
government (US) should leave citizens
to pursue their own interests without
interference. With government being
so intrusive, under the guise of national
security, Libertarians believe that Bitcoin
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
12
promises to score a winning goal for the
cause of individual privacy.
Libertarians are wary of the ever present
threat of corrupt and unscrupulous
minions of government seeking exploit
ordinary citizens through the abuse of
their privileged position and knowledge.
For the Libertarians, Bitcoin restores
privacy to the citizen by making it difficult
for the government to determine the
identity of the parties that are involved in
any bitcoin transaction.
Low transaction fees
Any person or business who has a bank
account could testify to the creative
methods banks are using to relieve us of
our savings. Most local banks are now
charging you $15.00 minimum per month
for the distinct privilege of having a
checking account with them.
The fees for sending money both from the
banks and the money transfer businesses,
makes it infeasible to send amounts less
than $200.00, since the attendant fees are
way larger than the money you want to
send. By contrast, Bitcoin transaction fees
are very small and are determined by the
bitcoin algorithm itself.
At last, there is a borderless currency
where it is now feasible to send very small
amounts of money without exorbitant
fees.
Decentralized Network and
Authority
The Bitcoin network is what we call a
distributed, peer to peer network. This
design makes it almost impossible to bring
down the bitcoin network by either seizing
a computer or effecting a denial of service
attack (DoS). Each node in the Bitcoin
network tracks every transaction.
With this design there is no need for
a third party (the bank) to be involved
in transactions that happen between
individuals. The network now takes care
of those traditional functions that were
once performed by a central authority
(the bank), while giving the same level of
confidence.
When you take all of the above into
consideration, Bitcoin is poised to be the
next major paradigm shift ofthis century. В¤
About the Author:
Yves R. Ephraim is the Owner/
Manager of Pegasus Technologies
Inc, A Computer services provider
operating in St.John’s, Antigua
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
13
BUSINESS TECH
From Data to Dollars
How Open Data Initiatives Can Support Business
Innovation and Transparency in the Caribbean
By Bevil Wooding
Data is more accessible today than anyone
could have imagined only a few decades
ago. From corporate databases to Internet
connected repositories is the lifeblood
of the digital economy. With growth
projected at 40 per cent a year into the
next decade, it is unleashing a new wave
of innovative services and opportunities.
Open Data World
As more of the world goes online, there are
increasing opportunities for businesses,
governments and people to use data in
new ways. For example, data allows us to to
learn about customers, optimise business
processes, better customise products and
services. Add the Internet to the mix and
you have a world of data possibilities that
can be built upon the foundation of cloud
computing, mobility, social networks.
But for those possibilities to be realised,
the data has to be accessible. The more
accessible it is, the more opportunities
there are for everyone. That’s where open
data comes in.
Open data is information that is available
for anyone to use, for any purpose, at no
cost. For example, the UK Department for
Education publishes open data about the
performance of schools in England, so
that companies can create league tables
and citizens can find the best-performing
schools in their area.
Open data applications can be as simple as
mobile phone apps identifying gas station
you will encounter on a trip to a different
town, or as intricate as analysing taxation
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
14
data translating it into transparency
programs and public policy.
Governments worldwide are working to
open up more of their data. The number
of countries with open data programs
has grown rapidly over the last few years.
More than 40 countries have now open
government data sites. However, only one
Caribbean nation scores above 35 percent
in the International Budget Partnership
Open Budget Index, which monitors
budget transparency across the world, and
few Caribbean nations currently publish
data in open formats online.
Billions in Opportunities
Open-data advocates, such as US President
Obama’s former chief information
officer Vivek Kundra, estimate that raw
government data from sectors such as
weather, population, energy, housing,
commerce or transportation can spawn a
multibillion-dollar industry by turning that
data into products and applications for the
public to consume or other industries to
pay for.
Waldo Jaquith, director of the nonprofit
U.S. Open Data Institute, created to help
governments release and promote their
data, said the idea of turning government
data from all levels of government into
a multibillion-dollar industry isn’t farfetched.
He points to The Climate Corporation,
which offers farmers software and crop
insurance policies. The company, founded
by two Google engineers using 30 years of
government weather, soil and crop data,
was sold to agricultural multinational
corporation Monsanto for $930 million.
In the UK, a range of start-ups are working
with the UK’s Open Data Institute (ODI) to
build businesses using open data, and have
already unlocked a total of ВЈ2.5 million
worth of investments and contracts.
This economic promise is the main reason
why businesses are also starting to pay
attention to open data. But there is a real
investment that must be made. Maximising
the opportunities of the data-driven
economy requires certain imperatives for
IT organisations. Information security, for
example, next- generation analytics, and
data access tools and processes.
Bevil Wooding is the Executive
Director of BrightPath Foundation, an
international
technology
education
non-profit organization. Reach him
on Twitter @bevilwooding or on
facebook.com/bevilwooding or contact
via email at technologymatters@
brightpathfoundation.org.
Caribbean Connections
REALTY
Tapping the potential of data in the Caribbean will take determination
and a skilled workforce to find and put to use. The process has already
started.
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A new regional open data project to support business innovation
and transparency in the Caribbean has recently been launched. The
open data initiative is supported by a grant from the UK’s Department
for International Development (DFID), the World Bank and its Trust
Fund for Statistical Capacity Building. The project will also partner
with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union and other regional
organizations working in the Open Data area.
St Lucia recently started an Open Data Readiness Assessment (ODRA).
A pilot assessment in Antigua and Barbuda was completed in July
2013 and discussions are ongoing with several countries in the region
to roll out the initiative.
Civil society and the private sector are doing their part as well. Jamaicabased ConnectiMass and Trinidad and Tobago-based Teleios Systems
are supporting “hackathons,” like Digital Jam and challenges like Code
Jam, inviting businesspeople, software developers, entrepreneurs or
anyone with appetite for manipulating data and building applications
to take part. This year’s DigitalJAM, an initiative by the World Bank
and Government of Jamaica, featured the development of the first
Open Data Sports Hackathon in the World.
The goals of these events vary. Some, like BrightPath Foundation’s
App Master mobile app programs, solicit ideas for how government
can present its data more effectively. Others, Like Teleios’ Code Jam
target college students and software enthusiasts, seeking their ideas
for mining open data repositories .
Kevin Khelawan, Teleios’ chief operating officer, said many
governments and firms want advice on how to use the data to make
their organisations more responsive to the needs of citizens and
customers.
The appeal of open data is obvious, he says, “We live in an information
hungry world. To feed that, you need the data. Governments have by
far the largest amount of data from which real economic value can
be created. They have a key role to play in activating open data in the
region. However, so too does the private sector.”
Tel: 562-0093
Fax: 460-9707
[email protected]
w w w. a b i r e a l t o r s . c o m
Unlocking Economic Value
He is correct. Although the open-data phenomenon is in its early
days, its potential to unlock significant economic value is already
significant. A recent McKinsey Global Institute Report found that it
is already giving rise to hundreds of entrepreneurial businesses and
helping established companies to segment markets; define new
products and services; and improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of operations.
For the region to realize these same benefits much work has to be
done by governments, companies, and consumers. Policies have
to be crafted to open up datasets; protect privacy and intellectual
property; encourage access; and invest in technology and expertise
needed to use the data effectively.
For open data to gain traction in the region, deliberate steps must be
taken in the public and private sectors to cultivate a vibrant open-data
ecosystem that promotes openness, innovation and transparency. To
achieve this consumers have to be educated; governments have to
match words with action; and businesses have to step up and invest
in the development of the human resource talent and tech needed to
turn data into dollars. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
15
BUSINESS TECH
ANTIGUA AND
BARBUDA HAS A
NEW APPROACH TO
US GAMING DISPUTE
SETTLEMENT
A
ntigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has held
talks with senior United States officials in a move aimed at
ending their long standing Internet gaming dispute.
The meeting followed Browne’s criticism of Washington during
his address to the United nations General Assembly (UNGA) in
September.
A statement by the Antigua and Barbuda government indicated
Prime Minister Browne met US Trade Representative, Michael
Froman, “where both men sat down to open dialogue about the
stalled trade dispute and discussed practical ways in which the
matter could be brought to a conclusion”.
“Both sides agreed to put a team together to work out the details
of their discussion, and PM Browne undertook to name his team
within a week,” the statement said.
Prime Minister Browne later said he was “encouraged” that
his administration has been able to secure a meeting with
Ambassador Froman “so early”.
He said that the US official is a Cabinet-level officer and that “this
should facilitate decision-making on policy matters”.
In his meeting with Froman, Prime Minister Browne outlined the
economic losses suffered by Antigua and Barbuda as a result of US
non-compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling,
according to the statement.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
16
It said both parties are expected to resume discussions in the
coming weeks.
Earlier this month, Antigua and Barbuda said it was seeking
US$100 million to settle the dispute.
Prime Minister Browne told a news conference then that while
the figure represents a reduction on what St. John’s had originally
been demanding, it is negotiable and could be a mixture of cash
and kind.
Antigua and Barbuda has submitted new proposals to Washington
to end the dispute.
St. John’s has criticised the United States since 1998 of breaching
its commitments to members of the WTO under the General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) by enacting laws that
prevented foreign-based operators from offering gambling and
betting services to its citizens.
In 2005, the WTO ruled that Washington had violated international
trade agreements by prohibiting operation of offshore Internet
gambling sites. Antigua claimed that it lost US$3.4 billion a year
due to the US action, but the WTO awarded the island US$21
million.
But in its final ruling, the Geneva-based WTO has allowed Antigua
and Barbuda to suspend certain concessions and obligations it
has under international law to the United States in respect of
intellectual property rights.В¤
BUSINESS TECH
DIGICEL TURNS MAJOR CONTENT PROVIDER
FOLLOWING CABLE TV ACQUISITIONS
Also Aquires Majority Control in
broadband and VoIP services, currently services
sections of St. Andrew and St. Catherine. Operations
will have to expand to a further 12 parishes across the
country. The cable and broadband infrastructure also
forms a critical part of Digicel’s plan to aggressively
target fixed-line customers once the government
approves local number portability (LNM), according
to O’Brien, Digicel will face stiff competition from
Columbus Communications, which trades as Flow in
Jamaica.
D
IGICEL has bought a majority stake in the parent company
of regional sports broadcaster, SportsMax. The deal to
purchase controlling interest in St Lucia-based International
Media Content (IMC), also gives the regional telecommunications
firm a toehold in the North American market through CEEN-TV,
which targets the diaspora in The US Tri-State area and in Canada.
SportsMax is currently available in 23 countries in the Caribbean
while Digicel operates in 32 markets in the Caribbean, Central
America and Asia Pacific, but not in The Bahamas, St Marteen, US
Virgin Islands or Dominican Republic where IMC’s sports content
is currently offered. Last year, SportsMax launched its 24-hour
Spanish language channel; CDN SportsMax in the Dominican
Republic where it provides similar content to SportsMax; plus
Major League Baseball.
The move to acquire IMC comes on the heels of Digicel’s entry
into the cable TV market with recent acquisitions in Anguilla,
Dominica, Jamaica, Montserrat, Nevis and the Turks and Caicos
Islands. Digicel plans to build out an island wide digital cable and
home broadband network within three years. The acquisition of
Telstar and the island wide expansion of its cable footprint is a
strategic move to position the telecommunications firm to enter
the subscriber TV market; push its broadband Internet business;
and eventually offer fixed-line services, Digicel Jamaica CEO, Barry
O’Brien said. In Jamaica, mobile telecommunications is already at
high levels of saturation with a mobile phone penetration rate of
over 110 per cent. The latest subscriber TV service to be bought
by the telecommunications firm is Telstar. Telstar, a licensed
subscription television (STV) company which also provides
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
18
Columbus holds the lion’s share of the subscriber TV
market in the island. Its network passes approximately
310,000 homes, according to the Office of Utilities
Regulation (OUR). There are an estimated 850,000
dwellings island wide. Flow also holds an estimated
48 per cent of fixed line broadband subscriptions
across the island, with LIME claiming the remaining
52 per cent. But the acquisition of a major regional
content provider might give Digicel an edge in
Jamaica and in the other regional markets, where it
will compete with Columbus in cable and broadband.
IMC content includes Barclays Premier League, UEFA
Champions League, West Indies cricket, the Indian
Premier League and the IAAF Grand Prix. It has also
been responsible for the broadcast of major international events
such as the FIFA World Cup tournaments since 2006, including this
summer’s event, and the 2012 London Olympics. “As a complete
communications solutions provider, it’s all about ensuring our
customers enjoy access to the best multimedia content on the
best devices via the very best network and that we meet all of
their communication, entertainment and networking needs,” said
Digicel Group CEO, Colm Delves.
“SportsMax represents the perfect blend of sports entertainment
and infotainment with a Caribbean flavour and I would like to take
this opportunity to welcome the team to the Digicel family.” The
founder and a number of the lead principals from IMC will stay on
board to run the day-to-day operations of the content provider,
while maintaining equity positions in business.
Meanwhile, over in Trinidad and Togabo, Digicel has applied for
a subscription broadcasting service via a telecommunications
network, which is believed to be a cable licence, according to a
Telecommunications Authority of T&T (TATT) notice dated August
18. In subscription TV, Flow, the market leader, already has
competition from TSTT (bmobile’s parent), DirecTV, Green Dot,
smaller rural providers like MayaroCableTV, and even some offthe-grid pirates. Digicel is no newcomer to cable TV. Digicel already
owns cable television assets across the Caribbean. On July 17,
2014, Digicel had made an announcement that it was rolling out
fibre in several markets through its sub-sea fibre optic acquisition
that, at the time, was said to be “nearing completion.”¤
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BUSINESS TECH
CARIRI AND
CANTO TO
PROMOTE
MOBILE APPS
IN REGION
The Caribbean Industrial Research
Institute (Cariri) and Canto have signed a
memorandum of understanding (MOU)
to work together to strengthen the
region’s ability to develop, promote and
commercialise mobile applications.
Both institutions have a shared interest
to increase awareness on global and
regional Internet related challenges and
governance; promote regional mobile
app development; build regional technical
expertise through mentoring and training
and share knowledge and data on best
practices to assist in the development
of mobile apps programming. The MOU
commits the two institutions to sharing
knowledge and expertise related to mobile
application development across the
region.
Cariri CEO Liaquat Ali Shah and Secretary
General of Canto Regenie Fraser signed
the MOU for this new and innovative
relationship which will benefit the region
significantly.
At Freeport, Cariri has the Centre for
Enterprise Development which houses
its own mCentre, a mobile applications
has been recognised
as the leader in the field of consultancy,
innovation and testing for over 44 years.
is recognised as the
leading trade association of the ICT
sector for shaping information and
communication in the Caribbean. В¤
BEEFS UP STORAGE AND
ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL
D
ropbox will continue beefing up
the business version of its cloud
storage and file sharing service,
adding security features to shared
links, full-text search capabilities and new
tools for enterprise developers.
can now be turned on by Dropbox admins
for their end users. In the coming months,
Dropbox for Business will also gain a fulltext search engine, an upgrade over the
current search feature that is limited to
querying file names.
Dropbox, which has about 300 million
end users, is immensely popular among
consumers, but is now trying to elbow
its way into the fiercely competitive
enterprise market for cloud storage, file
sync and sharing services.
Dropbox is also extending its improved
Microsoft Office document preview
capabilities to its Android application, so
that users can check out a file without
necessarily downloading it.
“We’re taking the simplicity and ease of
use of our core product and marrying
it with IT admin controls in Dropbox for
Business,” said Ilya Fushman, Head of
Product for Dropbox for Business.
For Dropbox content shared via links, it
will now be possible for users to require a
password for access to the content and set
an expiration date for the link. This feature
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
lab that offers testing services to app
developers to ensure their apps are
optimised and ready for commercialisation.
Canto has held a mobile app competition
for the last three years called iCreate and
with this partnership, can now take the
developers forward to reach their full
commercialisation potential.
|
20
For developers, Dropbox is releasing
two new APIs Application Programming
interfaces. The Shared Folder API makes
the core functions of shared folders
available to third-party apps and tools.
Meanwhile, the Document Preview API
lets developers embed this feature into
their applications.
About 80,000 businesses pay for Dropbox
for Business, which costs $15 per user/
month, for a minimum of 5 users, and
features unlimited storage capacity. It
came out of its beta testing period in April.
The company declined to say how many
people use Dropbox for Business.
Other Dropbox for Business IT
administration controls include the ability
to remotely wipe Dropbox files from
employee devices, to track how and with
whom users share files via audit logs, and
to transfer control of employee accounts.
Meanwhile, with a free Google account,
people get 15GB of storage for files in Drive,
Gmail messages and Google+ photos, and
can purchase 100GB of additional storage
for $1.99 per month. В¤
Source: PCWorld
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BUSINESS TECH
CHINESE TELECOMS GIANT HUAWEI INTERESTED
IN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
T
The prime minister has already
promised that the country’s tax
structure will be restructured
to favour investments.
Huawei of the People’s Republic of China
made its position known during talks with
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister
Gaston Browne, when he visited the Asian
country late August.
While officials from LIME
telecommunications
have
expressed concern that the
partnership would create an
uneven playing field, Digicel
said it is not worried about the potential
competition.
elecommunications giants Digicel
and LIME may soon face competition
in Antigua and Barbuda from one of
the world’s largest telecommunications
company, Huawei, which has expressed
interest in investing in the twin island.
During the meeting, managers of the multimillion dollar telecoms company promised
to send a team of experts to Antigua by
mid-September to explore the possible
collaboration with state-owned Antigua
Public Utilities Authority (APUA) PCS for
the establishment of mobile, Internet and
cable television services.
Right now, both Digicel and LIME are
required to pay fees to APUA for network
use so they could deliver mobile and
broadband services.
In addition to being the largest
telecommunications company in Europe
and providing people across all geographic
areas with ease of access to highquality voice communications services,
Huawei focuses on bridging the digital
divide through broadband, talent, and
applications.
The company promotes broadband
availability everywhere and leverages
future-oriented ICT technologies to
address global challenges. В¤
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA APPOINTS INDIAN
ENTREPRENEUR TO PROMOTE HOMELAND SECURITY
SOLUTIONS
I
ndian entrepreneur Rajat Khare has
been named as Antigua and Barbuda’s
brand ambassador to promote tourism,
investment and homeland security
solutions within the twin island state.
Khare, one of the new breed of
entrepreneurs lending their expertise to a
wide range of governments globally, is the
promoter of ACSG, a homeland security
firm helping governments secure their
sensitive information and data.
The main areas of collaboration with
government agencies include developing
new technologies, cyber security,
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
22
emergency preparedness and firefighting, as well as conducting joint
research and development in homeland
security technology.
Reacting to his appointment, Khare
said: “Our partnership with government
agencies, both at home and especially
abroad, gives us an opportunity to show
the growing influence of Indian firms in
the IT and homeland security sectors.” ¤
BUSINESS TECH
PEP GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
PARTICIPATE IN CODE
SKN SUSTAINABLE
CHALLENGE 2014
APPLE AND SAMSUNG DROP
PATENT FIGHTS OUTSIDE THE
UNITED STATES
A
T
he combined team of People Employment Programme
(PEP) graphic designers and marketers, and Clarence
Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) programmers and
researchers has won the St. Kitts-Nevis leg of AgriHack Talent
Caribbean competition.
Three teams participated in the local challenge named CODE
SKN Sustainable Challenge 2014, two of which were made up
of PEP Graphic Design trainees. The winning group had four
members from the CFBC and two members from PEP, and
travelled to Suriname for the regional finals held October 6-10.
CODESKN Sustainable Challenge 2014 is part of a much
broader regional activity under the umbrella of AgriHack Talent
Caribbean, which is an initiative funded and supported by the
Technical Centre for Rural and Agriculture Development that is
an ACP/EU institution based out of the Netherlands.
AgriHack Talent Caribbean initiative, which was launched
in July 2014, is an ICT and social innovation and youth
entrepreneurship programme that has a mission to advance
food and nutritional security; increase prosperity and
encourage sound natural resource management in the African,
Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
Organiser, Telly Onu, Managing Director of Quintessence
Consulting, said the event started on Monday September
15 with a two-day training with assistance of Microsoft, and
final presentations were done in front of a panel of judges on
Saturday September 20. There were six challenges and each of
the three teams worked on one. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
24
pple and Samsung Electronics said they had agreed to
drop patent litigation against each other in countries
outside the United States, including Germany, Australia
and Japan. But they said they were not done fighting.
In a joint statement, the companies said they will continue to
pursue existing legal cases in the United States. They also clarified
that they had not agreed to license technologies from each other.
Still, the truce outside the United States suggests that tension
may be cooling down between the two electronics giants. Over
the past few years, Apple and Samsung have been engaged in
some of the most high-profile patent disputes in courtrooms.
After Apple sued Samsung in 2011, accusing it of copying some
features of the iPhone, Samsung fired back with lawsuits in seven
countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, Britain and France.
Many of those overseas lawsuits revolved around so-called
standard essential patents, which cover basic technologies that
companies must use in their products to comply with industry
standards.
In 2012, the European Union started an antitrust investigation
against Samsung over its use of standard essential patents in
its legal fights with Apple. Earlier this year, Samsung reached a
settlement with the (E.U.) in which it agreed that it would not
seek injunctions in Europe over standard-essential patents for
five years.
The biggest fights between Apple and Samsung have taken place
in the United States, and the companies have not suggested that
this would change. Apple won its first big patent fight against
Samsung in a California courtroom in 2012, and Samsung still
owes $930 million in damages. The case is under appeal.
But Apple’s victory was less decisive in a second big patent trial
earlier this year. Jurors concluded that Samsung owed Apple
$119.6 million in damages for violating three patents, far below
the $2 billion it had demanded in total. They also decided that
Apple owed Samsung $158,400 for violating two patents.В¤
MONEY MATTERS
BANK
ESTABLISHED
R
ussia, China, South Africa, India
and Brazil, all part of a group of
emerging economies, signed the
long-anticipated document to
create the $100 billion BRICS Development
Bank and a reserve currency pool worth
over another $100 billion in early July 2014.
Both will counter the influence of Westernbased lending institutions and the dollar.
The new bank will provide money for
infrastructure and development projects
in BRICS countries, and unlike the IMF or
World Bank, each nation will have equal
say, regardless of GDP size.
Each BRICS member is expected to put
an equal share into establishing the
startup capital of $50 billion with a goal
to reach $100 billion. The BRICS bank will
be headquartered in Shanghai; India will
preside as president the first year, and Russia
will be the chairman of the representatives.
“BRICS Bank will be one of the major
multilateral
development
finance
institutions in this world,” Russian President
Vladimir Putin said recently at the 6th BRICS
summit in Fortaleza, Brazil.
The big launch of the BRICS bank is seen as
a first step to break the dominance of the
US dollar in global trade, as well as dollarbacked institutions such as the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank,
both US-based institutions BRICS countries
have little influence within.
“In terms of escalating international
competition the task of activating the trade
and investment cooperation between BRICS
member states becomes important,” Putin
said.
Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa
account for 11 percent of global capital
investment, and trade turnover almost
doubled in the last 5 years, the president
reminded.
Each country will send either their finance
minister or Central Bank chair to the bank’s
representative board.
Membership may not just be limited to
just BRICS nations, either. Future members
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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26
could include countries in other emerging
markets blocs, such as Mexico, Indonesia,
or Argentina, once it sorts out its debt
burden.
BRICS represents 42 percent of the world’s
population and roughly 20 percent of the
world’s economy based on GDP, and 30
percent of the world’s GDP based on PPP, a
more accurate reading of the real economy.
Total trade between the countries is $6.14
trillion, or nearly 17 percent of the world’s
total.
The $100 billion crisis lending fund, called
the Contingent Reserve Arrangement
(CRA), was also established. China will
contribute the lion’s share, about $41
billion, Russia, Brazil and India will chip in
$18 billion, and South Africa, the newest
member of the economic bloc, will
contribute $5 billion.
The idea is that the creation of the bank
will lessen dependence on the West and
create a more multi-polar world, at least
financially.
“This mechanism creates the foundation
for an effective protection of our national
economies from a crisis in financial
markets," Russian President Vladimir Putin
said.
The group has already created the
BRICS Stock Alliance an initiative to
cross list derivatives to smooth the path
for international investors interested
in emerging markets. Russia has also
proposed the countries come together
under an energy alliance that will include
a fuel reserve, as well as an institute for
energy policy.
"We propose the establishment of the
Energy Association of BRICS. Under this
�umbrella,’ a Fuel Reserve Bank and BRICS
Energy Policy Institute could be set up,”
Putin said.
Documents on cooperation between BRICS
export credit agencies and an agreement
of cooperation on innovation was also
inked. Bringing emerging economies closer
has become vital at a time when the world
is guttered by the financial crisis and BRICS
countries can’t remain above international
problems, said Brazil's President Dilma
Rousseff.
She cautioned the world not to see BRICS
deals as a desire to dominate. “We want
justice and equal rights,” she said. “The
IMF should urgently revise distribution of
voting rights to reflect the importance of
emerging economies globally.” ¤
DEFENDS ITS POLICIES AFTER CRITICISM
FROM ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA’S PM
A senior official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) defended
its policies towards Antigua and Barbuda after the island’s new
government launched a scathing attack on the Washington-based
financial institution in August.
IMF Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere Department
Adrienne Cheasty was forced to abandoned her prepared speech
as to respond to remarks by Prime Minister Gaston Browne that
the IMF was responsible for the economic situation now facing the
island.
“I think that presentation would be kind of silly in light of the prime
minister’s frank and direct discussion,” she said, adding that the
IMF programme had helped avert a financial crisis in Antigua and
Barbuda.
�We stand very firmly behind all the difficult measures Antigua and
Barbuda has taken since the global crisis started. Antigua has an IMF
programme, it met the targets under the programme, it achieved
success, it averted the crisis which was so messy, so deep, so costly,
that thank goodness these difficult decisions were taken,” she said.
The IMF official acknowledged that the island took “difficult steps
to retain stability and not maybe spiral down into financial crisis”.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne was
addressing the Economic Business Forum and Book Launch hosted
by the Antigua and Barbuda Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Ltd. and IMF Western Hemisphere Department, also indicated
that his administration would not be seeking to enter into a new
agreement with the Washington-based financial institution.
The former Baldwin Spencer government had entered into a
36-month Stand By Agreement (SBA) with the IMF in 2010 for
an original amount of US$121.9 million with the Washingtonbased financial institution indicating in June that the aims of
the programme were “largely achieved despite considerable
challenges”.
It said the fiscal deficit dropped from 18 per cent of gross domestic
product (GDP) in 2009 to just over one per cent last year.
But Browne, whose Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) came
to power in the June 12 general elections, said that programme
failed to improve the economic situation and is partly to blame for
stagnating the economy.
He said the IMF had damaged the investment climate and slowed
the inflow of foreign direct investment and that the lending agency
had worsened the cash crisis that it was meant to solve.
Browne said he was not happy with the repayment terms of the
IMF loan.
He told delegates that his new administration was already in talks
with Venezuela for a loan to pay off the IMF “in short order” and
that he was seeking a US$150 million from China, a move he said he
was certain the IMF would not approve. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
27
MONEY MATTERS
“OECS Needs Injection of �Serious Hard’ Cash to
Address Challenges” says Chairman of the OECS
Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Mnister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Monetary Council of the ECCB Elects New Chairman
T
he Organisation of Eastern
Caribbean States (OECS) must
mobilise large sums of money
if it is to address the challenges
confronting its nine member countries.
“And that is where we call on our
development partners to appreciate the
challenges with which we are confronted,”
Chairman of the OECS, Prime Minister
of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit, told the
opening ceremony of the 59th meeting of
the OECS Authority.
“The challenge which we have, with the
issue of debt, the issues of our banking
system, our financial system, strengthening
those institutions, we are going to need an
injection of serious hard financial resources
to address these challenges,” he said.
Skerrit said OECS leaders came to that
conclusion during the 79th meeting of the
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Monetary
Council where they received the ECCB
Governor’s Report on Money and Credit
Conditions in the Eastern Caribbean
Currency Union.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
28
“As time goes by, with the global [financial]
crisis not abating, it is placing greater
stress on our resources,” he said, adding
that none of the OECS countries has the
fiscal space in which to maneuver. “What
we are doing as governments, whether it
is in St. Vincent, or St. Lucia or Grenada,
or Antigua, can almost be described as
marginal,” Skerrit said.
“Because of the enormity of the challenge,
unavailability of resources; it is amazing
that these countries continue to provide
almost adequately to our citizens,” said
Skerrit, who is also Dominica’s Minister
of Finance. “Our citizens must appreciate
those things, because when demands
are made on our governments, our
governments must also find resources,
and I know nobody in the OECS wants to
pay any form of taxation; and, therefore,
we have to be measured with our request
of our citizens.”
“Prime Minister [Ralph Gonsalves] here
in St. Vincent is building an international
airport using extraordinary means and
strategies – an international airport during
the most difficult financial crisis in our
lifetime. And I think these are the sort
of things that we need to appreciate as
citizens of our countries,” Skerrit said.
As a precursor to the aforementioned
meetings, Chairmanship of the Monetary
Council of the Eastern Caribbean
Central Bank (ECCB) was transferred to
Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves,
Council Member for St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, during the official Handing
Over Ceremony held at the Buccament Bay
Resort, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Prime Minister Gonsalves succeeded the
Outgoing Chairman, the Honourable Dr.
Kenny D. Anthony, Council Member for St.
Lucia.
The Monetary Council is the highest
decision making authority of the ECCB and
comprises the eight Ministers for Finance
of the ECCB member governments.
Chairmanship of the Council is rotated
alphabetically each year among the eight
ECCB member countries: Anguilla, Antigua
and Barbuda, The Commonwealth of
Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts
and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the
Grenadines. В¤
MONEY MATTERS
ROOMER HAS IT
Are your customers
showroomers or
webroomers?
By Pilaiye Cenac
E-commerce (better known as Amazon)
has not yet demolished brick and mortar
retailers. Says who? Well, the latest
webrooming trend appears to provide
hope to traditional businesses. Apparently
the much-despised showrooming is giving
way to the reverse. Let’s define those
buzzwords before we go on.
headache and additional cost of shipping
items whence they came.
Showrooming: Customer goes to store
to view product but does not purchase
there. Customer then sneaks back to that
smartphone, tablet or computer to make
that purchase online. Some retailers
abroad fought against this by instituting a
�just looking’ fee —a move guaranteed to
alienate customers.
• The human touch: knowledgeable, and
hopefully friendly, human attendants
make a difference to many people.
• Ensure that customer expectations are
met or exceeded by examining drivers for
in-store purchasing
• Security: Many consumers still feel safer
purchasing in store rather than providing
their payment information online. Also,
persons purchasing very expensive items
tend to prefer purchasing in store.
• Offer online coupons for in-store
purchases
What drives a consumer to purchase
online?
• Employ knowledgeable and dynamic
sales staff to convert showroomers into
customers
Webrooming:
Customer spends time
online researching a product, becomes an
�expert’ in a matter of hours, then heads
to a store to test, assess and buy. Research
shows that persons from all age groups
webroom; men tend to do so a little more
than women. Persons looking to purchase
items such as electronics and shoes are
keen webroomers.
Forget the clever marketing jargon,
consumers WILL take advantage of all
reasonable channels available to them;
retailers expecting them to do otherwise
will be disappointed. It’s best to find ways
of satisfying consumers across the different
channels, and to do so retailers will need
to understand consumers’ motivations.
What drives a consumer to purchase in
store?
• The opportunity to touch the product,
test it, try it out, try it on, twirl in front of
the mirror, try another…
• No shipping cost and no risk of items
being damaged en route
• Instant gratification: no long wait for the
product to be delivered
• Less hassle to return the item to the
store if the need arises. No one wants the
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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30
• In-store ambiance: Some consumers
enjoy the look and feel of the store. A
friend of mine describes the sound of
hangers sliding across racks as “music to
her ears”.
• Variety, variety, variety: online,
consumers can access a lot more than
a physical location can hold. Online
shopping offers the world at a click… or a
few hundred clicks.
• Convenience: they can literally shop till
they max out their card (s) in pajamas,
or less, in the comfort of their home, at
any hour of the day/night. It provides
the opportunity to save gas money, bus
fare, time and energy. No walking from
store to store, no bags to tote around, no
unfriendly human attendants…
• Better price: Online shoppers love the
deals and the opportunity to compare
prices easily
• Reviews from product users: to
consumers this feedback is more powerful
than advertising and, in many cases,
information from sales staff.
• Discreet shopping opportunity: it
allows privacy so buyers are spared
the embarrassment when purchasing
particular items.
Consumers want a hassle-free, safe and
consistent retail experience. Retailers
will need to continue to monitor the
trend, keep talking to their customers to
appreciate their preferences. Few St. Lucian
businesses offer consumers the option to
purchase online but organizations can:
• Keep in store inventory up to date with
what is available on their website
• Evaluate online competitors
• Explore offering online purchasing option
Offering some of the features traditionally
found in online shopping is sure to position
you ahead of other retailers and increases
customer purchases. В¤
About the Author
Pilaiye Cenac is
an entrepreneur.
Her qualifications
include a BSc.
in
Psychology
and
Sociology
and an MSc. in
Marketing. She is
also a PMP and a
published writer.
One of her companies, In Tandem, focuses
on low cost approaches to enriching
the customer experience. She can be
contacted at [email protected].
A&B TO GET
OVER EC$10.5
MILLION FROM EU
A
ntigua and Barbuda is to receive three million euros, the
equivalent of more than EC$10.6 million, in grants from the
European Union.
Antigua and Barbuda was among 10 Caribbean countries and
11 African and Pacific (ACP) countries, which participated in the
ceremony, sealing their various national funding commitments.
The money comes through the Antigua and Barbuda National
Indicative Programme under the 11th European Development
Fund.
In addressing the gathering, Commissioner Piebalgs noted that:
“For the European Union it is essential that our programmes are
drawn up in close cooperation with our partner countries, based
on governments’ own policies and strategies and reflecting their
stated needs. This is how we ensure that programming documents
really support areas where the EU can add value.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Charles �Max’ Fernandez signed the
agreement at a meeting held on the margins of the SIDS
conference in Samoa.
European Commissioner for Development, Adris Piebalgs cosigned the document.
Out of that sum US2.4 million euros would be allocated to develop
Public Financial Management systems and 600 thousand euros
for the focal sector, including civil society support.
No further details were given on the grants from the EU in a
government statement, which announced the agreement.
Speaking after the signing, Fernandez welcomed the new resources
and indicated that it demonstrates the EU’s commitment towards
the further integration of Antigua and Barbuda into the global
economy.
A government statement said in the coming months, Antigua and
Barbuda, through the Office of the National Authorising Officer
will continue its engagement with the EU and local stakeholders
towards implementation of this tranche of funding. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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31
The Culture of Discipline:
The Essential Ingredient for Excellence
in Corporate Governance
By Harvey Millar Ph.D., P. Eng.
Dr. Millar is a full professor in the
Sobey School of Business at Saint
Mary’s University in Canada. He is the
principal consultant with Management
Technologies specialising in organisational
improvement interventions, which include
among others: strategic planning, strategy
execution, performance management,
and governance evaluations. He can be
reached at [email protected].
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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32
I recently completed a governance
retreat with a client where a rather
interesting question was raised by one of
the participants: “Why do Boards do the
things they do?” he asked. The question
gave much pause for thought among those
present. The first response was a follow
up question seeking further clarification,
“what do you mean by the things they
do?” Boards govern, or at least they are
supposed to. Boards do many things: plan
strategy, hire the CEO, develop succession
plans, develop corporate policies, ensure
integrity of the financial records, etc. But
the original question was really not about
why boards govern, but rather about a more
disturbing question of “why boards govern
so poorly?” The geographical context for
this question, if I am not mistaken was not
North America and Europe, but rather the
Caribbean. This begs several questions.
“How do Caribbean boards govern?” Is the
Caribbean governance landscape riffed
with success stories or colossal failures that
we are simply not aware of?” The dearth
of publications on Caribbean corporate
governance practices makes it difficult to
answer these questions.
The governance failures of the past decade
or more have led to a heightened focus on
corporate governance while simultaneously
fueling an appetite for governance success
stories. While corporate governance is
not new to the Caribbean, it lacks the
level of scrutiny, research, publication, etc.
that characterizes corporate governance
in OECD countries. Hence, we are hardpressed to offer with great certainty,
commentary on the level of maturity, the
level of success, and the extent of failure
among Caribbean corporate boards.
Based on my experience with local and
regional boards, many if not all, use the
classic structural model that is made up
of a mix of executive and independent
directors and possess standing committees
each with their terms of reference or
charter. The Board has responsibility for
running the corporation and will do so
by delegating roles and responsibilities
to the Board Committees, CEO, and
executive management team. The Board
speaks as one voice and the Chair is
usually deemed the “voice of the Board.”
Suffice to say that this model is also
prevalent in North America and Europe.
As such, it is reasonable to assume that
many of the issues that plague corporate
boards in OECD countries would also
plague Caribbean corporate Boards. The
difference between the extent and nature
of successes and/or failures for the two
groups (OECD countries and the Caribbean)
may be influenced by cultural factors that
impact how governance is executed.
In my search for answers to “why do
Boards do what they do?” I had to begin
by acknowledging some likely truths: for
example, most boards have a well-defined
and documented structure or framework
for governing; most directors understand
the structure of their boards and have a
sense of their roles and responsibilities;
most directors come to a board with
the intention of doing some good; and
that most directors do their best with
the knowledge that they have. We can
question whether the board structure is
optimised for the type of organisation,
or whether a director’s knowledge is
adequate and relevant for the task. But
many of the factors that give rise to
governance failures has less to do with
the governance framework and more to
do with the execution of governance. An
analysis of corporate governance failure in
the financial industry highlighted several
contributing factors which include among
others: management incompetence; nonobservance of the procedures stipulated in
internal regulations; insufficient attention
paid to risk management; inconsistent
distribution of duties and responsibilities;
inefficiency of internal audit; ignorance
showed to the signals provided by external
audit; influencing the external auditors to
express an audit opinion inconsistent with
reality. All of these factors point to one
crucial ingredient: organisational culture,
and in particular the culture of discipline
and ethical behavior. Discipline and ethical
behavior speaks directly to governance
execution, and while I’ve said that the
governance failure has more to do with
execution than structure, it is possible that
a weak governance structure or framework
can provide fertile ground for ill-discipline
and unethical behavior.
The book “From Good to Great”
emphasizes the importance of selfdiscipline as a critical factor in modern
corporate culture. What then are some
essential types of discipline that can have
a positive impact on governance practice?
For the purpose of this article, I will discuss
5 essential disciplines for excellence in code. Unfortunately many boards lack a
corporate governance.
spiritual ethos, which makes it possible
for unethical and unspiritual directors to
The Discipline of Self-Awareness:
thrive unchecked. Many boards don’t
even start with a simple prayer. The 42
Directors must have an acute sense of principles of Ma’at (the ancient Egyptian
who they are; their likes, dislikes, skills philosophy) offer a fantastic starting point
and abilities; their beliefs and values; for ethical self-reflection. The principles
what drives them; and their sense of are embodied in confessions such as: I
loyalty. Directors must park their egos have not done iniquity; I have not stolen;
and honestly self-assess whether they are I have not caused pain; I have not judged
a good fit for the organisation. This is the hastily; I have not stirred up strife; I have
starting point of personal integrity in the not acted with insolence; I have not fouled
context of the role as director.
the water. These are powerful principles
that can guide both individual and group
The Discipline of Self-Improvement: ethical behavior.
It is one thing to know one’s make up. It is
another thing to act upon one’s weaknesses
in pursuit of self-improvement. Directors
must be willing to take the necessary
steps to improve their contextual skills,
knowledge and understanding, and reflect
on their spiritual ethos. Self-improvement
can be a challenge. But directors must
find the time to close critical skills and
knowledge gaps if they are to add value to
the governance of the corporation.
The Discipline of Thought and Analysis: It
is crucial that each director sharpen their
analytical sword. Effective decision-making
requires an evidence-based disposition
and hence great analytical skills, the ability
to reason, the ability to think both shortterm and long-term, and the ability to ask
the right questions cannot be overstated.
Asking good questions is both an art and
a science. Good questions often emanate
from a location of healthy cognition.
Directors must have the discipline to ask
the right questions, the hard questions,
and the discipline to work through the fuzzy
data or scenarios before making decisions
that will have serious consequences for
the company. There must be the discipline
to resist the temptation of expedience
over due diligence.
The Discipline of Ethical Praxis:
All directors must check their moral
and professional compass and act in a
manner that respects universal principles
of right and wrong. Directors must be
willing to act in accordance with a set
of core principles and values that are
defensible in the court of morality and
the court of public opinion. Directors
must have the resolve to walk away when
asked to make decisions that are in direct
conflict with their moral and spiritual
The Discipline of Action: Governing is an
act and as such, directors must therefore
take action before the benefits of good
governance can be realised. What actions
are taken and how these actions are
executed will determine the outcomes that
follow. Directors must have the discipline
to act timely; act with confidence; act
forthrightly; act in good faith; act with
knowledge; act with a sense of purpose;
act in the best interest of the sustainability
of the corporation; act morally and
ethically; and act with skill and agility.
Directors, individually and collectively
must have the fortitude to act on both the
hard painful decisions as well as the fun
and pleasurable ones; for procrastination
of tough decisions or an over-emphasis
on easy pleasurable decisions will both
lead to failure. Finally disciplined action is
required for both planned and emergent
events. The latter is particularly hard; as
emergent issues, crises, market collapses,
economic decline, social unrests, etc.,
often carry with them the seeds that can
germinate into chaos.
Achieving excellence in corporate
governance is by no means an easy
feat. Given a corporation submerged
in the complexity of its internal and
external environments, the interests of its
shareholders and stakeholders, the skills
and capabilities of its managerial assets,
optimising governance practice is indeed
difficult. Having an efficient governance
infrastructure is immensely important and
is the natural starting point. But even more
important is the culture of governance
and in particular, the culture of discipline
that is needed to fuel the successes of this
engine called the Board.В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
33
Special
Feature
Prime Minister The Honorable
GASTONBROWNE
LEADING THE TEAM
Committed to
Transforming the Economy
of Antigua & Barbuda
FEATURE
ABLP TAKES THE REINS
OF GOVERNMENT
THE POWER
OF CHANGE
On 12 June 2014 the people of Antigua & Barbuda voted for
change and gave an overwhelming popular vote to the Antigua
and Barbuda Labour Party to form the new Government with
a resounding victory at the polls.
With this victory came many changes, some controversial, in
the immediate period, with many more to follow during the
life of this new ABLP Government. The reality however is that
the people gave the party a mandate to effect change for the
better of the country and all its people.
Change is inevitable. Change is good - it invigorates, it excites,
it helps move us forward. But, change requires courage and an
open mind. However, let’s face it, change can also be painful,
uncomfortable, and anxiety-producing.
The political winds of change has brought us what many
describe as a new, youthful and energetic Prime Minister in
Gaston Browne and a new team of Ministers of Government.
September 20th saw the new Government completing its
100th day in office.
During this period, the changes effected and new projects
unveiled have dominated the conversations among the
people, creating positive and some negative expectations
given the current challenging economic times.
Antigua and Barbuda has taken the leadership of CARICOM,
with our Prime Minister serving as Chairman and asserting
himself as a gracious host and confirming our solidarity
with the grouping. Bold initiatives have been explored on
several fronts, with the confirmation of major foreign direct
investments and many new projects on the horizon.
Clearly the new Government intends to be proactive and
employ change management strategies, which they project
will make them successful in this period of change.
We all hope that these changes will bear fruit and dispel the
fear of the unknown for the sake of our nation and its people.
The current state of Antigua and Barbuda’s economy is
challenging. Our Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, has
promised positive change and we all look forward to him and
his ABLP Government fullfilling the promise to turn Antigua
and Barbuda into an economic powerhouse.
36 |
BusinessFocus • July/September 2014
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GASTON BROWNE
Prime Minister and
Minister of Finance
Constituency:
St. John’s City West
Browne’s political career
began around 1998 when
he was in his very early
30s. Prior to becoming
Prime Minister, he served
continuously as a legislator
for 15 years, five of which
he served as the country’s
Minister of Planning &
Trade.
Previously,
he
managed a banking group
comprising a domestic
bank, an offshore bank and
a trust company. During those years, Browne owned and operated
a number of successful private businesses, while also serving on the
boards of several private and publicly owned corporations to include
LIAT (1974 Ltd). He is a Professional in Banking and has a Masters
Degree in Business Administration, specializing in Finance.
ROBIN YEARWOOD
Minister of
Utilities,Civil Aviation
and Transportation
Constituency:
St. Philip’s North
Robin Yearwood has served
as a representative for St
Phillip’s North in Antigua and
Barbuda’s Parliament since
1978. During his time as a
representative, Yearwood served
as Parliamentary Secretary in
the Ministry of Education, Minister of Agriculture, Land and
Fisheries, Minister of Public Utilities and Minister of Public
Utilities, Public Works and Energy. He also served as Minister
of Finance, Public Utilities, Housing and Aviation and once held
the position of Deputy Prime Minister. He’s the region’s longest
serving parliamentarian.
STEADROY �CUTIE’
BENJAMIN
PAUL “CHET”
GREENE
Attorney General,
Minister of Legal
Affairs, Labour,
Immigration and
Police
Minister of
Trade, Industry,
Commerce,
National Festivals,
Culture & Sports
Constituency:
St. John’s City South
Constituency: St. Paul
Benjamin, an attorney, became involved in Antigua and
Barbuda’s government more than 30 years ago. He was first
appointed to the Senate on November 1, 1981 and served
two terms, before being elected to the Lower House to
represent St John’s City East.
He has been a key figure in Antigua and Barbuda’s national
sports administration, serving as Commissioner of Sports in
the Ministry of Sports, President of the Antigua and Barbuda
Olympic Association, and an International Football Official
Administrator.
He has held on to that seat since 1994, and was eventually
elected Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Benjamin also served as the Minister of Labour, Home
Affairs, Ecclesiastical Affairs, Public Safety and Co-operatives.
He also acted as Attorney General, Ministry of Legal Affairs,
an Adviser on National Security and performed the functions
of Minister of Public Works.
Greene received a degree in Sports Administration from the
UniversitГ© de Poitiers in France, which he immediately put
to use upon his return to Antigua. He served as the President
of the Liberta Sports Club, and was Captain of the Liberta
Parish Cricket League team, where he holds the record for
most wins.
ASOT ANTHONY
MICHAEL
SAMANTHA
MARSHALL
Minister of
Tourism,
Economic
Development,
Investment and
Energy
Minister of Social
Transformation and
Human Resource
Development
Constituency: St. Peter
After an extensive period abroad studying to obtain among
other things, an MBA from the University of Miami, Michael
returned to Antigua to work in the family business, Asot’s
Arcade, named after his late grandfather.
In 1997 Michael was appointed by Lester Bird, then-Prime
Minister, as his Chief of Staff. He was then appointed a
Government Senator, as well as Minister of State, responsible
for Public Works, Communications, Insurance, Energy and
St. John’s Development Corporation. He continued in this
role until 2001, when he was appointed Junior Minister of
Finance and Leader of Government Business in the Senate.
Constituency: St. Mary’s South
A member of the Bar Association
in Antigua and Barbuda, Ms.
Marshall owns her own law firm,
Stapleton Chambers in St John’s. She has established a reputation
as one of the island’s leading attorneys in the criminal and civil
divisions.
She is the only female in Cabinet.
She’s passionate about education, gender equality and
empowerment and youth development.
In 2008, she joined with other women and formed the group
“Women Against Rape” to fulfil the role of a support entity and
an awareness group to help the victims and families cope with
such traumatic incidents.
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CHARLES �MAX’
FERNANDEZ
EUSTACE �TECO’
LAKE
Minister of Foreign
Affairs and
International Trade
Minister of
Public Works and
Housing.
Constituency:
St. John’s Rural North
He holds a Business Management
Degree at the University of the
West Indies. Fernandez joined
the Antigua Labour Party in 1984,
and was appointed to the Senate in 1995 by then Prime Minister
Lester Bird. He served as a Senator until 2004.
During his time in the Senate, Fernandez also served as Chairman
of the Board of The Free Trade and Processing Zone from 1995
to 2002, and Chairman of the Board of The Medical Benefits
Scheme from 2002 to 2004.
He’s an entrepreneur who manages and directs The Deluxe
Theatre Ltd. in Antigua.
Constituency:
St. John’s Rural South
Lake has been a member
of Antigua and Barbuda’s
legislature since 2009. Apart
from a political career, he has
served as the Chairman of the Caribbean Commonwealth
Human Rights Group, an organisation that works closely with
international and regional groups to protect the rights of all
humans.
He has participated in conferences on human rights around
the world and presented a position paper in Geneva
entitled “The Role of Parliamentarians in the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights.”
Lake studied at Antigua State College and Saint John Fisher
College, where he earned a Bachelors of Arts in Economics.
MOLWYN JOSEPH
ARTHUR NIBBS
Minister of Health &
Environment, Planning
Minister of
Agriculture, Lands,
Fisheries and
Barbuda Affairs
Constituency:
St. Mary’s North
In 1985 he entered into politics
as Junior Minister in the Ministry
of Economic Development,
Tourism and Energy under the
leadership of Lester Bird.
Seven years later, Joseph
became Minister of Finance and
Trade and later served as Minister for Planning, Implementation
and Environment, Minister of Health and Social Improvement,
and Minister of Tourism.
As a climate change activist and an international Antiguan
Ambassador, he led a delegation to the Heads of Government
meeting in Grenada in 1985, spoke on behalf of the Organization
of the Eastern Caribbean States in Bangkok, Thailand and in 1995
addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the issue of
climate change on behalf of Antigua and Barbuda.
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Constituency: Barbuda
Arthur Nibbs first contested
a seat on the Barbuda
Council in 1977 but lost. He
ran again two years later, and
was elected to the council and eventually served 10 years.
As a young council member, Nibbs was a part of the effort to
secure political independence from Britain for Antigua and
Barbuda. He served as a member of the Barbuda delegation
in talks with Sir Stanley Arthur, the British Government
Representative in the Caribbean and represented Barbuda at
the British Foreign Office in London.
MICHAEL BROWNE
LESTER BRYANT BIRD
Minister of
Education, Science
and Technology
Senior Minister
Minister of Education,
Science and Technology
Constituency:
All Saints West
Constituency:
St. John’s Rural East
Browne completed a dual
Bachelors Degree at The
University of the West Indies,
Mona. On graduating from
UWI, he postponed further
studies to return home to assist his mother. He later pursued
graduate studies in the Science of Teaching and Education
Administration and Supervision, at Pace University and then
International Educational Development at Teachers College
,Columbia University. He subsequently began pursuing a
Doctorate in Education Leadership and Policy and a Juris
Doctorate of Laws at Howard University.
He was once a Senior Sub-Editor at the Antigua Sun and then
The Daily Observer newspaper. He also served as a Public
Relations Manager at Ribbit, and then at Sandals Resort and
Spa. He taught at the Princess Margaret Secondary School
where he founded an Etiquette and Modeling Club to help
students develop leadership skills.
The Bird family has been one of the
most influential political dynasties in
the history of Antigua and Barbuda.
Lester Bird’s political career began in
1970 with his election to Parliament.
He was re-elected several times and later became Deputy Prime
Minister to Sir Vere Bird, his father. In 1994 he succeeded his late
father as Prime Minister, a role he would continue to hold for the next
10 years.
In 2004 the political tides changed and Lester Bird and the Antigua
Labour Party lost at the polls. He returned in 2009 as a Parliamentary
Representative and Opposition Leader. A few years later, he lost the
leadership of the ALP to Gaston Browne.
His success on the field earned him an athletic scholarship to the
University of Michigan. He then went on to study Law in England and
returned to Antigua to practice and enter the political arena.
MELFORD NICHOLAS
DEAN JONAS
Minister of
Broadcasting,
Telecommunications,
and Information.
Deputy Speaker
of the House of
Representatives
Constituency:
St. John’s City East
Nicholas has led a successful
and distinguished career in the
private sector, where he spent
approximately 25 years in the Telecommunications Industry
and amassed a wealth of experience in industrial relations and
various business disciplines. He last held the position of Chief
Operations Officer at Cable & Wireless Antigua Business Unit
and Vice President of Sales and Business Development for the
OECS Territory.
Constituency: St. Georges
Jonas has been instrumental in the
opening and equipping of volunteer
learning resource centers that offer
tutoring in CXC Math, English A
and computer literacy for younger
students, as well as adult instruction
courses for his constituents. He also runs a private school with
kindergarten, primary and secondary divisions.
He has a keen interest in sports and has sponsored many youth
teams for football, cricket, basketball and netball.
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39
FEATURE
DR. RODNEY WILLIAMS
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA’S
NEW GOVERNOR GENERAL
A
ntigua and Barbuda swore in its fourth
Governor General, Dr Rodney Williams, in
August 2014.
After taking the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of
Office, Sir Rodney told Parliament and the nation that
he accepted his duties with humility and measured
pride.
He reminisced on his achievements, emphasising
a penchant for service, which led him to a medical
career.
“In truth, my decision to pursue a career in medicine
was primarily based on the notion that the field of
medicine provided me with an excellent opportunity
to serve mankind,” the new GG said.
Sir Rodney spoke fondly of his father, the late Ernest
Emanuel Williams, who was one of the longest
serving members of Parliament in the history of
Antigua & Barbuda.
Sir Rodney was elected to represent the St Paul
constituency in Parliament and as a Minister of
Government after his father’s death in 1984. He
served as a Cabinet Minister between 1992 and 2004
in the portfolios of Education, Culture, Technology,
Economic Development, Tourism, and Environment.
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40
SIR CLARE ROBERTS
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA’S
GOVERNOR GENERAL’S
DEPUTY
S
ir Clare Roberts was sworn in as the Governor
General’s Deputy, replacing Sir Eustace Francis
who held the post since 2004 under the former
United Progressive Party (UPP) administration.
Sir Clare, who has been described by many as a wellrespected son of the soil, is a prominent Lawer; he is
also a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice
and Legal Affairs. Other positions of prestige include
his standing as a past President of the Inter American
Commission on Human Rights.
Sir Clare was admitted to the Bar in 1975 and mainly
practices in the areas of Human Rights, Maritime Law,
Taxation, Labour and Employment Law.
On the occasion of Antigua and Barbuda’s 25th
anniversary of political independence – in 2006 –
Sir Clare was awarded one of the country’s highest
honours, that of Knight Commander of The Most
Distinguished Order of the Nation (KCN), for his
contribution to the legal profession, human rights and
the youth.
As to how he expects to use his new position, the
newly appointed Governor General’s Deputy pledged
his support to Governor General, Dr Rodney Williams
for national development.
Antigua and Barbuda names
a new slate of Diplomats
Newly Appointed Diplomats: L to R: Johann Lebrecht Hesse - Ambassador to the African Union, Gilbert Antoine Boustany Ambassador at Large/Consul General of Antigua and Barbuda in Miami, Governor General Dr Rodney Williams, Prime Minister
Gaston Browne, Ernell Casroy James - Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Brian Stuart-Young - Non-Resident Ambassador to
China & Hon Charles Max Fernandez - Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Trade
Antigua and Barbuda’s Governor General Dr Rodney Williams
announced the appointments, which include Brian StuartYoung as Non-Resident Ambassador to China; Gilbert Antoine
Boustany as Ambassador at Large/Consul General of Antigua
and Barbuda in Miami; Johann Lebrecht Hesse as Ambassador
to the African Union and Ernell Casroy James as Ambassador to
the United Arab Emirates.
“Our vision is to transform this country into an economic
powerhouse in the Caribbean and we have to make sure that
we have the right people in the right places and make sure that
we have square pegs in square holes and I am confident that
these individuals have the capacity to help move the country
forward,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne said following the
announcement.
Earlier, career diplomat Sir Ronald Sanders was appointed the
post of Antigua and Barbuda’s High Commissioner to the United
Kingdom. Sir Ronald, who held the post twice before under the
Antigua Labour Party, replaced Dr Carl Roberts, who like other
ambassadors, demitted office on June 30 – two weeks after Antigua
and Barbuda elected a new government.
Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda’s only Rhodes Scholar to date, is
to be named Ambassador to the United States and Organisation of
American States – OAS.
Karen-Mae Hill, currently the Managing Director of Trium Bank &
Trust, will take up the posting in Washington DC.
Hill, a former student of the Foundation Mixed and Antigua Girls’
High schools, is an attorney. В¤
Browne said the country also planned to appoint a number
of “economic envoys” around the world and to have a Consul
General soon in China.
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41
FEATURE
An Exclusive Interview With
Prime Minister Gaston Browne
The Mission: Rebuilding Antigua & Barbuda
MEET OUR
PRIME MINISTER
He was born on February 9, 1967 and
baptised Gaston Browne. He grew up
impoverished as one of two children
being raised by a single mother who was
often unemployed. From age nine, Gaston
had to learn to fend for himself when his
mother became mentally ill, and never
recovered. But these harsh circumstances
didn’t break his spirit. In fact, he pushed
harder and today, he’s thankful for the
lessons learned during his years attending
government schools, Villa Primary and
Princess Margaret Secondary.
Those lessons, and the people around him,
served as the fuel that got him through
graduate studies at the University of
Manchester, England, where he also earned
his Masters in Business Administration.
In a candid conversation with Business
Focus, the father of four said the same
“ghetto” upbringing continues to motivate
him as Prime Minister to strive to improve
the lives of others.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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Business Focus: First of all, congratulations
on your victory at the 2014 polls and
becoming the youngest Prime Minister of
Antigua and Barbuda and now Chairman
of CARICOM. Before we get down to
talking business and governance, tell us a
bit about more about yourself.
GB: I’m just an ordinary Antiguan and
Barbudan. I’m the product of a low income
family where I lived poor, among the
poorest of the poor. I lived in very deprived
circumstances in terms of my nurturing.
Business Focus: Did your background
motivate you to get into business and
politics?
GB: My entry politics was by accident. In
so far as business is concerned, given my
past, I was always motivated to earn. I like
to do things. I don’t like to be idle. So while
working at the bank, I first of all diversified
into a car business. I actually was part
owner of the Subaru car company on Old
Parham Road. I was the largest shareholder
in that particular entity and served as
Chairman of that company until we had a
falling out among the shareholders.
Business Focus: How long did it last
before the fall out?
GB: We had that company for, I believe
about two years. But it had grown very
quickly and we had to bring in additional
shareholders in order to raise the capital.
And we sold the majority of the shares back
in 1991. But the problem was, there was
no synergy between the old shareholders
and the new ones. Because of the hostility
that had started I decided to step out and I
started trading used and new vehicles and
then ventured into housing. The primary
business I’ve been involved in is housing
development,
primarily
residential
housing in particular.
Business Focus: You mentioned working
at the bank earlier, which bank and in
what position?
GB: I worked with Swiss American Banking
group which comprised a domestic bank,
an offshore bank and a trust company and
I rose to the level of Commercial Banking
Manager and Deputy General Manager
of that group. I had actually started as a
Teller back in 1986 after I left �A’ levels and
they gave me a scholarship to go to the
United Kingdom to study banking, then
promoted me into management. Actually
they promoted me into management
in lieu of me going to the University of
Exeter to complete my Masters degree
at the time. In fact they had even agreed
to fund my post graduate degree. I had
gotten accepted to do a one year post
graduate degree at University of Exeter.
But for some reason they thought my
services were very important.
Business Focus: So how long did you
serve the bank?
GB: I was there for about 13 years,
I left December 31, 1998. But I was
a consultant with the bank for a few
months into 1999. At that time I was
transitioning into electoral politics.
Business Focus: You said you got into
politics by accident, tell us how that
happened.
GB: Back in 1997/98 I was approached
by some very prominent individuals in
my community, including Mr Martin
of Brownie’s Bakery and I think Petra
Williams was one of them as well. They
encouraged me to contest the primary
for the Antigua Labour Party to replace
Henderson Simon. He had gotten defeated
in the previous election and the Labour
Party was apparently looking for a new
candidate. When I was first approached
I decided not to proceed because I was
in very comfortable circumstances at
the time. I was making $16,000 at Swiss
American and I really didn’t have any plans
for a political career.
Business Focus: Or to trade $16,000 for
less?
GB: That too! You’re absolutely right.
So, initially I actually declined the offer
(chuckles). And then after constant
pressures and individuals insisting it’s
a great opportunity to serve at the
national level, I decided to take a shot at
it. I didn’t start too strongly in the sense
that I remember my first two weeks at
the branch level I got defeated by Len
Mussington for control of the branch. But
I was a total rookie at the time. The truth
is, he was more politically savvy than I was involved in the last three and a half years
and he was able to defeat me.
but they have not been able to introduce
any form of sustainable growth into the
Business Focus: How old were you when country’s economy and the reason for that is,
you transitioned into politics?
there has not been any significant increase in
investments. Our plans are to increase trade
GB: About 30/31. We then had a primary, and to attract new investments.
and during the primary I defeated
Mussington. I actually got about 70 per Business Focus: Well, that’s why we want
cent of the votes. So that will tell you to know your plans on how to turn things
how organised and how competitive I was around?
at the time. From an early age, for some
reason I always had a very positive outlook GB: There isn’t a textbook solution…the
and a very competitive spirit.
focus of our government will be on attracting
more investments and bringing more tourists
to the country. I can assure you we
have sown some very positive seeds
so far that should result in increases
in investments and tourist arrivals
in 2015. My Minister of Tourism is
trying to attract Copa Airlines here.
I will actually meet with officials
of Jet Blue, myself and Mr Gordon
Butch Stewart of Sandals. So, we’re
not just sitting back and waiting
for opportunities to come. That’s
the difference between the former
government and our administration.
They were comfortable telling the
people of Antigua and Barbuda
there was a global crisis and that
global growth is sluggish and there’s
Business Focus: How much did you trade nothing they could do. We’ve taken the
your $16,000 for?
position that notwithstanding the difficulties,
there are opportunities to be exploited. Our
GB: At the time, I think the ministerial pay mantra is that it can be done and it will be
was $10,000 and allowances would have done.
taken it up to $12,000 which is basically
the same now. It has not increased. But Business Focus: Antigua and Barbuda is
I was always doing business. I never known as one of the heavily indebted
believed in one income. I don’t like to feel countries and the pay-back history is/was
vulnerable. I value my independence and I dark, two of the things your administration
never wanted to in a position to be totally would have to do are boost investor
vulnerable to my employer, so I always confidence and also reduce the national
made sure I was in a position to earn debt. How do you plan doing that?
additional income.
GB: Well I don’t know about minimizing the
Business Focus: Sixteen years on from national debt in the short term and I want to
your departure from Swiss American and tell you the IMF will not dictate our policies,
taking on politics, you’ve been given an certainly not under my leadership. The
overwhelming vote of confidence by the investor confidence Antigua and Barbuda has
people of Antigua and Barbuda. Now, in enjoyed during the last three months is the
addition to being Prime Minister, you’re strongest it has been for the last two or three
Minister of Finance. What are your decades and that is no over-exaggeration.
immediate plans for improving Antigua
and Barbuda’s economy?
Business Focus: Where’s the evidence to
back up that statement and what do you
GB: In essence we have to attract fresh think is the reason for this confidence?
monies into the country’s economy. As it
stands right now the capital formation is GB: One of the projects that has created a
not sufficient to fuel any strong growth lot of excitement for investors globally, is
in the economy. And that is why we were the Yida investment project. In fact, that has
stagnated over the years. I know the IMF literally sent shockwaves throughout the
(International Monetary Fund) has been Caribbean and even extra regionally.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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43
FEATURE
and that is one of the areas we believe in
which we can attract investment. You can
literally walk off a plane and walk right
into the Prime Minister’s office; cut out
all the bureaucracy. Our toursim product
will be integrated with our diplomacy and
investment.
Business Focus: Many people would
consider this a dangerous or reckless way
of doing things, what have you to say
with regards to such a view?
GB: My Cabinet members and I are well
trained. We can analyse risks. We are not
going to give away the shop but we can
make quick decisions that are prudent,
that are rational.
A mere one day on the job we hammered
out a US$2 billion agreement with the Yida
Investment Group. And, let me confirm he
has paid off for the Guiana Islands land.
He has paid US$67 million so you know
he’s a serious investor, and he’s not here
to speculate and he has the resources. So
the early successes we’ve had in terms of
attracting investors to the country have
been well received. After we signed that
investment deal with Yida, the following
week we had a group of investors that
flew to Antigua on a private jet, the Kylin
group…they are still seeking to raise the
funds to pursue a major development in
Antigua. That group and others who came
subsequently, came because they realise
the Antigua government is very serious
about conducting business.
Business Focus: The private sector is said
to be the engine of growth for the national
economy, but there’s a lot being extended
to investors outside Antigua, what’s there
for that sector?
GB: Well, we’ve made it abundantly clear
that all concessions that are available to
foreign investors are available to local
investors, so that any excuse that any
potential local investor may make, that
they cannot invest because the government
is not supporting them, that is not so. All
proposals that have been presented to our
government for supporting concessions for
locals have been approved and that will
continue. In fact, you don’t even have to
go to the Investment Authority, you just
come to Cabinet and we will approve it,
obviously if it makes sense and is within
the guidelines of the laws. We are willing
to go further and enter into public/private
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• July/September
/ Dec | 2014
44
I can assure you, there’s no government
sector partnerships. We are willing to that has that kind of turnaround ability
partner with local Antiguans & Barbudans, that we have. With our tourism we want
to offer a more integrated product. We
practically in any sector of the economy.
want to integrate our culture. I’ll give an
Let me also make another point about our idea for instance: the project we intend
local investors. They have to become less to embark upon to develop the coastline
risk averse. Many of our large investors in from Deep Water Harbour to Heritage
this country make their wealth by aligning Quay, it will see the establishment of a
themselves to the government, taking museum, one in which tourists who come
no risks. It cannot continue like that. We to the island will share in the history
need real entrepreneurs who will take on of the country. In addition, the area of
risks, prudent risks. The whole idea to line shopping is going to be a critical area.
up for a government contract as far as I’m We believe visitors who come to the
concerned, that is not investment…Some island should have the capacity for a good
of them even have large tracks of land shopping experience. When they come to
and for decades they do nothing with it. Heritage Quay presently there are only a
I’m even suggesting we need to put on a few shops. We need more shops and we
little higher property tax in there, not that need some of those international shops
they will lose their land, but to spur them too and we want to make sure when the
into action. I feel the private sector can do tourists come to the country they can
spend more. The cruise tourism span in
more.
Antigua and Barbuda is one of the lowest
Business Focus: On the issue of in the Caribbean. We want to create more
tourism, what’s government’s plan to opportunities for attractions, for leisure,
make Antigua and Barbuda’s product for entertainment at Heritage Quay.
distinguishable from what everyone has
Business Focus: What about the Business
to offer, which is: sand, sea and sun?
Park that’s supposed to be established on
GB: You’re right. In terms of tourism it lands near the national stadium?
cannot just be about sand,sea, and sun.
In fact many countries in the Caribbean GB: We’re trying to develop two business
have sun, sea and sand and you cannot parks, one for locals and one for offshore
differentiate our service based on that. companies. At some point we’re going
So, what we’re doing at this point is to have to look at the legal framework
trying to differentiate our service, even and perhaps provide a lower, let’s say,
investments. One of the things we’re corporation tax rate. Or, we are toying
doing for investments is make sure the with the idea that we could probably have
investment climate is one where we have a specific free trade business zone at the
a very rapid turnaround time. And, the stadium in which you operate there but for
energy that our government has, no other all intents and purposes you’re offshore
government in the Caribbean can turn any but you will not attract any corporation
investment quicker than our government taxes. It has not been fully developed as
yet, in terms of putting the necessary
legal framework in place but that is
where the thinking is. So far, we have
allocated nine acres of land to the West
Indies Cricket Board to set up a corporate
headquarters there, as well as other
facilities including training facilities
for the cricketers. We are approaching
other organizations to establish
businesses within that particular zone
and we also want to set up a business
park for locals. We had looked at the
area around Heroes Park…so these are
things that we’re looking at. What we’ll
do, we’ll identify the land, develop the
land, put in the infrastructure, the roads
and businesses could set up in there.
Business Focus: The Labour Party
manifesto projected some ambitious
initiatives for moving the economy
forward. The public is very expectant
that these initiatives would generate
extra income and economic activities.
What about the removal of Personal
Income Tax and the construction of 500
homes in 500 days?
GB: We gave a commitment that we
will eliminate Personal Income Tax and
we stand by that commitment. If you
notice, the manifesto was silent on the
date of implementation and that is not
a coincidence. We had some indication
the country was in dire straits prior to
taking office. I have to admit we did
underestimate it to some extent. If
we were to eliminate personal income
tax immediately it will make our cash
flow challenges more acute. It would
be irresponsible for us to eliminate it
in a crisis. However, we maintain the
country ultimately would be better
off without income tax. We have taken a
philosophical position that we are better
off taxing consumption rather than income.
If we tax consumption, then we are not
taxing the ability of locals to invest. This
issue really has been proven in a sense that
for over 28 years the country did not have
Personal Income Tax. When you look at the
rates of growth, the country grew by an
average of four and a half per cent annually.
Now with PIT and all the interventions
the government would have made within
the last five years, we have literally seen a
contraction of the economy on average by
about three per cent over the last five years.
Business Focus: Usually any such
contraction is followed by unemployment
and we’ve heard complaints there’s a high
rate of youth unemployment in Antigua
and Barbuda. We believe investments
in training and higher
education are critical to
creating a more skilled
workforce and addressing
this issue. Can you share
some
of
government’s
approaches and initiatives in
these areas?
GB: We accept there’s a need
for increased training. I think
the former administration
had actually increased the
amount of scholarships and
tertiary trained individuals
and we have now built on
their successes and have
taken it to the next level. I’ll
give an example, whereas
we may have gotten a certain amount of
scholarships from the Cuban Government
for the present school year, we actually
went back to them and got it increased. We
got four more scholarships for Medicine, we
got two for Agronomy…So I think in so far
as educating our people at a tertiary level
we have seen an improvement in the last 20
years, there’s no doubt about that. I think
where we need to perhaps concentrate
some efforts, is to provide some job
proficiency training to increase productivity
within the public sector.
Sometime in the medium term we will
look at the possibility of putting together a
training institute that will provide training
for individuals within the public sector as
well as the private sector. Now in so far as
tertiary education is concerned we are going
even further. Our objective is to ensure that
within the next, hopefully, decade, that one
out of every five Antiguans and Barbudans
would be University trained, or at least
tertiary trained. And, what we are seeking to
do right now is to advance the establishment
of a University here in Antigua and Barbuda.
Our preference so far would be a College of
the University of the West Indies. I expect it
to be completed before the end of our term
for sure.
Business Focus: Let’s go back to the issue
of the 500 homes in 500 days, where is that
project?
GB: Well, we have more than $25 million for
that project and development has started
in Villa. We approached the government of
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BusinessFocus • July/September 2014
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
FEATURE
address and with urgency. Employees too
have an obligation to, as employees of LIAT,
ensure its viability. It cannot be exclusively
for the governments to take responsibility
for the viability of LIAT. I’m hoping going
forward we’ll see a more professional LIAT
in the delivery of its service to Caribbean
people.
Mexico for a US$40 million loan and also
a grant I think for US$5 million so we are
committed to getting it done. In fact, I can
tell you, we’re looking at building more
than the 500 homes.
Business Focus: On another issue of regional
companies, a LIME telecommunications
official recently said government’s support
of the state owned telecommunications
Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA)
PCS is negatively impacting similar private
sector businesses. What is your view
on this matter, particularly in light of
your government’s announcement that
Huawei telecommunications company has
expressed interest in investing in APUA
PCS?
the availability of women themselves
because many of them are capable but for
various reasons refuse to make themselves
available. The Senate, for the first time in the
history of our country has actually achieved
what I consider to have been gender equality.
Business Focus: Now we’ve got the I think it’s nine to eight (man to woman) or GB: The private sector businesses are
answer to that, let’s turn attention to 10 to seven now. And that had to do with the concerned about their profitability and
gender equality. We note there’s only one fact the Labour Party nominated about five. in so far as APUA telecommunications is
woman in your Cabinet. Many countries
concerned, the government of Antigua and
have taken the bold step to change their Business Focus: What’s your administration’s Barbuda invested significant sums in the
laws to establish gender balance and position on regional integration?
development of infrastructure over many
equal opportunity, can you speak to GB: We are committed to the movement years. And, whereas we must ensure we
the evolution and role of our women in of Caribbean people. We’re all part of a provide a level playing field, we make no
leadership and politics in Antigua and common civilisation. I think we are better off apologies about our investment, it is the
Barbuda?
as an integrated society than as individual people’s asset and we have to make sure the
nations and we continue to adhere to our people get a return on that asset. I believe
GB: First of all let me state my personal Treaty obligations, the requirements of the too there’s a need for some legislative
commitment in terms of gender equality, Treaty of Chaguaramas and the OECS Treaty. changes which we intend to prioritise. I
and I think I would have demonstrated I believe there are still some outstanding believe before the end of the year we should
wherever I had the opportunity to make issues which we are committed to addressing have a new Telecommunications Act which
those interventions, that I am definitely very shortly. In so far as the six months stay will set the framework for all the operators
serious about gender equality. When I is concerned, when they come to the island and ensure there’s a level playing field. Now,
contested for leadership of the party I they get the six months. The whole idea is for we are not opposed to partnering with other
had three men and three women as part us to live in harmony and we operate as one entities to make the entity more viable, but
of my leadership team and it was not nation, one people with a common destiny. any idea that anyone could just take it over
a coincidence. In so far as legislation
for their own benefit and to the detriment
is concerned, it’s unlikely we’ll go that Business Focus: When we talk about of the people, then that is unlikely. Certain
far. The truth is, we are beginning to see movement and tourism, we cannot escape interventions will be made to reduce the
some transformation in the thinking of the issue of travel. What is government’s costs of Internet and telecommunications.
our people, or maturity and you’re seeing vision for intra-regional travel where LIAT is
more women getting involved and more concerned and what role can Antigua and Business Focus: What’s the future of APUA
women getting elected. We’re now up to Barbuda play?
with regards to electricity generation?
two. Ideally, we’d like to see a nine-eight GB: LIAT is important. I would like to see
situation. But that is not something we broader ownership of LIAT, practically by all GB: We are looking at the opportunity to
really have control over. It’s really dictated governments taking small equity shares.
diversify into green energy, that’s definitely
by the populace and the truth is, a male I don’t like the idea of any single country the way to go, ultimately it will be cheaper.
candidate continues to be the more having a majority position in LIAT. I believe Our energy cost is exceptionally high right
attractive candidate of the two sexes. I we may get the support of more of our now - it’s about US$0.45 per kilowatt hour,
believe that is really cultural. I believe in colleagues. I have spoken to colleagues in the highest in the Caribbean. That in itself
so far as public education is concerned we the region about taking equity in LIAT. They is affecting competitiveness in the various
need to continue to sensitise our people have found many reasons not to support sectors, even the hotel sector which is the
about ensuring we support our female LIAT but one of the major issues with LIAT driver of the country’s economy. So we
counterparts to play more significant is inefficiency which is real and something intend to diversify into alternative energy
leadership roles. The other issue is about the directors, management and staff must by about 20 per cent, hopefully by the
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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46
end of our first term in office. That in itself will help reduce the cost
to consumers and bring cost to industries lower so they can compete
more effectively. We’re even looking at the possibility of putting together
a National Energy Council that will deal with energy issues in a holistic
way. Our overall aim is to reduce energy costs to facilitate increased
competitiveness.
Business Focus: What about healthcare services? Many of our nurses
are being recruited to work in the US and in the region, particularly
Trinidad, what is being done to address that?
GB: We have a nursing school and, even the proposed University of
Antigua & Barbuda, one of the recommendations is to specialise in
healthcare services to include nursing which is in strong demand. So, if
for instance we have an internationally accredited nursing school here in
Antigua and Barbuda, not only would we be able to train more nurses,
but we’ll be able to satisfy the demand of nursing within the region. You
can be assured we will build upon what pertains now in terms of the
number of nurses we are graduating. In fact we will be speaking to the
scholarship board…and, where there is a shortfall locally, we will import
it…We’re also in discussion with AUA about reintroducing their nursing
programme.
Business Focus: When we started this discussion, we talked about
Gaston Browne the child, let’s look at the man now. As Antigua and
Barbuda’s youngest Prime Minister, and particularly looking at where
you came from and where you are now, what advice do you have for
the youth and people generally.
GB: (smiles) I just want people to be positive in their outlook. No matter
your circumstances, once you are prepared to work hard and be positive
in your outlook, there will be opportunities to be exploited and whenever
the opportunities present themselves, seize them. People should always
be doing something. If you become lethargic, you will not be exposed to
opportunities. Always use the opportunities for self development and to
make sure you produce. There are some people who believe once they
are qualified, that’s it. But I believe that as far as is practicable, people
should become multi-faceted and engage in different disciplines rather
than limiting themselves to maybe a single routine.
Business Focus: Is it your desire to have a second term as prime
minister?
GB: I don’t believe in long terms in office, so I’d say ideally two terms. I
believe that otherwise I can enjoy my life. I’m prepared to use the next
10 years to work like a dog for the people (laughs).
Business Focus: Are you hinting here an intention to introduce laws to
set term limits?
GB: Yes, that is the intention, to have term limits. After consultations,
the question is whether it should be two or three terms. I think after a
while when people govern for too long they become insensitive, numb
and attached to the government; they become infected with the Hubris
syndrome and believe they own the government and the country.
Business Focus: What sort of legacy are you working to leave as Prime
Minister?
GB: I just want to be remembered as the Prime Minister who worked
relentlessly for the development of the people of Antigua & Barbuda. I
don’t want anything else (laughs and clasps hands). ¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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FEATURE
China offers Antigua
and Barbuda over
$200 million RMB
assistance package
Prime Minister Gaston Browne & Premier Li in China
P
rime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne in
late August successfully negotiated an assistance package
for Antigua and Barbuda for over $200 million RMB from
the People’s Republic of China.
In a frank and detailed discussion with Premier of the People’s
Republic of China, Li Keqiang, the country’s leader spoke of the
close relationship that exists between Antigua and Barbuda
and the People’s Republic of China and outlined a programme
for development assistance in the interest of all Antiguans and
Barbudans.
After an hour of talks, Primer Li agreed to the following
development assistance for the twin island:
1. The provision of a $70 million RMB grant for the
implementation of projects to be agreed upon between the
two governments;
2. The provision of a $30 million RMB interest-free loan for
projects to be agreed upon between the two governments. The
loan has a 10-year moratorium with repayments to be made
between October 2024 and September 2034;
3. The provision of goods worth $20 million RMB for enhancing
Antigua and Barbuda’s capacity in addressing the effects of
climate change. The project will also include the installation of
equipment, training of staff and technical support;
4. The provision of an eight-member ophthalmologist medical
team to carry out a Cataract Surgery Clinic called Bright Journey.
The team will be in Antigua for one month carrying our surgical
procedures at the Mount St John’s Medical Centre during the
first half of 2015. Upon completion of the clinic, the team will
donate all surgical equipment, lenses and other supplies to the
medical centre.
5. Provide financing for the Deep Water Harbour Development
Project upon completion and approval of designs. The Deep
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Water Harbour development will include container and cruise
ship sections, a logistics area, a hotel, museum and marina and
boulevard with connected facilities.
6. The provision of additional educational scholarships
for qualified Antiguan and Barbudan students to pursue
undergraduate and postgraduate studies along with technical
training in selected areas.
7. Provide assistance in the establishment of the University
of Antigua and Barbuda and a Chinese Language teaching
programme in secondary schools.
Commenting on the outcome of the talks with Premier Li, Prime
Minister Browne said that Antigua and Barbuda and China have
enjoyed warm and friendly relations since their inception in
1983, and each year we seek to strengthen our friendship and
expand our cooperation. “The People’s Republic of China has
been generous to Antigua and Barbuda over the years and has
provided critical support to the development efforts of the
Government. We are very grateful for this.” ¤
OTHER MAJOR PROJECTS
SINCE BEING ELECTED
Since the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party
(ABLP) was elected as the new Government
on June 13 2014 with a majority of 14 seats
to 3 seats for the Opposition, it has signed
several Memoranda of Understanding and
Agreement (MOU and MOA) with a number
of Governments and Investors.
YIDA DEAL
and conference centre, a 27 hole golf
course, marina and landing facilities and
a commercial, retail and sports facility.
TECHNOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT &
INVESTMENT LTD AND DEVCON
LTD
The first deal, signed a day after the
polls, was the $2 billion MOA with Yida
International Investment Antigua Inc, a
large Chinese Investment Group.
According to Prime Minister Browne,
with this new deal local contractors will
be responsible for the construction of
the project, as no approval has been
given for Chinese contractors.
He said, “Unlike when you have
the bilateral agreement between
the Government of China and the
Government of Antigua and Barbuda,
this is a private investment group. And it
is expected that the actual construction
will take place by Antiguans and
Barbudans; they may have to import
expertise. But in terms of having Chinese
come here en masse to construct that
particular development that will not be
the case.”
Prime Minister Browne explained that
Yida International Investment Antigua
Inc., is out of China and it is valued in
excess of three billion US dollars. Yida
is involved in a number of undertakings
worldwide, inclusive of Citizenship by
Investment Programmes (CIPs). The
MOA will result in the transformation
of Guiana Island and surrounding lands
with the construction of five five-star
hotels, 1300 residential units, a casino
Another MOA signed in July, was the
US$120 million luxury hotel project to
be done by investor Sheik Tari Faisal
Aldassemi of Dubai.
The project would include a Five Star
Branded Luxury Resort at Morris Bay.
It would occupy 36 aces of prime
beachfront lands and five acres for a
National Park facility. It was said the
first phase of the project should start six
months from the date signed.
PORT REDEVELOPMENT
The government signed the MOU in
July with two St Kitts Companies –
Technology, Development & Investment
ltd and Devcon Ltd.
The MOU, which is a statement of mutual
intent and desire of the parties, is for the
setting up of a hotel development project
and high-priced housing construction
project, both to commence within 18
months of signing.
Signing was done by Vitaly V Kryuchkov
on behalf of the firms, and Prime
Minister Gaston Browne on behalf of the
Government of Antigua & Barbuda.
AL CARIBI DEVELOPMENT LTD
This project, according to Port Manager
Darwin Telemaque, should cost about
US$200 million and should, along with
other efforts, improve the cruise tourism
industry for locals and visitors – those
who deliver services and those who
come to receive.
In September, a team of technicians and
Port staff travelled to China to meet with
officials of the China Civil Engineering
Construction Company, with the aim of
sealing a deal where the group would
help finance the redevelopment.
Other ABLP initiatives embarked upon,
some of which were campaign promises,
are the waiver of penalty fees and
interest accrued on the accounts of
delinquent tax payers and the waiver of
work permit fees for Caricom workers
who work in Antigua & Barbuda. Both
waivers are in place from about mid-year
2014 to December 31, 2014.
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FEATURE
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Another “fresh start” initiative was the amnesty for nonnationals who were unlawfully residing in Antigua and
Barbuda and the debt forgiveness and reconnection of services
to customers who owed the Antigua Public Utilities Authority
(APUA) for either water, electricity, phone or Internet use.
The latter was opened in June and ended in August.
There’s also a pledge to waive visa requirements for Chinese
nationals and South Americans, as the Government said this is
expected to help open new tourism opportunities for Antigua
and Barbuda.
BARBUDA PRESERVE
The MOU discussed between the Government of Antigua
and Barbuda and Barbuda Preserve, is for a US$ 1 billion
development project to be done in Barbuda. The MOU was
announced in August in the Throne Speech delivered by
Governor General Dr Rodney Williams.
The project is expected to include a resort with an 18-hole golf
course and residential villas on over 300 acres of land. Barbuda
Preserve is a group of investors who are in the process of
setting up a similar type of investment in St Kitts. Investor John
Turbidy is one of its major members. В¤
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“The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has created the bold
target of building no less than 500 new homes in 500 days. It
is projects like these that need the support of those who have
enjoyed the islands hospitality,” according to long-term local
resident Calvin Ayre who has again pledged to help the country
he now calls home. Canadian-born Ayre will add US $2,000,000
to help make this brilliant project a reality.
The project is designed to increase home ownership and will be
aimed at public sector organisations in an attempt to help satisfy
the housing shortage among their members.
The new ABLP administrationsaid it wants to empower local
builders with specific incentives to make it easier for them to
develop housing projects. В¤
FEATURE
First ever Antigua & Barbuda University
could boost regional integration
Students from across the Caribbean and beyond the region
seeking to pursue university studies, may soon have the option
of doing so in Antigua and Barbuda.
Government, in a recent announcement, said it entered into a
US$18 million agreement with the People’s Republic of China
towards the establishment of such an institution, which would
be the first for Antigua and Barbuda.
The University is to be built in the Five Islands community.
Prime Minister Browne told Business Focus, “As you are aware,
there’s a secondary school being built at Five islands. When we
looked at the demographics in that area, we don’t think that
school will be adequately or optimally utilised as a secondary
school and we believe that by transforming it into a University
Campus we will get more optimal utilisation of the facility.”
At the time he spoke, PM Browne had just returned from China
which provided the funds in the form of a grant and soft loans.
He said, “The plan is to invest those funds into the Five Islands
school to get it to the level of the University with additional
facilities and additional lecture facilities. Perhaps some dorms as
well, because we believe there’s scope to attract individuals from
the neighbouring islands to come here and to get a degree and
that in itself could be a profit centre for the University.”
Browne said the new proposal would include student dorms, an
expanded library and ICT facility, an Olympic-size swimming pool
and tennis courts.
Final arrangements on the areas of study to be offered cannot
however, be made immediately.
“We have not made a final determination as yet with regards to
size. I had a discussion with the Vice Chancellor of the University
of the West Indies…We have a team we are putting together
and the University of the West Indies, they already have their
team together…There are several areas where we are looking at
specialisation. It could be in IT, Business, Health Care, Nursing.”
“We want to have a University where other Caribbean nationals
can come here and train because in order to sustain it and have
good quality Faculty, you may well need that cadre of people
coming,” the Prime Minister said.
The establishment of a University, could mean a drop in cost to
study for the student paying his own way, and for the Board of
Education where scholarships are provided, Browne indicated.
“We’d be able to train more people, it would be cheaper. Already
I believe we are spending $10 million supporting scholarships
abroad. Those are funds we could utilise to train our people
locally, they’ll still get a degree,” he stated.
Each year, the Board of Education spends close to $1.5 million
to $1.7 million on new scholarships and another $6 million to $8
million is allocated to continuing scholarships.
It’s not the first time residents are hearing such a promise to
build a University, but the country’s new leader is confident the
project will be done under his watch, and through the multimillion dollar arrangement with China.
The principals of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation,
CCECC will continue to spearhead the construction work.
Currently, Antigua and Barbuda has what is called a State College
where Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE)
subjects are offered in addition to Diploma and Associate Degree
programmes. There’s also the Antigua & Barbuda International
Institute of Technology (ABIIT) which offers Diploma and
Associate Degree qualifications.
UWI also has an Open Campus but the branch here does not offer
Full Degree programmes on site. There’s also a School for Nursing
while teacher training is done at the State College. В¤
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FEATURE
ABIB to get $340 Million Government Boost
G
overnment is planning to pump $340 million into
the Antigua and Barbuda Investment (ABI) Bank Ltd.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who made the
announcement at his first official press conference in
September, said his Government was going to “bite the
bullet.”
The ABI Bank, which has been having financial challenges
for some time, was bailed out by the previous government
in 2011.
Browne said the initiative might seem to run counter to
Government’s mantra of fiscal prudence.
“Now you may argue that that is contradictory, because we
are going to increase our debts by another $340 million,
but what’s the alternative?” Browne queried rhetorically.
“So we have found ourselves in a situation between a rock
and a hard place.” ¤
OECS Cancer Centre Nearing Completion
T
he man at the helm of the
multimillion-dollar
Cancer
Centre of the Eastern Caribbean
said contractors are working
“strenuously and arduously” to
ensure the Cancer component of
the facility being built in Antigua,
becomes operational before year
end.
Chairman Dr Conville Brown said,
“We want to be able to have that
completed before the end of the year
and be in a position to be able to treat
patients within the unit; the cardiac
component will follow next year.”
Work resumed on the multi-purpose
facility months ago after a prolonged
delay.
Dr Brown said construction on the 15,000 square foot facility is at an advanced stage with the construction of most of the main
structure and the installation of the roof should follow soon.
He said the facility would now reflect accommodation of not only radiation oncology but will also house medical oncology,
chemotherapy and cardiology services which will provide many of the services needed in Antigua and Barbuda and other OECS
countries. В¤
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Gov’t reveals US
Gaming Dispute Offer
T
he Gaston Browne – led administration has shifted tactics
in the approach to bring an end to the longstanding gaming
dispute with the United States (US).
Prime Minister Browne said instead of trying to get cash only,
he’s asking for the settlement to be in cash and kind.
“We have reduced the amount of the claim. In fact, we are now
asking for US$100 million, negotiable, of course,” Browne said.
The former United Progressive Party (UPP) administration was
initially trying to settle the dispute, but never fully disclosed
the demands it placed on the US during negotiations, while it
admitted to being ignored by the US.
Browne said that’s why his administration is trying a new
approach.
“They (the US) refused to speak to them (UPP), they thought that
the proposal was outlandish, it was outrageous and there was no
way that the UPP would have gotten a settlement,” Browne said.
The Prime Minister also revealed that the gaming companies
backing the fight against the US are set to benefit more than the
Government from any potential settlement.
The Prime Minister said the former administration entered into
a deal in which the gaming industry fronts the legal fees and gets
those back from any settlement, plus 75 per cent of whatever is
remaining.
“So far they have incurred between 10 and 15 million dollars in
legal fees and the deal is whatever the settlement is, those legal
fees come off the top. So, if your settlement is US$20 million
you know at least half of it is gone to legal fees, but out of the
remaining $10 or $5 million, we the Government, only get 25 per
cent of it,” Browne said. ¤
This year the Antigua & Barbuda Trades and Labour Union celebrated its 75th Anniversary
of “Dedicated Service to Workers in Antigua and Barbuda”.
The AT&LU is the longest-serving workers’ organization in Antigua & Barbuda, with an unbroken
record of excellence. During its seventy-five years of existence, the AT&LU has had several overlapping phases in its development and growth, which testify to its ability to make the instrument fit
the ever-changing task.
One of the catalyzing events of the defiant AT&LU was the 1951 Labour Day celebration which marked a historic contribution to Antigua & Barbuda. In recent times, the Antigua & Barbuda Trades and Labour Union has successfully organised a
new AT&LU Section of Domestic Workers in 2013. Notwithstanding its 5000 and over membership, the AT&LU boasts it
regional and international affiliation with the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering,
Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association, International Labour Organisation, Caribbean Domestic Workers Network, and
Caribbean Congress of Labour.
History has shown that the AT&LU is a transformative institution for generations of people-born before and after 1939
praised. Our commitment and earnest dedication has kept us moulded to our motto “The Unity of Labour is the Salvation of
our Country”.
The Antigua & Barbuda Trades and Labour Union wishes to congratulate the Hon. Gaston Browne and The Antigua &
Barbuda Labour Party on a successful victory in the 2014 General Elections!
Visit or contact us:
46 North Street | P.O. Box 3 | St. John’s | Antigua
Tel: (268) 562-2501 or 462-0090 | E-mail: [email protected]
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ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS
ANTIGUA NEEDS
NEW E-WASTE LAWS
ACS DRIVES REGIONAL
APPROACH TO DISASTER
RISK REDUCTION
T
he government of Antigua and Barbuda has been
advised to review existing, outdated waste disposal
laws to allow for better processing of electronic waste
or e-waste.
Dr Malvern Spencer, former Chairman of the Pesticides and
Toxic Chemicals Control Board, made the recommendation,
saying it is in light of how hazardous some of the materials
are and because threats to the environment are becoming
greater.
“We have the National Solid Waste legislation and we look
at e-waste as solid waste, but since it’s now a special waste
that needs special attention, we need regulations that would
allow for the management of the e-waste. In addition to
that, we have signed on to the Basel convention. This deals
with the movement of hazardous waste and part of that
hazardous waste is e-waste,” he said.
Dr Spencer said despite the country signing on to the Basel
convention, not much has been done to ensure it is adhered
to.
Waste diversion manager in National Solid Waste
Management Authority (NSWMA) Morrison Burns said
based on what has been dumped at Cooks Landfill, Antigua
and Barbuda generates an estimated 20 tonnes of e-waste.
He said “pickers” often go to the landfill and rummage
through to find material to recycle or sell and very often they
put themselves and the environment at risk.
On that issue, Dr Spencer said, “it is not sanitary and it is
global problem and it is something the United Nations now
is trying to address. Apart from the chemical hazards, there
are physical hazards associated with e-waste. At the landfill,
those physical hazards are very present and it is becoming
bigger in Antigua and Barbuda.” ¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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54
T
he crippling effects of Natural Disasters on Small Island
Development States (SIDS) has increased the need for
Disaster Risk Reduction strategies as it becomes an
important asset in the future of Sustainable Development.
The Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in its overall aim of
promoting Sustainable Development for the Greater Caribbean,
through its Directorate of Disaster Risk Reduction, continues to
improve and increase its initiatives in the area of Disaster Risk
Reduction.
In his opening remarks at the 22nd Meeting of the Special
Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction in September, Minister of
Planning and Sustainable Development of Trinidad and Tobago,
Bhoendradatt Tewarie, identified Caribbean SIDS as the most
vulnerable in relation to the intensity and frequency of natural
hazards.
As a result, disaster risk reduction becomes “a powerful tool
for development as it allows communities to continue their
progress in spite of hazards.”
Alfonso MГєnera, Secretary General of the ACS reiterated the
importance of Disaster Risk Reduction but also highlighted the
importance of the meeting as an instrument through which a
large group of countries can gather “to find solutions to problems
that are beyond the capacity of individual countries.”
Therefore, the great merit of the ACS as the Secretary General
pointed out, is that it has created a forum for dialogue which had
not existed in the past. He concluded his introductory remarks
appealing to the human imagination, as it is “only through
human imagination that Disaster Risk Reduction projects can be
constructed.”
George Nicholson, Director of Disaster Risk Reduction, informed
that the ACS ACS is now in Phase II of its project on Strengthening
Hydro Meteorological Operations and Services in the Caribbean
Small Island Developing States (SHOCS II). This project seeks
to strengthen the capacity of National Meteorological and
Hydrological Institutions and Disaster Management Agencies in
ACS Member States, in the provision of early warning services
and preparedness to mitigate impacts of natural hazards. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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55
ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS
CARICOM and
the German
Government
Team up to Find
Solutions to
Climate Change
Partnership Sees the Formulation of the Caribbean Aqua-Terrestrial Solutions (CATS)
T
he Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the German
government are supporting the efforts of eight CARICOM
member states to adapt the management of their natural
resources and economies to the ever-pressing and farreaching socio-economic and environmental impacts of climate
change.
In an effort to strengthen the national capacities to mitigate the
adverse effects of a changing climate, which inevitably impacts
small islands and low-lying coastal states the most, the key
objectives of the joint CARICOM-German government support
are two-fold: (i) to conserve the unique marine biodiversity of the
Caribbean Sea, and (ii) to foster the development and adoption of
good practices and adaptive measures in agriculture, forestry, and
water/wastewater management.
The main target groups include governmental and nongovernmental organisations, national farmers and fisherfolk
organisations, the tourism industry, water utilities and small and
medium sized businesses.
To deliver on the CARICOM-German government partnership,
the regional development programme titled Caribbean AquaTerrestrial Solutions (CATS) was formulated. The CATS Programme,
headed by Dr. Horst Vogel operates through a marine component,
namely CATS-2, which focuses on the conservation of the marine
biodiversity and coastal protection, and a terrestrial component,
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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56
CATS-1, which leads all projects related to adaptive measures in
agriculture, forestry, and water/wastewater management.
The CATS programme is executed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft
fГјr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German
federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
and by the Environmental Health and Sustainable Development
Department of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on
behalf of CARICOM.
CATS adopts a 'ridge-to-reef' approach that follows many of the
lessons learnt and approaches from the GEF-funded integrating
watershed and coastal areas management (GEF-IWCAM) project
– guided by a deep understanding that agricultural, forestry and
water/wastewater management operations upstream exert a
direct influence on coastal and marine ecosystems.
CATS-2 focuses on marine protected areas (MPAs) in five Eastern
Caribbean countries, namely, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and
Nevis, St Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Hence,
in keeping with the integrated watershed and coastal areas
management 'ridge-to-reef' approach, CATS-1 centres its activities
on the watersheds upstream, adjacent to the respective MPAs.
Additionally, CATS-1 supports adaptive measures in agriculture,
forestry, and water management in Jamaica, Belize and Guyana.
Between April and June 2014, CATS-1's principal advisor, Eva Maria
Näher (GIZ), organised and conducted two-day
planning workshops with various stakeholders
from the agricultural, water and forestry sectors
in the five CARICOM member states of Dominica,
Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent
and the Grenadines. The aim was to identify
priorities with regard to adaptation measures to
climate change in agriculture and forestry and to
formulate an operational plan for each country.
As part of the two-day workshops, the
stakeholders participated in field visits to the
MPAs and adjacent watersheds for on-the-spot
discussions on the linkages between agricultural
and other land use activities, and the adverse
effects of land degradation and water pollution
into the coastal areas.
The main activities identified by stakeholders
in the countries include (i) training to
improve capacities and the development of
demonstration plots for good agricultural
practices, (ii) establishment of agroforestrysystems, (iii) reforestation of degraded areas, (iv)
implementation of water conservation measures
(including rainwater harvesting and storage
techniques), (v) land capability assessments to
inform land use optimisation and (vi) investments
in alternative livelihood solutions.
To complement the national planning workshops
and foster collaboration among key regional
agencies concerned with agriculture, forestry,
water and rural development, a focus-group regional agency
meeting was held on July 10 at CARPHA's headquarters in Trinidad.
Participating agencies included the Caribbean Farmers Network
(CAFAN), the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI),
the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute
(CARDI), the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology
(CIMH), the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), the
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Inter- American
Institute for the Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and the
University of the West Indies (UWI).
The objective of this focus-group meeting was to exchange
experiences and expertise in the field and to assess prospective
partnership opportunities with the CATS Programme. CATS-1
is aiming to foster strong partnerships and generate valuable
synergies between stakeholders whose livelihoods depend on the
conservation and sustainable use of fragile and vulnerable marine
and terrestrial resources and ecosystems, and the organisations
both at the national and regional level that provide support in
this regard.
In short, it is a joint endeavour to develop, implement, and
share best practices to support agricultural diversification and
improved management of forests and water resources to support
sustainable and prosperous agricultural and rural development,
while conserving the Caribbean's precious natural resources by
maintaining healthy environments and healthy peoples. В¤
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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57
IN THE KNOW
MORE THAN JOB SATISFACTIONthe benefits of finding meaning in your work
New research shows that positively perceiving what we do
has benefits for the employee and company
W
hat do you do? That’s often one
of the first questions people
ask when they meet someone
new — not surprising given that most
adults spend most of their waking hours
at work and that our jobs can influence
our lives even outside the workplace. Our
work can be a big part of our identity and
offer insights into what is important to us,
making it a rich area of psychological study.
Several recent studies have concentrated
on a particular aspect of work: finding
meaning in it. Through their research,
experts have gleaned new insights,
showing that meaningful work is good for
the worker and for the company — and
that even employees in tiresome jobs
can find ways to make their duties more
meaningful.
Building cathedrals
In a 2010 review, Brent D. Rosso, PhD, and
colleagues noted that finding meaning in
one’s work has been shown to increase
motivation, engagement, empowerment,
career development, job satisfaction,
individual performance and personal
fulfillment, and to decrease absenteeism
and stress (Research in Organisational
Behavior, 2010).
Unfortunately, meaningful work may not
be the norm. According to State of the
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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58
American Workplace, a new report by
Gallup Inc., only 30 percent of the U.S.
workforce is engaged in their work — in
other words, they’re passionate about
their work and feel strongly committed
to their companies. The remaining 70
percent of American workers are either
“not engaged” or “actively disengaged”
in their work (Gallup, 2013). Gallup
defines unengaged workers as those who
are “checked out,” putting in time but
without much energy or passion. Actively
disengaged workers, meanwhile, act out
on their unhappiness, taking up more of
their managers’ time and undermining
what their co-workers accomplish.
could say what he’s done is meaningful,”
Pratt says. “Meaningfulness is about the
why, not just about what.”
That disengagement takes a toll. Actively
disengaged workers, the report states, are
more likely to steal from their organisations,
negatively influence co-workers, miss
workdays and drive customers away.
A higher calling
Researchers have found that workers who
feel a higher calling to their jobs are among
the most content.
To illustrate this, he points to the old
tale of three bricklayers hard at work.
When asked what they’re doing, the first
bricklayer responds, “I’m putting one brick
on top of another.” The second replies,
“I’m making six pence an hour.” And the
third says, “I’m building a cathedral — a
house of God.”
“All of them have created meaning out of
what they’ve done, but the last person
As one might imagine, meaningful work
and job satisfaction are linked, says Steger.
In his 2012 paper, he found that having
meaningful work predicts job satisfaction.
But meaningful work was actually
better than job satisfaction at predicting
absenteeism – people who found their
work more meaningful were less likely
to miss work than people who merely
reported being satisfied with their jobs.
Meaningful work was also correlated with
life satisfaction and less depression.
People who feel called to their careers are
likely to find their work deeply meaningful,
he says. Their personal connection with
the job makes even the most trivial tasks
feel significant. Often the experience of a
calling comes with social benefits as well.
Make your own meaning
Fortunately, you don’t have to always
identify your higher calling, rather, you can
redefine your job in personally meaningful
ways through a process she and her
colleagues describe as “job crafting”
(Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace,
2013).
“Meaning doesn’t take money,” she says.
“At any rank, people can make different
meanings of their work, and also of
themselves at work.”
meaning from the most gratifying
jobs. But just a few moments spent
collaborating with a valued colleague
can be reinvigorating. “Even if you talk to
someone for five minutes, if it’s someone
you have a high-quality connection with,
it’s like taking a vitamin,” she says.
Employees can shape their work
experiences in three broad ways, Dutton
says. The first is by altering the tasks they
perform. Every job has elements that
make it feel like, well, work. But most
employees do have some leeway to tweak
their duties. “You can be an architect of
the tasks,” Dutton says. Employees might
choose to spend more energy on existing
tasks they find particularly gratifying, for
example.
Finally, a person can use cognitive
restructuring to reframe the way he or
she thinks about work. Steger mentions
an accountant who worked at a
community college. She found her work
very meaningful not because she kept
the accounts balanced, but because she
felt her work allowed others to advance
themselves through education. “For all
these things in our jobs that we just don’t
like, we can take a step back and link it to
the things that really matter,” he says.
Second, Dutton says, employees can
change relationships in the workplace.
“We never make meaning in a vacuum.
Work is very social,” she says. Spending
time with toxic co-workers can drain
“The more you look for the benefits of
what you’re doing, the more it feeds you
psychologically,” Dutton says.
Job crafting can pay off for employees and
employers. As Steger has shown, finding
one’s work meaningful is associated with
life satisfaction and overall well-being.
Organisations, too, benefit from workers
who are invested in their jobs. The Gallup
report found that engaged workers are
most likely to build new products and
services, attract new customers and drive
innovation.
Dutton says she’s seen firsthand how
small changes can make a big difference
for individuals, especially those at lower
ranks. “These are people who were happy
to have a job, but the work stunk. I could
see the power of helping them have
hope,” she says. “It shouldn’t change the
push for organisations to be fairer and
better. But at the same time, I want more
self-empowerment for workers to craft
their work in ways that will make it less
depleting and more enriching.” ¤
Source:
American
Association
Psychological
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
59
IN THE KNOW
ANTIGUA’S HIGH COMMISSIONER TO THE UK
TO BE CONFERRED HONORARY DOCTORATE
T
he 2014 graduation ceremonies at The University of the West Indies (The
UWI) will see the conferral of 20 honorary degrees: four at the Cave Hill
Campus, six at the Mona Campus, two at the Open Campus, and eight at
the St. Augustine Campus. The awardees will receive honorary doctorates in
recognition of their stellar contributions to Caribbean development including
Guyanese native and current High Commissioner to the UK, Sir Ronald Sanders.
Sir Ronald Sanders has had an outstanding career in the media as a broadcaster,
presenter and manager, and has exemplified excellence in the field of broadcasting
and communications in the Caribbean. For a number of years, Sir Ronald has
written on a vast variety of subjects for publication by Caribbean and international
outlets He was, for some years, also a diplomat and high commissioner. As a
High Commissioner he represented his country and the Caribbean with dignity
and honour, with a clear understanding of the standards required of Caribbean
diplomats. He gained recognition for his work at the Commonwealth level, and
was named one of the Commonwealth’s Eminent Persons. ¤
ROMEO’S PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT
ROMPS HOME IN MONTSERRAT ELECTIONS
he People’s Democratic Movement
(PDM) has won a convincing victory
in the general elections held in
Monstserrat on sept 11,2014
T
agree on everything that is important
to making Montserrat a prosperous and
self sustaining nation it will happen,” he
added.
The party, headed by businessman
Donaldson Romeo, trounced the
incumbent Movement for Change and
Prosperity (MCAP) of outgoing premier
Reuben T Meade, winning seven of the
nine seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Romeo, who polled 1,695 votes,
thanked the electorate for the”clear
and convincing” victory, saying he was
confident the promises outlined in the
party’s manifesto would be met.
Meade who polled 1,140, conceded
defeat, extending congratulations to the
PDM for a “very clear election victory.
”Both parties have worked hard. I
would like to thank all the persons who
supported both PDM and MCAP and also
the independents. It was an interesting
election campaign and clearly one team
had to win and PDM won and again my
heartiest congratulations to the entire
team,” he said.
“I believe that once Montserratians are
united, on island, off island, there is
nothing in that manifesto that we cannot
do. I expect us to do even more,” he said,
adding that he would continue to “put
people first.
Among those suffering defeat were
former government ministers Colin Riley
and Charles Kirnon. They received 866
and 1,070 votes respectively.
“It is just a matter of leading a team and
encouraging our nation to be of that
mentality and I don’t think that is going
to be difficult because they (population)
have already spoken and responded to
the agenda.
“Once we put people first, once we
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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60
Preliminary figures released by the
Montserrat Election Commission show
the PDM winning about 50.1 per cent of
the votes to MCAP’s 35.3 per cent.
Each voter on Montserrat can vote for
all candidates on the ballot paper in the
island’s single-constituency system. There
were 3,866 registered voters with 2,750
exercising their mandate, a turnout of 71
per cent.
The Electoral Commission said 31
candidates contested the nine seats,
including the newly formed threecandidate group called the Alliance of
Independent Candidates (AIC) led by
former chief minister Dr Lowell Lewis.
The group received just 4.1 per cent of
the votes cast.
The 10 other candidates ran as standalone independents and collectively
garnered 10.4 per cent of the votes cast. В¤
LIFE & MEDICAL
Other
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PROPERTY
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MEDICAL
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61
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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62
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ANTIGUA
C E L E B R AT I N G 1 0 Y E A R S O F A C A D E M I C E X C E L L E N C E
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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63
FEATURE
AUA AND THE COMMUNITY
S
ince its inception, American
University of Antigua (AUA)
College of Medicine’s cofounder
and president, Neal Simon, has always
believed it is important to aid the
Antiguan community. AUA recognizes
that to be considered a member of the
community, AUA has to be involved in it.
AUA has provided unprecedented
economic opportunities to the Antiguan
community. As tourism dollars fell, AUA
stepped in to provide steady employment
and relief to a struggling economy. Most
of AUA’s administrative and support
staff on the island are Antiguans; in
fact, the university currently employs
more than 155 Antiguan citizens. During
construction of its US$60 million campus
and US$20 million expansion, jobs were
created for more than 350 local residents.
As part of the university’s mission, AUA
provides the same opportunities to
Antiguans as it does to U.S. students.
AUA offers the Antiguan Tuition Grant
to Antiguan citizens enrolled at AUA,
covering tuition for the entire MD
program. AUA has created scholarships
totaling more than US$6.7 million for
Antiguan students.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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64
Excluding tuition, students spend
nearly US$32 million each year on
living expenses, which includes, but is
not limited to, shopping and dining at
Antiguan establishments, entertainment,
and renting automobiles and apartments
from Antiguans. AUA leases 500 beds
from Antiguan building owners, with
monthly rental payments exceeding
US$300,000. Antiguans are as much
the backbone of the university as the
students and faculty.
AUA has also invested heavily in the
health of the Antiguan community in a
variety of ways. Substantial grants have
been donated to St. John’s Hospice,
the Antigua and Barbuda HIV/AIDS
Network, and many more local charitable
organizations. Last year, AUA presented
a substantial grant to the Antigua and
Barbuda Sickle Cell Association and was
a major contributor to the Antigua and
Barbuda National Conference on Sickle
Cell. The grant covers free testing for
high-risk individuals (e.g., those with
family members known to have sickle
cell disease (SCD)) and helps build a
database of people with SCD in Antigua
and Barbuda.
As enrollment has increased, AUA
students have become more involved in
making a difference on the island through
AUA-sponsored student organizations
Antigua & Barbuda Aids Secretariat to
promote World Aids Day and to raise
awareness of the importance of HIV
testing. Confidential HIV testing and
counseling were offered on-site.
Female members of AMSA’s executive
board participated in a breast cancer
screening day organized by the
Antigua Lions Club and Breast Friends.
Approximately 200 people participated
and learned that awareness and
prevention are the first steps to defend
against breast cancer. A number of breast
cancer survivors were in attendance to
tell their stories.
and cholesterol exams. EKG and PSA
testing were offered as and when
requested. Anyone with abnormal
results was referred to a physician for
further consultation. Staff also provided
participants with preventive health
advice.
Mr. Solomon also conducts classes at the
American Heart Association International
Training Center, located on campus,
to teach students and local health
professionals, including policemen,
firemen, and government officials, about
the critical components of Basic Life
Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life
Support (ACLS) for adult and pediatric
patients. the training center was formally
established with the assistance of the
Mayo Clinic Medical Transport’s Gold
Cross Training Center and is approved by
the American Heart Association.
Recently, AUA opened a health clinic
on campus that is equipped to handle
medical emergencies and stabilize
patients prior to their transfer to a larger
facility. Services provided by the AUA
Clinic include, but are not limited to,
routine medical care, vaccinations, blood
and urine tests, medication, screenings,
and electrocardiograms. AUA students,
faculty, and staff can use the on-campus
health clinic for their medical needs.
The clinic demonstrates the institution’s
commitment to the welfare of the AUA
community by providing convenient
access to medical care.
such as the American Medical Student
Association Association (AMSA) and the
Emergency Medicine Interest Group
(EMIG).Under the direction of their AUA
Faculty Advisor, these student groups
have been able to provide Antiguans with
free annual health screenings on AUA’s
campus. Many people took advantage
of screenings for blood pressure, body
mass index (BMI), vision, and blood sugar
levels. Patients were able to consult with
doctors about the results of these tests,
their overall health, and the role of diet
and exercise in maintaining a healthy
lifestyle, and obtain any follow-up advice.
The health fair also partnered with the
As a result of efforts to improve men’s
health, Men’s Health Day was conceived
by Vernon Solomon, Director of the
AUA Emergency Training Center and
Clinical Simulations. AUA Men’s Health
Day promotes awareness of preventable
health issues and encourages early
detection and treatment of disease
among men and boys. More than 300
people attended this year’s Men’s Health
Day on campus, and attendees were
provided with free health screenings that
ranged from diabetes testing to prostate
exams. Attendees were matched with
medical students who administered free
blood pressure, heart rate, glucose,
In 2013, the AUA student organization
Emergency Medicine Interest Group
(EMIG) launched its Emergency Response
Team. The team comprises of 30 student
volunteers certified in basic first aid, and
some of these students have previously
served as paramedics, EMTs, firefighters,
nurses, and lifeguards. The Emergency
Response Team assists anyone near
campus in need of assistance, including
students and locals.
AUA’s 1,500 students, its world-renowned
faculty, and the institution as a whole
have supported Antigua and Barbuda’s
economy and, just as importantly, its
well-being. As the university continues to
expand, AUA will continue to contribute
to the growth of Antigua and Barbuda for
years to come. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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65
Dr. Jacqueline Choi Class of 2010 Pathology Resident at the University of Illinois
LEADING INNOVATIONS IN MEDICINE
A
merican University of Antigua
(AUA) College of Medicine is at
the forefront of technology and
medical research in the Caribbean.
AUA’s campus was built with the latest
advances in medical school technology.
Universal high-speed Wi-Fi allows
students to work from their laptops,
tablets, or smartphones throughout
campus. The library has a vast collection
of electronic resources, including
thousands of articles, research papers,
and best-practice guidelines. Any of
these can be accessed from dozens
of computer terminals exclusively for
student use. Each classroom has HD
televisions that allow students to follow
their professor’s presentations from
anywhere in the room.
At AUA, students can take the classroom
anywhere with Blackboard Learnв„ў,
which gives students access to lecture
notes and additional materials to extend
their lessons. Echo360 lecture capture
service allows students to re-experience
their classroom sessions. When studying
for their exams, for example, they can
replay the lectures to see if they missed
anything.
AUA’s campus includes a suite of hightech laboratories that make students
feel as if they are already participating
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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66
in their clinical rotations. The Center for
Simulated Learning is equipped with the
most sophisticated training simulators
for students and physicians, including
SimManВ® 3G, SimBabyв„ў, HarveyВ®, and
NoelleВ®. These simulators include the
latest interactive software incorporating
challenging clinical scenarios and are used
by medical professionals throughout the
United States. The Anatomy Lab includes
computer stations and video systems
that provide instant access to Adams
Atlas, V.H.Dissectorв„ў, and prerecorded
prosection demos. These systems can
also project lectures and live demos on
HD monitors. Named after the father
of modern medicine, the Osler Suites
are designed to take our students out
of the lecture hall and place them in a
simulated ward. Medical students have
the opportunity to see standardized and
professional patients and refine their
bedside manner and history-taking and
diagnostic skills, which are important
for the United States Medical Liscensing
Exam STEP 2 CS.
AUA is also proud to be affiliated with
one of the most modern hospitals in the
Caribbean: Mount St. John’s Medical
Centre (MSJMC). MSJMC is a US$100
million development that incorporates
state-of-the-art diagnostic and operating
room equipment. It has served the
Antiguan community since 2009 and
features 185 beds, five operating
theaters, an electronic records system, a
16-slice CT scanner, and a full endoscopy
suite. AUA students receive early clinical
training from MSJMC that allows them
to be more fully prepared for clinical
rotations when they move to the United
States.
Beyond Antigua, AUA is the only
Caribbean medical school to secure
a landmark agreement with Florida
International University (FIU) allowing
qualified clinical students to complete
all their core rotations back-to-back at
clinical sites affiliated with FIU’s Herbert
Wertheim College of Medicine (FIU
HWCOM). Under this groundbreaking
agreement, AUA students are taught and
evaluated by FIU faculty who developed
the curriculum. They are also exposed
to top national and international faculty
and guest speakers. Students who
complete the Clinical Clerkship Program
will receive a transcript sponsored by
HWCOM and a Certificate of Completion,
which indicates they have completed
their rotations at sites approved by FIU
HWCOM, a U.S. medical school.
Between classes and rotations, students
and faculty have been leading a number
of different research initiatives in the
United States and elsewhere. In the
past two years, students presented their
research at distinguished
conferences across the
United States, including
the New York Osteopathic
Medical Society Eastern
Regional Conference, the
Biomedical
Engineering
Society Annual National
Meeting, the American
College
of
Physicians
Regional Conference in
Baltimore,
and
many
others. Not only have
students participated in
these conferences, but they
have also had their research
published in the Journal of Community Hospital Internal
Medicine Perspectives, Pediatric Clinics of North America, and
The Neurologist.
Recent AUA graduate Dr. Ryan Singhi won first place for his
research at the 2013 American Association of Family Physicians
(AAFP) Scientific Assembly and the 2013 American College
of Physicians (ACP) conference. At the AAFP conference,
he was one of the few recipients of the First-Time Student
Attendee Scholarship. The research presentation, entitled
“ApoE 4/4 Genotype and Associated Risk with Acute Coronary
Syndrome in Young Adults,” also won second place at the
2013 South Carolina Medical Association conference. At the
ACP conference, he shared his award with fellow AUA student
Namrata Kohli for their research presentation “Rare Cardiac
Arrest Observed in Patient with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy
(Broken Heart Syndrome).”
AUA student Prathap Jayaram was the first author of research
on hemodynamics (blood movement) and the effects of an
anomaly of the vertebral artery, a major artery in the neck.
The project was presented at two international conferences:
the American Association of Anatomists annual meeting in
San Diego and the American Association of Clinical Anatomists
annual meeting in Toronto. Other projects by AUA students
have included research on topics such as anesthesiology and
emergency medicine (both in cooperation with the Mayo
Clinic) and the cellular basis of diseases (in cooperation with
Tulane University).
AUA provost Dr. Seymour Schwartz
has published extensively. He
is probably best known for his
textbook Principles of Surgery, which
is considered by many academics to
be the definitive textbook on the
practice of surgery and is still used in
most U.S. medical schools. In 2012,
he coauthored the book Holystic
Medicine: The Patron Saints of
Medicine, an insightful examination
of the patron saints of medicine and
why they are associated with certain
diseases or conditions.
AUA faculty members have
long established themselves in the international medical
community through their groundbreaking research and
publications. Dr. Darrick E. Antell, an AUA clinical faculty
member, currently has his work on display at the Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Since 2012,
faculty members have presented at the XIX International AIDS
Conference in Washington, DC, and the BbWorld Conference
in New Orleans. Professor James Rice presented “Examination
Challenges in a Caribbean Medical School and the Study of
�Decision Fatigue’ in Examinations.”
Chair and professor of pharmacology Dr. Hani Morcos
completed a research paper on “The Effects of Simvastatin
(Zocor) on the Memory of Alzheimer’s Disease [Patients],”
which made headlines in The Washington Post, as well as on
several health-news sites in the United States and around the
world. He found that nNOS (neuronal nitric oxide synthase)
levels were significantly higher in the hippocampus and cortex
statin, which is the result of high cholesterol.
As AUA expands its campus, it continues to encourage
innovation in its technology, faculty, and students. AUA can
expect only further greatness. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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67
IN THE KNOW
“Eighth Annual Commencement Ceremony. With nearly 300 graduates, the Class of 2014 is the largest graduating class to date
A
LIFE AFTER AUA
merican University of Antigua
(AUA) College of Medicine
graduates have secured coveted
residency positions at prestigious
teaching hospitals across the U.S.
and Canada through the National
Residency Matching Program (NRMP)
and the Canadian Residency Matching
Service (CaRMS). Alumni are now in
private practice and on staff at top
hospitals throughout the United States
and Canada, such as the Mayo Clinic,
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center,
Cleveland Clinic, Brown University–
Rhode Island Hospital, Case Western
Reserve University at MetroHealth,
Massachusetts
General
Hospital,
University of Toronto, University of
Ottawa–Urban, and University of Chicago
Medical Center–Northshore.
A majority of graduates have secured
placement in primary care practices,
including internal medicine, family
practice, and obstetrics/gynecology. As
the Affordable Care Act expands health
insurance to 30 million Americans and
more baby boomers turn 65, there is a
greater need than ever for primary care
physicians.
AUA is proud that it has given Antiguans
the opportunity to become licensed
physicians. The Antiguan Tuition Grant
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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68
provides tuition for the duration of the
four-year MD program. Eighty Antiguan
students are currently enrolled at AUA,
which has provided more than US$6.7
million through scholarships for Antiguan
students.
The valedictorian of the Class of 2011,
Dr. Jasmine Riviere Marcelin, a recipient
of the Antiguan Tuition Grant, is now an
Internal Medicine Resident at the worldrenowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
MN. Before she graduated she received
a perfect score on her United States
Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)
Step 1 and was actively involved with clubs
on campus, such as student government
and the student newspaper AUA Pulse. In
January, she was the primary author of a
manuscript published in the Mayo Clinic
Proceedings titled “41-Year-Old Woman
with Fever, Neutropenia, and Elevated
Transaminase Levels.” Dr. Marcelin is
one of the many distinguished Antiguan
graduates now completing their
residencies in the United States.
Two of the valedictorians of the Class of
2014 were Antiguan citizens: Dr. Gaden
Osborne and Dr. Samantha Thomas.
Dr. Osborne is a Neurology Resident
at Albany Medical Center in New York.
When he completes his residency, he
plans to return to Antigua as a licensed
neurologist. Dr. Thomas elected not to
participate in the Match this year in
order to focus on research. Ultimately,
she also wants to practice in Antigua.
Both of these graduates were inspired
by Antiguan graduates before them,
particularly Dr. Marcelin.
Dr. Marcelin joins Dr. Raaj Ruparel (Class
of 2011) at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Ruparel
was a General Surgery Resident at the
Mayo Clinic but recently began a two-year
research fellowship in Simulation and
Surgical Education. During his fellowship
he has had two abstracts published and
has presented at numerous national
meetings.
Many AUA graduates have distinguished
themselves as chief residents, fellows,
award winners, and researchers. Dr.
Sanjiv Gray (Class of 2009) was recognized
as Intern of the Year for 2009-2010
during his General Surgery Residency at
Columbia University at Harlem Hospital
Center in New York, NY. Dr. Adam Isacoff
(Class of 2008) is a Pediatric Emergency
Medicine Fellow at Kosair Children’s
Hospital, the only freestanding children’s
hospital in Kentucky. Dr. Christopher
Cortes (Class of 2010) was recognized as
New York Methodist Hospital’s Resident
of the Year; in July 2012 he began an
infectious disease fellowship. In addition,
graduates have matched in some of the
most demanding specialties such as
neurology, ophthalmology, pathology,
and neurosurgery. В¤
Dr. Radbeh Torabi (Class of 2010) is an Integrated Plastic
Surgery Resident at Louisiana State University, one of the
only Caribbean medical school graduates to earn this highly
competitive residency. Before securing this residency in 2014,
he was a General Surgery Resident at Massachusetts General
Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard University. He was on
duty during the Boston Marathon bombings and treated burn
victims.
Valedictorian of the Class of 2012, Dr. Whitney Boling, is
currently an Ophthalmology Resident at Indiana University
School of Medicine in Indianapolis, IN. In 2012, Dr. Boling was
the only Caribbean medical school graduate to match into an
ophthalmology residency in the United States. Dr. Jesse Gill
(Class of 2009) is currently an Emergency Medicine Fellow
at the University of Toronto, which is a coveted fellowship in
Canada.
Another notable AUA graduate is Dr. Radmehr Torabi (Class
of 2008), a Neurosurgery Resident at Brown University–
Rhode Island Hospital and brother to Dr. Radbeh Torabi.
Prior to matching, he served as a research associate in
functional neurosurgery at Rhode Island Hospital where
he investigated the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation
in treating Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia,
major depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. While
he attended AUA, he maintained a 4.0 GPA, the highest in his
class, and earned a perfect score on his USMLE Step 1.
After completing their residencies, AUA graduates entered
practices in competitive specialties. Dr. Ehsan Esmaeili (Class
of 2007) is a Hand and Microvascular Surgeon at the South
Florida Hand and Orthopedic Center in Boca Raton, FL. His
wife and fellow AUA graduate, Dr. Allyson Bagenholm (Class
of 2007), is working at a family medicine practice in South
Florida. Antiguan citizen Dr. Alberto Marcelin is currently a
family medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
The lessons learned at AUA are carried on long after its students
graduate. AUA teaches its students more than the medical
knowledge necessary to become exceptional physicians. AUA
believes its students should become compassionate, wellrounded physicians to meet the health needs of today’s global
society. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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69
IN THE KNOW
CONNECTING ANTIGUA TO THE WIDER WORLD
A
merican University of Antigua’s
(AUA) investment in the Antiguan
community
has
increased
Antigua’s global visibility. AUA has hosted
diplomats, conferences, and students
from U.S. and international colleges in
various capacities to learn about the
opportunities available in Antigua and
Barbuda.
In 2012, the then Prime Minister of
Antigua and Barbuda, W. Baldwin
Spencer, visited AUA’s New York offices
with U.S. Representatives Donald Payne
Jr., Eliot Engel, Yvette Clarke, and Gregory
Meeks, and Senator Bob Menendez.
Prime Minister Spencer was in New York
to attend the 67th General Assembly of
the United Nations, where he discussed
the impact of the global economy and
climate change on Antigua and Barbuda.
The discussions at AUA focused on
the relations among the U.S., Antigua,
and Barbuda, and other Caribbean
nations. Topics included the Peace
Corps, national security, the World Trade
Organization, and the status of offshore
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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70
medical schools. They also discussed the
positives of Caribbean medical schools
and the contributions they are making
in the region and the United States.
Congressman Engel pledged his full
support of foreign medical schools, noting
that the U.S. needs more physicians.
On its Antigua campus, AUA hosted
international conferences such as the 7th
Annual International Stillbirth Alliance
(ISA) Conference to attract experts
from abroad. AUA’s annual Research
Day brought acclaimed international
health care professionals to share their
research with local colleagues and
AUA students and faculty. In 2012, Dr.
Michael Lumpkin from Georgetown
University gave the keynote address
“From Acute Stress to Chronic Stress
to Chronic Diseases: Connecting the
Dots in Mind-Body Medicine Research.”
Three epidemiologists from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention also
provided presentations on food-borne
illnesses and disease. Historically, AUA’s
Research Day has helped foster a deeper
connection among AUA students and
faculty, Antiguan health professionals,
and
the
international
medical
community. Additionally, professors
and invited international guests have
stimulated the local economy while
visiting the island. AUA’s cricket pitch is
approved for practice matches by the
International Cricket Association, which
also supplements the economy.
AUA draws attention to the idyllic island
of Antigua and is eternally grateful to the
Antiguan government and its people for
granting permission to create a medical
school on the island less than 10 years
ago. In return, AUA has given back to the
community by working within it to make
Antigua one of the most prosperous
islands in the Eastern Caribbean. In less
than a decade, AUA has established one
of the top Caribbean medical schools. In
the coming decade, AUA will further its
commitment to helping Antigua become
the premier international destination for
medical education. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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71
IN THE KNOW
CAMPUS EXPANSION
A
merican University of Antigua
(AUA) College of Medicine was
founded in 2004 by AUA President
Neal Simon and a group of American
physicians and medical education
professionals, with participation from
Dr. Ramdas Pai of the world-renowned
Manipal Education Group. Their vision
was to establish a comprehensive,
cutting-edge university that would train
the next generation of physicians to
meet the health care needs of diverse
communities in the United States and
globally. That is why AUA is committed
to breaking down the barriers that have
prevented underrepresented minorities
from obtaining the medical education
required for physician licensure in the
U.S. and Canada.
AUA
admits
talented
students
from diverse ethnic and economic
backgrounds. President Simon believes
that the diverse student body makes for
a better medical education experience.
Moving to a new US$60 million campus
in 2009 represented a major step forward
for the university. In 2012, the build-out
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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72
continued with two new lecture halls, 20 breakout study rooms,
and a new studen lounge. In 2014, a US$20 million expansion
will add more than 17,000 sq. ft. for two new academic
buildings, recreational facilities, and a vendor mall.
AUA believes that medical education is a partnership between
the institution and its students. Classrooms have been built
to foster an open dialogue between students and professors.
Classes are accompanied by small breakout sessions to develop
learner-teacher connections.
Currently, the campus incorporates the latest digital learning
technology, sophisticated simulation labs, and custom-designed
laboratory facilities that give instant access to a vast array of
medical resources. Simulators such as SimManВ® 3G, SimBabyв„ў,
HarveyВ®, and NoelleВ® help prepare students for their clinical
rotations. The classrooms’ integrated learning systems, such as
Echo360 lecture capture and Blackboard Learnв„ў, allow highdefinition immersion instruction on or off campus.
As enrollment steadily increases, AUA’s campus is currently
expanding to include two new academic buildings and enhanced
recreational facilities. The buildings will also include a student
union and a large study hall. Expansion brings the total campus
size to more than 27 acres. While our school continues to grow,
all our new buildings will continue to provide students with the
individualized learning they have become accustomed to at
AUA. The next phase includes the development of land that has
been set aside and architectural plans registered for student
housing to be built on campus property.
There are more projects on the horizon that will help benefit
Antiguan businesses. There will be a vendor mall on campus
with space exclusively reserved for local businesses, giving
them greater access to the AUA community and providing AUA
students the opportunity to get a taste of what Antigua has to
offer.
AUA is proud of its achievements. The recent additions to the
campus reflect its continued commitment to exceeding the
educational needs of its students and continuing to further
enrich the Antiguan community. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct
Oct
Dec | | 7373
BusinessFocus
//
Dec
IN THE KNOW
Q&A with AUA President
and co- Founder,
Neal Simon
A
UA
is
proud
achievements.
The
additions
the
to
of
its
recent
campus
reflect its continued commitment to
exceeding the educational needs of
its students and continuing to further
enrich the Antiguan community.
Neal Simon is President and coFounder of American University of
Antigua (AUA) College of Medicine.
He is the former President of Ross
University College of Medicine and
cofounded AUA College of Medicine
with a group of physicians and medical
education professionals. He took some
time out of his busy schedule to sit
down and answer some frequently
asked questions about AUA and its
connection to the Indian community.
What are the basics of AUA’s four-year
MD program?
The basics of AUA’s four-year MD
program are to provide medical
students with the requisite medical
education so they can obtain the
knowledge and skills necessary
to become residents and caring,
competent physicians.
The first two years of medical
education take place at our state-ofthe-art campus in Antigua. Although
these years are primarily didactic,
AUA follows the United States Medical
School model by incorporating clinical
experience into the Basic Sciences
curriculum.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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74
The final two years take place in teaching hospitals throughout
the United States. AUA has clinical sites in a number of states,
including New York, California, Maryland, Illinois, and Florida,
to name a few.
AUA is approved by the New York State Education Department
and recognized by the Medical Board of California, which allows
students to participate in clinical training and eligible graduates
to participate in residency training in these states. It should be
noted that students of international schools that do not have
New York and California approval are barred from participating
in residency training there.
What is AUA’s relationship with Florida International
University’s (FIU) medical school?
AUA College of Medicine has an affiliation agreement with
Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College
of Medicine (FIU HWCOM), which allows qualified AUA clinical
students to enroll in the FIU Core Clerkship Certificate Program.
AUA students are able to complete all their core rotations at
FIU-affiliated hospitals in the greater Miami area. Students
follow FIU’s curriculum with classes taught by FIU faculty and
receive evaluations from them. Once students complete the
program, they obtain a transcript sponsored by HWCOM and
a Certificate of Completion, which indicated that they have
completed their rotations at sites that have been approved by
FIU HWCOM, a U.S. medical school.
Has AUA been endorsed by any Indian organizations?
The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI)
recognizes AUA as a leader in international medical education
based on the strength of AUA’s curriculum, resources, and
faculty as well as the success of its graduates.
Who are some of the faculty members at AUA?
AUA’s faculty and administration include renowned physicians
and health care professionals. Professor of Surgery and provost
Dr. Seymour Schwartz is best known for the Principles of
Surgery, which is considered the definitive textbook in the field
and is used in nearly every U.S. medical school. Executive Dean
Dr. Jagbir Singh Nagra served as the director of health services
of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was the founding dean
and director of Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Nepal. Dr.
Robert Mallin, our dean of medical education, was the director
of family practice at the University of South Carolina School of
Medicine. Dr. Majid Pathan, the vice president of international
affairs and dean of library services and academic support,
has worked as a medical librarian for major medical schools
worldwide and is the first recipient of the Eileen Cunningham
International Fellowship of the Medical Library Association.
What distinguishes AUA is the quality of its faculty; however,
what cannot be overlooked is our campus, which was designed
with our students in mind. Of course we have anatomy and
research labs – but what really sets us apart is our suite of
cutting-edge simulation labs equipped with groundbreaking
training simulators such as SimMan 3GВ®, SimBabyв„ў, HarveyВ®,
and NoelleВ®. These simulators utilize the latest interactive
software and are so sophisticated even physicians use them!
For example, SimMan 3GВ® and SimBabyв„ў can be programmed
to incorporate challenging clinical scenarios, while HarveyВ® is
the most advanced cardiac assessment simulator available.
NoelleВ® is a birthing simulator that provides the complete
birthing experience before, during, and after delivery. We also
have a clinical skills lab and the Osler Suites, simulated doctors’
offices that allow students to interact with professional patients
and refine their bedside manner, history-taking, and diagnostic
skills.
Here, students are able to augment what they’ve learned in
the classroom with early hands-on experience, giving them a
significant advantage when they begin clinical rotations.
Where have AUA graduates secured residencies?
Alumni have matched at prestigious residencies in the finest
teaching hospitals throughout the United States and Canada,
such as the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Dartmouth-Hitchcock
Medical Center, Brown University–Rhode Island Hospital, Case
Western Reserve University at MetroHealth, Massachusetts
General Hospital, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa–
Urban, and University of Chicago Medical Center–Northshore.
Where are AUA graduates eligible to practice ?
Qualified graduates are eligible to practice in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Canada, and India.
What has AUA achieved thus far, and what do you see for its
future?
In less than 10 years, we have accomplished what has taken
many medical schools decades to achieve. AUA was the
youngest school to obtain approval from both California and
New York and to be approved by the Caribbean Accreditation
Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health
Professions (CAAM-HP). With Manipal’s support, I believe we
have bettered the landscape of global medical education. We
are extremely proud of our graduates, many having become
award-winning residents and physicians because of the training
they received here. Our goals are to continue improving the
next generation of physicians and to encourage those who
share these aspirations to apply. В¤
What is AUA’s connection with Manipal University?
Dr. Ramdas Pai, chancellor of Manipal University, assisted in the
creation of AUA. We have a unique relationship with Manipal,
giving our students many opportunities to expand their medical
education around the world. Together, AUA and Manipal are
proud members of the Manipal Education Americas family.
What are some of the distinguishing features of AUA’s campus
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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75
endorsements
of two such
m o d e r n
business
icons is highly
notable.
MUST READS
Volume 10
Business Tales
“Study the past if you would
define the future.”- Confucius
by Lyndell Halliday
Following this counsel of the ancient
Chinese philosopher, this edition of
Must Reads features two non-traditional
business books, both of which consist of
collections of real life business stories.
The value of these books is that they offer
practical lessons of business executives in
action dealing with real issues. The two
books are: How I Did it: Lessons from the
Front Line of Business edited by Daniel
McGinn (Harvard Business Review, 2014)
and Business Adventures – Twelve Classic
Tales from the World of Wall Street by
John Brooks (Open Road Media, 2014).
How I Did It: Lessons from the Front
Lines of Business – Daniel McGinn
(Editor)
How I Did It is a compilation of 34 first
person stories of CEO’s of leading American
corporations who tell of real business
challenges they encountered and how
they dealt with them. Originally written
as a series of articles for the Harvard
Business Review, the stories have now
been complied into a single 336 page book
divided into six sections: Picking the Right
People, Building the Right Culture, Telling
the Right Story, Growing around the World,
Doing Smart Deals and Finding a Strategy
that Works. Each section consists of four to
seven stories with unique lessons grouped
under the respective general theme.
The CEO’s represent a wide cross section
of corporate America - including wellknown names such as Jeffrey Immelt of
General Electric, Bill Marriott of Marriott
International, Tony Hsieh of Zappos and
Eric Schmidt of Google. Other familiar
companies represented include Xerox,
HoneyWell, Office Depot, Encyclopaedia
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
76
Britannica
and
IMAX.
Even
though
the companies
represented are
large, the issues
dealt with are
typical of those
faced by business
executives at all
sizes of companies
such as hiring
the right persons,
dealing
with
declining
sales,
finding and executing the right strategy
and negotiating deals.
Each of the CEO’s writes about critical
business issues they faced, their thought
processes and deliberations, and how they
ultimately made key decisions in order to
resolve the pertinent issues. The stories
are mostly written in a succinct and to the
point manner and are all quick digestible
reads. Moreover, the personal tone of
the contributors adds tremendous value
to this collection. Some of the executives
speak very candidly, often talking openly
about their trepidations, and admitting
their mistakes, making them appear very
human.
How I Did It is a highly enjoyable and
insightful book and is the closest most
persons will ever get to having a personal
armchair chat with a major CEO.
 
Business Adventures: Twelve Classic
Tales from the World of Wall Street –
John Brooks
Originally published in 1969, Business
Adventures was out of print for many
years, until its republication earlier this
year. Clearly, the business environment
has evolved significantly since the original
publication of this book. Yet Warren
Buffett has referred to it as one of his
favourite books, famously recommending
it to Bill Gates, who in turn called it “the
best business book I’ve ever read.” The
John Brooks
(1920
to
1933) was a
contributor
to the New
Y o r k e r
magazine.
The twelve
c a s e s
selected for this book are quite diverse
– each with unique lessons. They cover
many iconic American companies such as
Ford Motors, Xerox and GE as well as other
lesser known companies. Some articles
also cover government policy such as
income tax and the stock market.
In each case, Brooks writes in vivid detail
with rich prose and a dry wit that makes
each tale as entertaining as it is instructive.
Many of the tales are stories of failure,
such as Ford’s disastrous roll out of the
Edsel mid-range luxury car in 1958 and
an insider trading scandal at a leading
minerals company of the day – Texas Gulf
Sulphur. Brooks does not pretend to have
all the answers, but instead provides the
reader with enough detail and perspectives
to allow the reader to draw his/her own
lessons. In a sense, John Brooks might best
be described as an investigative business
journalist.
The relevance of the business tales in
Business Adventures varies significantly
and the reader will not find all of them
applicable to modern business. But there
are enough timeless lessons in the pages
of this classic 464 page book to make it a
valuable addition to the book shelves of
anyone interested in business. В¤
About The Author:
Lyndell A. Halliday BSc., DipFM, MBA
Lyndell Halliday is a business executive
who has served in a range of leadership
roles across the Caribbean. He is currently
employed as the General Manager of
Automotive Art (St Lucia) Ltd. Mr Halliday
is also a part time facilitator at the National
Research and Development Foundation
where he teaches Leadership and Business
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
for the Australia Institute of Business MBA
and BBA programmes.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
77
ECONOMY & TRADE FOCUS
ANTIGUAN IRD HEAD REPORTS AN
INCREASE IN TAX COMPLIANCE
C
ommissioner at the Inland
Revenue Department (IRD), Ralph
Warner, said the department has
managed to increase taxpayer
compliance by over 50 per cent due to
reformed procedures.
“Prior to 2010, the compliance rate was
basically below 30 per cent,” Warner said.
He noted, “because of the concentrated
effort in the department the compliance
rate among the large tax payers is around
88 per cent at this moment,” the IRD boss
said.
Warner said there is a department within
the IRD that focuses specifically on
taxpayer compliance, which is part of the
same reform programme that began in
2010.
“It’s a structured programme, where every
day we look at how taxpayers are behaving
… We will engage the taxpayers and let
them know if they haven’t filed,” he said.
“I think the whole idea is to stimulate
economic activity within the country and
to ease individuals in being compliant.”
Responding to Prime Minister Gaston
Browne’s promise to grant amnesty on
property tax, the commissioner said this is
not a done deal.
He said the IRD has not yet decided to give
the green light for a property tax waiver,
but has plans to discuss and consider
granting it in the future. В¤
Source: The Daily Observer
New Program to Create
Pathways for Trade Between
Caribbean and the USA
Indies, Cave Hill campus in Barbados, U.S.
Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern
Caribbean and the OECS, Dr. Larry Palmer
urged the audience to give full support
to the TFP, while making reference to the
strength of AACCLA.
T
he U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown
is pleased to support the
America Chamber of Commerce
for Barbados and the Eastern
Caribbean (AmCham BEC) in the launch
of its trade facilitation program (TFP),
in conjunction with the Inter-American
Development Bank and the Association of
American Chambers of Commerce in Latin
America and the Caribbean (AACCLA).
Speaking at the ceremony for the TFP
launch held at the University of the West
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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78
“AACCLA has become the premier advocate
in facilitating business in the Americas.
AACCLA’s mission is to promote trade and
investment between the United States and
the countries of the region through free
trade, free markets, and free enterprise.
For nearly a century, American Chambers
of Commerce (AmChams) have been the
most influential voice of U.S. business
across the world.
AmCham BEC is not only the newest
AmCham in the world, but it also has the
distinct status of being the only multijurisdictional AmCham in the world
covering the seven countries of Antigua
and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica,
Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and
St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” noted
Ambassador Palmer.
The TFP will be based on a regional company
survey, which will assess the region’s
priorities for trade facilitation. Using the
results from that assessment, a unified
customs approach will be developed to
improve the flow of goods in the region.
The final TFP will be implemented in three
phases.
President of AmCham BEC Dustin Delany
noted, “It is predicted that the project will
significantly contribute towards building
an active consensus among the private
sectors of the region, support efforts
to improve the competitiveness of the
Caribbean economies, provide impetus to
regional integration, and influence local
policymakers and businesses to support
policies to facilitate international trade.” ¤
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ECONOMY & TRADE FOCUS
ECLAC SAYS CARIBBEAN ECONOMY
FORECASTED TO GROW BY 2%; GROWTH
OF 1.7% FORECASTED FOR OECS
Forecast Is Down From Earlier 2.7% Growth Estimate;
China Demand Called Region's Main Risk
T
he Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC) said Caribbean economies
are expected to recover in 2014,
while lowering the growth forecast for the
entire region to 2.2 per cent.
ECLAC recently unveiled its report,
�Economic Survey of Latin America and the
Caribbean 2014,’ indicating that Caribbean
economies will grow to two per cent
“which implies a recovery from the 1.2
percent registered in 2013”.
Overall, ECLAC revised its projections for
Latin American and Caribbean economies,
which it said will experience average
growth of 2.2 per cent in 2014, “affected
by the weakness in external demand, less
dynamic domestic demand, insufficient
investment and limited room for
implementing policies to spur an upturn.
Economic activity in the Eastern Caribbean
Currency Union (ECCU) territories is
expected to expand by 1.7% in 2014, as
the recovery in all six economies gathers
momentum, albeit at varying levels. A
rally in the construction sector, coupled
with sustained growth in the tourism
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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industry, will continue to have positive
spillovers on the transportation and
communications sectors. Wholesale and
retail trade activities are expected to grow
exponentially as a consequence of these
drivers. Positive impacts are also expected
in the agricultural sector. However,
continued fiscal consolidation strategies
should limit government spending while
weak economic activity in some member
States ought to keep inflation in check,
with a rate of the order of 1.8% expected
in 2014. The primary risks to economic
growth will continue to be weak public
finances, high levels of public debt and
the prohibitive cost of borrowing in
international financial markets.
“These elements have a differentiated
impact on Latin American and Caribbean
countries and sub-regions, confirming a
high degree of heterogeneity in growth
dynamics,” said ECLAC in cutting the
regional growth forecast for 2014 that was
issued last April when it predicted a 2.7 per
cent growth.
The ECLAC report said that the main risk
to growth this year comes from China,
as commodity-exporting nations could
be harmed if growth in that Asian nation
doesn't stay above 7.0%.
The study indicates that the economic
slowdown observed in the last quarter of
2013 persisted during the first months of
2014, meaning that the region will grow
less than the 2.5 per cent recorded last
year.
Nevertheless, the report signals that a
gradual improvement in some of the
world's major economies should enable
the trend to change towards the end of
2014.
“Macroeconomic policies have to take
into account each country's specific
vulnerabilities,” said Alicia Bárcena,
ECLAC’s Executive Secretary.
“Without a doubt, it is important in all cases
to increase investment and productivity to
guarantee structural change with equality
in the medium term. Both factors are key
challenges for the economic sustainability
of development, especially in the current
context.” ¤
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81
ECONOMY & TRADE FOCUS
S&P: WEALTH GAP IS
SLOWING US ECONOMIC
GROWTH
E
conomists have long argued that a rising wealth gap has
complicated the United States rebound from the Great
Recession.
Now, an analysis by the rating agency Standard & Poor's lends
its weight to the argument: The widening gap between the
wealthiest Americans and everyone else has made the economy
more prone to boom-bust cycles and slowed the five-year-old
recovery from the recession.
Economic disparities appear to be reaching extremes that "need
to be watched because they're damaging to growth," said Beth
Ann Bovino, chief US economist at S&P.
The rising concentration of income among the top one per cent
of earners has contributed to S&P's cutting its growth estimates
for the economy. In part because of the disparity, it estimates
that the economy will grow at a 2.5 per cent annual pace in the
next decade, down from a forecast five years ago of a 2.8 per
cent rate.
The S&P report advises against using the tax code to try to
narrow the gap. Instead, it suggests that greater access to
education would help ease wealth disparities.
Part of the problem is that educational achievement has stalled
in recent decades. More schooling usually translates into
higher wages. S&P estimates that the US economy would grow
annually by an additional half a percentage point - or US$105
billion - over the next five years, if the average American worker
had completed just one more year of school.
reduce inequality could remove incentives for people to work,
and cause businesses to hire fewer employees because of the
costs involved.
The report builds on data from the Congressional Budget Office,
the International Monetary Fund and academic economists
to explain how income disparities can hurt growth. Many
consumers tend to become more dependent on debt to
continue spending, thereby worsening the boom-bust cycle. Or
they curb their spending, and growth improves only modestly,
as it has during the current recovery.
Tax data tracked as part of the World Top Incomes Database
project reveal just how much the economic chasm has
expanded.
An American in the top one per cent of earners had an average
income of US$1.3 million in 2012, the most recent year for
which data are available. Average income jumps to US$30.8
million for the top 0.01 per cent.
Adjusted for inflation, the top 0.01 per cent's average earnings
have jumped by a factor of seven since 1913. For the bottom 90
per cent of Americans, average incomes, after inflation, have
grown by a factor of just three since 1917 and have declined for
the past 13 years. В¤
Source: Associated Press
By contrast, S&P concludes, heavy taxes that would be meant to
3 IN REGION “PARTIALLY
COMPLIANT” ON TAX
TRANSPARENCY
T
he Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) has rated St. Lucia, Antigua
and Barbuda, and Anguilla as “Partially Compliant”
with international standards on tax transparency. But it
noted that the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat and St.
Kitts-Nevis were “largely compliant”.
In reviewing the exchange of information practices through
Phase 2 peer review reports in 10 jurisdictions, the OECD’s
Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information
for Tax Purposes said it allocated ratings for compliance with
the individual elements of the international standard, as well
as an overall rating. It said five jurisdictions — Andora, Anguilla,
Antigua, Indonesia and St. Lucia - received an overall rating of
“Partially Compliant”.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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The Global Forum also said that four others - Chile, the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montserrat and St. KittsNevis - received an overall rating of “largely compliant”, while
Mexico was rated as “compliant” with Global Forum standards.
While there are legal obligations for most entities to maintain
ownership information, the report notes that compliance with
ownership obligations was “not sufficiently monitored” by the
St. Lucian authorities over the review period.
With the release of the latest batch of reviews, the OECD
said the Global Forum has now completed 143 peer reviews
and assigned compliance ratings to 64 jurisdictions that have
undergone Phase 2 reviews. Additional peer reviews will be
completed by the next plenary meeting of the Global Forum, in
Germany in late October 2014. В¤
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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83
Business Spotlight
ENVIRONMENTAL
FOCUS
A
AEROPOST BRINGS IT TO YOU
EROPOST was founded by James Fendell 28 years ago
and as we celebrate the successful delivery of services
to consumers in Latin America and the Caribbean, we’re
proud to also say we have achieved what the big companies
could not develop.
We offer a concierge-like service that: allows shoppers access
to better, price-sensitive products from among hundreds of
thousands of options; and which gives them the ability to
purchase those products risk-free at prices that are 30-60 per
cent and even 100 per cent more economical than the some of
the same products imported and sold in stores here in Antigua.
The best part is that we offer a 100 per cent guarantee on your
purchase.
We have represented multinational Courier businesses such as
FedEx and UPS, then we decided to develop the e-Commerce
product, a product designed to meet the individual needs of our
customers.
One of the biggest fallacies about the e-commerce business is
the payment fulfillment – more specifically, the claim that US
stores do not accept our credit cards.
In fact, our clients do make purchases using our own credit
cards. We provide clients with a US based e-Shopping card that
can be used transaction-by-transaction, using their own predetermined balance.
Another fallacy is the information transparency. For too long, only
Courier businesses had the ability to track and trace packages,
but this was too costly for low value e-shopping purchases.
This left shoppers at the mercy of high transportation prices;
or buying overpriced products in their countries; or the worst
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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84
problem of all - utilising low-priced transportation companies
that would not offer any guarantees.
At AEROPOST, we have changed that. We have developed a
unique state-of-the-art e-commerce system that does not only
track and trace shipments, but is built-in with applications and
gadgets that are exclusive to e-Shopping.
Some of these applications and gadgets are the e-Calculator and
the Pre-Alert.
Using the first one, shoppers could find out the overall cost for
the service even before making a purchase. While, the second
one is an invoice feature that allows customers to advise us of
their purchases at time of receiving their tracking information.
This allows speedy treatment during the transit and the clearing
of the shipment; plus clicks-in the aeroprotect program that
covers the guaranty of each product.
We as shoppers become frustrated over the idea of our
purchases being damaged or lost. But, with the aeroprotect
program, that’s one problem you don’t have to worry about.
The aeroprotect service is provided at a minimal cost of $1
US dollar with a 100 per cent coverage against lost, damaged
and missing items. It also covers the cost to return and reship
items that have malfunctioned or in instances when the store
may have sent the wrong product. At AEROPOST, this offer is
available to our customers without further cost, for up to one
year.
Our base is in MIAMI and we serve 40 countries both in Latin
America and throughout the Caribbean and we offer 24-hour
customer support.
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Business Spotlight
ENVIRONMENTAL
FOCUS
SHOWING ACCOUNTABILITY
T
wenty years ago,the cost of primary and
secondaryeducation in Antigua and Barbuda,
was borne largely by parents and guardians.
Unfortunately, for many, it was an uphill battle that
seemed insurmountable at times. However, relief came
with the introduction of the Education Levy Act in October
1994 when the Government of the day decided to assist
with the provision of text books and scholarships to its
citizens as well as improve the educational system overall.
As with any change, the new Act met with resistance,
since the public was uncertain as to how they would
benefit.Nevertheless, the Government, in keeping with its
vision to ease the burden on all parents and guardians,
implemented the Education Levy Act and deductions
began in October 1994.
The organization was created to improve the educational
system of Antigua and Barbuda through its supply of text
books to all school children, furniture to public schools and
school supplies and equipment to all private and public
schools. The Board of Education has sole responsibility
for the supply of computers, copiers, risographs, toners
and their accessories, as well as everything (all materials
utilized by the schools) from the disinfectant to the register,
for all private and public primary and secondary schools
within the twin-island state of Antigua and Barbuda. The
Board also maintains the school buildings and grounds
as it is responsible for the general upkeep of the public
schools’ plants.
In addition, we provide critical financial support toall the
curriculum areas including, but not limited to, music, arts
and craft, sciences and sports. The Board also provides
support to several educational institutions such as the
Antigua State College, Antigua and Barbuda Institute
of Continuing Education (ABICE) and is responsible for
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec | 86
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec | 86
Government’s contributions to the University of the West
Indies (UWI) and Caribbean Examination Council (CXC).
During the last 6 years, the Board was asked to assist
with the completion of the National Public Library which
is today open to the public. Throughout its existence,
the Board has provided in excess of 3300 scholarships
and bursaries at a cost of over EC$85 million dollars. We
are proud to have funded 23 Island Scholars and over 70
Excellence Awardees.
During summer 2014 under the direction of the new
Minister Michael Browne, the Board changed the face of
many schools with Villa, Golden Grove and T. N. Kirnon
Primary Schools receiving a completely new vibrant
look. Extensive work, both internal and external was
also done on the Ottos Comprehensive School with the
aim of improving the atmosphere and creating a childfriendly environment conducive to learning. This was in
keeping with the new vision thrust that the Board has now
embarked on.
Further, in an effort to allay the crippling effects of the
drought situation, cisterns were cleaned and refilled and
spouting and tanks were installed at various schools. The
summer programme was successfully executed with spending
exceeding EC$1.6 Million
From inception, provision of text books have always been
a priority and this year was no exception. The Board spent
nearly EC$4.5 million on texts and though some challenges
were experienced, the Board remains committed. In that
regard, the Board is issuing an extra appeal to parents to
exercise more vigilance in the covering and care of the texts.
This is necessary to prevent having to pay additional monies
to replace the texts when they are lost or damaged.
Over the last 20 years, the organization has grown from
strength to strength and today looks forward to a bright future
with the vision of the new Government, Minister of Education
and Board of Directors. Further, as good stewards of the
public’s funds, we are committed to the development of our
nation’s youth and will continue to do our part in providing
them with the necessary tools to ensure their academic and
general success. We are, however, dependent upon the
contributions which are mandated by law and would like to
thank the public for its invaluable support and encourage you
to continue making the required contributions as it will aid in
our sustained efforts to advance education in the nation of
Antigua and Barbuda.
BusinessFocus
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Oct // Dec
Dec | | 87
87
Business Spotlight
ENVIRONMENTAL
FOCUS
WASTEWATER
MANAGEMENT IN THE REGION:
Not an issue in only Antigua and Barbuda
Previous Regional Policy Development on Wastewater Management
A
ntigua and Barbuda has benefited
from several regional and national
projects which, during their
execution have addressed wastewater
management. The Sustainable Island
Resource
Management
Mechanism
(SIRMM), Component 4, focused
specifically on the best practices
in wastewater disposal and water
conservation in the Northwestern tourism
BusinessFocus Oct
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Dec | | 88
88
BusinessFocus
zone in Antigua. Areas surrounding
McKinnons and Yorks were focused upon.
In 1986 Antigua and Barbuda signed the
Protocol Concerning Pollution from LandBased Sources and Activities, commonly
referred to as the LBS Protocol. This
was developed to respond to the need
to protect the marine environment and
human health from land-based point and
non-point sources of marine pollution
such as wastewater. The Protocol formally
entered into force in 2010 following its
ratification by ten countries. It can be
considered perhaps the most significant
development in the Caribbean to address
wastewater management.
Under the Global Environment Facilityfunded Integrating Watershed and
Coastal Areas Management Project (GEFIWCAM) in 2008,a toolkit was published
to provide guidance to legislative drafters
in the amendment and drafting of
appropriate legislation in their respective
countries in support of the objectives
of the LBS protocol. Existing domestic
legislation was consulted in each country
and analyzed in terms of what was
needed in each island to bring it into
compliance with the LBS protocol.
The star of this article is another
GEF project that is currently being
implemented and in which Antigua and
Barbuda is involved called GEF CReW - the
Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater
Management. The cornerstones of
CReW are sustainable financing, policy
and legislative reform, capacity building
and, fostering regional dialogue and
knowledge sharing throughout the
region.
In addition to testing pilot financing
mechanisms in four of the thirteen
participating countries, CReW aims to
help with reforms for better wastewater
management. This includes improving
skills and knowledge needed for policy
formulation, planning and financing
in water, sanitation and wastewater
management.
Increasing public
awareness of wastewater and related
issues is also an important part of the
project’s work.
The implications for businesses
The question you may be asking yourself
at this point is, “How does the problem
of ineffective wastewater management
affect my business?”
The ways that we contribute to
wastewater were outlined in our previous
installment but as a recap:
-
Using toilet facilities;
-
Washing clothes and dishes;
-
Cooking;
-
Gardening;
-
Ineffective sewage treatment
systems within homes and businesses
which do not meet the demands placed
upon them;
These are all ways that we create
wastewater.
While a business such as an insurance
company, bank, or even a government
office might not be directly affected,
however it is the people who are
employed at and utilize the services of
these businesses that may feel the effects.
There are many harmful microorganisms
in untreated wastewater that can cause
diseases. These microorganisms are then
transported via the water into drains,
waterways and eventually the sea, and
can cause serious illnesses in people
exposed to them, therefore exacerbating
present health issues.
The IWCAM project, under which Antigua
and Barbuda had a demonstration project,
made note of high population densities,
which, combined with population
growth, increased development, has led
to the contamination of underground
water sources and the deterioration
of coastal water quality in Small Island
Developing States (SIDS). This has lead
to several public health issues, which
critically affect the overall health of the
population as well as nutritional security.
To wrap up, the GEF CReW Project hopes
to improve the capacity of participating
countries to manage their wastewater
more effectively and safeguard the
Caribbean Sea.
BusinessFocus
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Oct /
/ Dec
Dec | | 89
89
ECONOMY
& TRADE
FOCUS
YOUTH
FOCUS
JOEL BEAZER TOPS CAPE
he had internal exams, applying to universities, financial aid
application, the Leeward Islands Debating Competition, plus his
usual responsibilities.
Now, Beazer will focus on pursuing a Bachelor of Arts with
a concentration in Physics for the next four years at Harvard
University, with hopes of continuing his education at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology or one of the other
universities that accepted him this year.
The former Antigua Grammar School student sat 14 subjects
at CSEC level gaining grade one passes in biology, building
technology, principles of business and accounts, information
technology, technical drawing, physics, English language and
literature, Spanish, social studies, mathematics, chemistry and
French.
Additionally, Beazer registered privately with the Ministry of
Education for history for which he also attained a grade one.
I
t is a place he has been before, but top student Joel Beazer
said being this year’s Island Scholar required hard work,
determination and dedication.
In 2012, at the age of 16, the St Johnston’s Village resident was
Antigua’s top student attaining a total of 15 CSEC grade ones in
the May/June examinations.
Beazer graduated this year from the Advanced Level Department
at the Antigua State College (ASC) having achieved the highest
Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.29, with distinctions in Applied
Mathematics Unit 1 and 2, Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Pure
Mathematics units 2. He said the right attitude is the key to
success.
“I think the attitude towards anything that you are doing is the
most important. If you see anything as a difficulty, something
you don’t want to be doing or something you refuse to give
your best at, then whatever you read is going to be subpar,”
Beazer said.
The Island Scholar applied to 16 universities worldwide; 11 in
the United States; six Ivy League universities, four in the United
Kingdom and the University of the West Indies.
Beazer who scored 2,230 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test(SAT)
was accepted to all 16 and was granted full scholarship to
Harvard University in Massachusetts to pursue studies in
Physics.
He said his journey to such an achievement was filled with
practice.
“I remember spending a lot of days at ASC in the back room
doing those practice tests, while a lot of my friends were
enjoying their free periods. And, so, it took a lot of dedication
and hard work. I remember going over vocabulary and carrying
around the book and come (last) November I did the SAT subject
test,” the former ASC student said.
Beazer recalled the last year as being the most hectic compared
to secondary school. In addition to preparing for SATs, he said
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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90
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education sai there were eight
candidates contending for the honour of Island Scholar.
The students were Beazer, Tara Spencer, Amicha Robertson,
Abiel Spencer, Quincer Samuel, Saeed Graham, JenГ©e Joseph
and Jadon Thomas, all from the Advanced Level Department at
Antigua State College. В¤
office, school, art supplies and more!
Tel: 46 CLIPS (462-5477)
Fax: 462-5478
Email: [email protected]
STORE HOURS:
MON-FRI 8:30AM –5:30PM
SAT 9:00AM –2:00PM
MARISSA MICHAEL
TOP CSEC STUDENT
SAYS HARD WORK IS KEY
A
ttaining the nation’s top Caribbean Secondary Education
Certificate (CSEC) spot was difficult, but obviously attainable
and worth it, the 2014 top CSEC student said.
Marissa Michael of the St Anthony’s Secondary School said the
feat required tremendous organisation and determination.
“I feel excited to know that my hard work and determination paid
off. It took a lot of preparation and time management; it’s always
good to make the schedule and stick to it,” she said. “…Even
though I didn’t stick to it exactly, it still had great benefit.”
The 17 year old, who undertook 17 CSEC general proficiency
subjects, acquired grade ones in biology, Caribbean history,
chemistry, English A, English B, French, geography, Information
Technology, office administration, physical education, physics,
principles of accounts, principles of business, social studies,
Spanish and additional mathematics, while she received a grade
two for technical drawing.
Michael advises students planning to undertake CSEC exams
next academic year to make “practice” a habit ahead of their
examinations.
“Do well throughout the whole fourth and fifth form, because
it’s not a study-the-night-before type of exam …. you have to pay
attention in class, do all of your assignments, do your SBAs and do
them well,” she noted.
“Whenever you have a problem, go to the teacher and ask
questions. I would advise them to make a study schedule as I did
and to stick to it and work on past papers.”
Michael first came to prominence for academic excellence in 2009
when she copped the top Common Entrance Exam spot, after her
schooling at the St Nicolas Primary.
Her aspiration is to become a surgeon. Michael left Antgua in
August in preparation for studies in medicine at Tufts University
in the United States.
The second place student is Zubin Deyal of the St Joseph Academy
with 16 subjects, while Danique Jordan of Baptist Academy of
Antigua is third, with 15 subjects. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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91
TOURISM FOCUS
MORE CRUISE SHIPS
TO CALL IN ANTIGUA &
BARBUDA
ANTIGUA COLLABORATES
WITH SPAIN TO RESTORE
HERITAGE SITES
“we look forward to the strengthening
and deepening of our close collaboration
to unlock the vast potential of heritage
tourism and we view Spain as a valued
serious partner which understands the
significance of this enterprise to the
survival of a small nation as ours.”
He added, “We intend to have a cultural
policy in which the protection of heritage
sites and artifacts are included along with
the mapping of the different sites”.
CTO ELECTS NEW
CHAIRMAN
“I am very impressed with the wealth of
heritage sites on Antigua and Barbuda and
upon my return to Spain I will submit my report
for a determination of the scope of assistance
we will be providing this country”.
A
ntigua and Barbuda is poised to
see a 20 per cent increase in cruise
tourism calls for the upcoming
2014/2015 winter season which officially
commences on October 15.
President of Antigua & Barbuda Cruise
Tourism Association Nathan Dundas
who divulged the information, said the
increase is linked to renewed efforts by
officials from the Ministry of Tourism,
the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism
Authority and the St John’s Development
Corporation.
To support the statement about a
projected increase, Dundas said a total
of 297 cruise ships are booked to stop in
Antigua this season, while last year there
were 253 calls to the twin island.
With the projected increase in the
number of calls, Dundas said it is
expected the number of passengers will
also increase significantly.
One of the season’s highlights is the
return of Disney Magic of the Disney
Cruise Lines that last stopped in Antigua
in 2008.
That ship usually brings about 4,000
passengers.
Over in Barbuda where cruise tourism
is new, eight small cruise vessels are
scheduled to stop there. Among the
vessels are the Europa Cruises, the Sea
Dreams, Club Med and Wind Star Cruises.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
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Those are the words of Irene Seco - Heritage
Director of the Spanish Agency for International
Cooperation for Development (AECID) who
visited Antigua in September to undertake
a formal assessment as to an approach for
heritage restoration in Antigua and Barbuda.
Her visit came as a result of bilateral discussions
involving Prime Minister Gaston Browne and
Minister of Culture Paul “Chet” Greene and the
Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy Brey on
the margins of the 35th Regular Conference
of Heads of Government of the Caribbean
Community, CARICOM on July 2, 2014.
The archeologist’s work was organised by
the Office of the National Authorising Officer,
(NAO) within the Ministry of Trade whose head,
Ambassador Dr Clarence Henry expressed
appreciation for the manner in which Seco
undertook her assignment.
He noted “the assistance will enhance
restoration activities and hopefully provide
much needed expert training to our trades
people.” The Anglican Cathedral, Fort James,
Government House, the Museum, Monk’s
Hill and surrounding sites were among those
visited.
Seco expressed an expectation of a “quick
turnaround” time in the selection of the
priority intention from Spain.
Addressing the government’s interest in
placing the restoration and protection of
cultural heritage and its value to our tourism
product, the Minister of Culture reaffirmed
B
arbados Tourism Minister Richard Sealy
has been elected the new chairman of
the Caribbean Tourism Organisation
(CTO).
Sealy’s election was announced at the
opening of the CTO’s State of the Industry
conference on September 17.
He was chosen during the CTO’s Annual
General Meeting at the conference, held at
the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef and Morning
Star resort.
“I look forward to putting my very best foot
forward and working along with all of the
other entities in the region to deal with some
of the vexing problems that we have right
now with tourism,” Sealy said following the
announcement. “And of course to continue
the good work that has been done by this
organization recently.”
Sealy succeeds outgoing CTO Chairman
Beverly Nicholson-Doty, who is the Tourism
Commissioner of this year’s conference
host, the US Virgin Islands.
He will serve a two-year term.
ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL YACHTING COMPETITION ON THE CARDS FOR 2015
N
egotiations are underway for
Antigua and Barbuda to host
a major international yachting
competition in 2015.
Commodore of the Antigua Yacht
Club, John Duffy said as part of its
plans to boost the country’s yachting
industry, the club is in talks with several
international bodies in hopes that
Antigua will be their destination of
choice for future race meets.
Chief on the list of international regattas, anticipated to be
held in the nation’s waters, is the International Optimist Dinghy
Association’s (IODA) North American Championships.
“At the moment, we are in the process of trying to encourage the
Optimist to host their North American championships at the yacht
club for 2015,” Duffy noted.
“We are working on a couple of other big events to come to
Antigua for 2016 and 2017. So at the moment, we are very much
looking to push sailing to bring people into the island.”
The IODA organises dingy races across the word, mainly geared at
youth up to the age of 18.
Duffy said talks are underway with the
Minister of Sports, Paul “Chet” Greene, on
the way forward with plans for the event.
“Speaking with the Minister of Sport, Mr
Greene, and some others on the island, we
decided to see if we can get hold of 150 to
200 dinghies to have an event in 2015,” he
said.
The yacht club is hoping to source the small
boats from a US company, through a lease
arrangement.
The club head anticipates by the end of this week a final decision
would be made on the country’s ability to host the race meet.
Meantime, the nation has won big at the Etchells Invitational race
in Cowes, Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom.
Jeremy Thorpe led the Antigua team in the July 26th to 31st
biennial event.
Duffy said a combination of skill and good fortune was responsible
for the win.
“This was an open invitation to any sailors who wanted to compete
… and one of our members decided to get a crew together and
race on behalf of Antigua Yacht Club, and should we say that, skills
and luck and everything else that goes into sailing, he came first,”
Duffy added.
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
93
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Juicing –
Is it worth the while?
The Risks and Benefits of Juicing
J
uicing seems to be the latest health
craze. First, there was the cabbage
soup diet, followed by the Atkins diet,
gluten-free diets, the South Beach
diet, the Paleo diet, and so on. Proponents
of juicing claim it can help with a number
of things, from weight loss to cleansing
your system. Juicing has really taken off,
but before you spend a fortune on a fancy
juicing machine, make sure you're aware
of the potential health risks and benefits.
vitamins and minerals are housed,
and if you discard these parts, you're
throwing out the most beneficial
portions of the produce.
•
The Pros
•
Juicing is a great way to squeeze fruits
and vegetables into your diet if you
typically don't like them.
•
When making juice, you can add fruits
and vegetables that are about to spoil.
That way, you don't waste produce
(the food we waste the most money
on each year).
The Cons
•
People think juice is a nutritionallyequivalent replacement for whole
fruits and vegetables, which isn't true.
There are certain nutrients that whole
produce will give you that you can't
get from the juice, including fiber. The
skin and the pulp of fruits and veggies
are where the fiber and most of the
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
94
•
•
Juicers are expensive. They can range
in cost from $50 to as much as $400.
That's a lot of money to spend on one
piece of kitchen equipment, especially
when it serves only one purpose. A
blender, on the other hand, can be
used for a variety of foods but costs
much less.
Juice, no matter where it comes from,
is a concentrated source of calories.
This is especially true if you use more
fruits than vegetables in your juices.
The juice isn't pasteurised, which
could be a food-safety hazard. Wash
your hands and all produce before
preparing juice. Drink juice within one
week, preferably on the same day that
you make it. Also, wash the juicer with
hot, soapy water after each use.
Juicing for Weight Loss or "Cleansing"
Purposes
Juicing to lose weight or �cleanse’ is not
only unsuccessful, it can be downright
dangerous. If you're drinking juices in place
of real food, you'll fall short on a number
of nutrients your body needs, namely fiber
and protein. Fiber keeps us full for longer,
preventing overeating. Protein also keeps
us full and helps us build and maintain lean
muscle mass, which burns calories even at
rest.
If you cut your calories too low because
you're just drinking juice all day, your
metabolism may slow down. Then, once
you start eating solid foods again, you'll
likely put on weight in the form of fat cells.
Your body has two wonderful organs to
do any cleansing you need--your liver and
your kidneys.
The Bottom Line
Freshly-prepared juice can certainly be
incorporated into a healthy diet, but it's
not a miracle food that's going to make
you instantly skinny or cure whatever ails
you.
Additionally, be sure to talk to your doctor
before starting juicing in order to prevent
potential drug and nutrient interactions.
This is because a lot of people use dark,
leafy greens such as kale and spinach in
their juice concoctions, and these greens
are high in vitamin K, which could interfere
with how certain blood thinners work. В¤
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
95
HEALTH & WELLNESS
SIDS outline vulnerabilities
at UN conference
T
he 3rd United Nations International
Conference
on
Small-island
Developing States (SIDS) held in
Samoa in September, ended with a
plan of action pertinent to the future
development of Caribbean countries.
Called the SIDS Accelerated Modalities
of Action (SAMOA) Pathway, the draft
document includes several issues raised
by Caribbean leaders, along with a
proposed multi-disciplinary approach in
tackling the many ailments faced by SIDS
in the Caribbean and the Pacific arena.
In what appeared to be coordinated
presentations by OECS Heads of
Government, issues of health, energy,
disaster mitigation, capacity building
and finance were pitched as some of the
major factors impeding developmental
progress in “vulnerable” Small Island
Developing States.
In early July this year, the Brussels based
Joint Embassy of the Eastern Caribbean
States representing Dominica, St Kitts
& Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and
the Grenadines, had brought together
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
96
stakeholders from the
Caribbean and across
the European Union to
address the future of
Small Island Developing
States.
At
that
meeting
Ambassador
Dr
Len Ishmael, Head
of Mission to the
European Union, said, “The SIDS agenda
should not be one that is presented once
every five years at Summits for the sake
of doing so, but it should be functionally
incorporated into all multilateral fora,
policy prescriptions and supporting policy
frameworks.”
Three months later, St Kitts and Nevis’
Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas told
the Somoa Conference that “along with
climate change, extreme weather events
and flailing economies, there are a
myriad of other issues that require urgent
and focused attention, among them, noncommunicable and emerging diseases
that place a strain on health systems”.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr Keith
Mitchell emphasized the need “to
consider the trillion-dollar renewable
energy market, which could resuscitate
the struggling economies of the region
that currently spend significantly on fossil
fuels”, further explaining that the high
cost of fossil fueled electricity makes
the island states “ideal for introducing
renewable energies”.
And St Lucia’s Minister for Sustainable
Development Dr James Fletcher, opined
that the move to “prematurely graduate”
some Small Island Developing States
to middle income status was “based on
outmoded criteria that are out of step
with empirical studies on vulnerability
and resilience”. He said further that
delayed progress in dealing with
challenges confronting SIDS were “liked
to other factors, including prolonged
economic recession; dwindling support
and the failure of key partners to fulfill
pledges to scale up climate finance”.
In recognizing the host of impediments to
SIDS, the draft Samoa Pathway identifies
issues and actions required by SIDS and
the international community of nations.
The Pathway sets 2015 to 2025 as the
period needed “to reverse the spread and
severity of non-communicable diseases”,
during which national programs and
policies should strengthen health
systems.
It suggests goals of universal coverage
of health services and the distribution
of medical and drug supplies, with the
assistance of the United Nations Children’s
Fund, the World Health Organization, the
United Nations Population Fund, along
with key development partners and other
stakeholders. В¤
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
97
MAJOR MOVES
Dickenson
Bay, Antigua:
Sandals Grande
Antigua Resort
and Spa has
welcomed
a new Hotel
ManagerChristopher
Elliott. Elliott,
who is from St.
Lucia, has been
in the hotel industry for over 15 years
but started his career with Sandals
Resorts International (SRI) in 2006. He
began his Sandals experience as Hotel
Manager for Sandals La Toc Golf Resort
and Spa in St. Lucia and then went on to
serve at Sandals Halcyon. Before coming
to Antigua, Elliott held the position of
General Manager at Sandals Carlyle
Montego Bay in Jamaica.
His ultimate goal is to see the hotel’s
performance in Antigua, in terms
of scores and occupancy, remain
consistently high during the winter
season and usually slow summer
months.
In a recent letter to Secretary General
then I am satisfied.”
Elliott described his experience at Sandals of the United Nations, Prime Minister
Gaston Browne said the Dr. Webson
Grande Anttigua as better than expected.
described Dr. Webson as an outstanding
And, to him, working in Antigua and Jamaica citizen of Antigua and Barbuda who
is very much the same where the staff and has made significant contributions to
people of the country are both hospitable the social development of people with
disabilities around the world.
and kind.
“As a visually impaired individual,
Dr. Webson has worked extensively in
Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa,
helping to shape educational services
for children with disabilities. He has
also supported governments and social
workers in policy development. I am
Andre Dhanpaul
confident that he is very suitable for the
Regional Director,
Sandals
Resorts responsibilities entrusted to him,” PM
International – Eastern Browne said.
Caribbean
He also introduced Dr. Webson to
Sandals
Resorts Antiguans and Barbudans living in New
International – Eastern York during a town hall meeting on
Caribbean welcomes September 26, in the Bronx. He told the
the innovative mind of over 300 nationals in attendance that Dr.
Andre Dhanpaul to the office of Regional Webson will be the Head of the Antigua
Director with responsibility for Sandals in and Barbuda Office in New York with the
Saint Lucia, Barbados, Grenada and Antigua. various department heads reporting to
him under a new arrangement which
Dhanpaul officially took up the new office sees the Tourist Office, the Consulate and
in July 2014 following a successful career as the Mission to the UN being merged as a
single unit.
General for Sandals Negril in Jamaica.
“Coming from Jamaica and St. Lucia, before
Jamaica, the cultures are very similar. I love
soca music and it is refreshing to hear more
soca on the radio now as in Jamaica this is
rare,” he said.
This, he believes, can only be achieved
by having consistent high service levels
and feedback. In his words “Consistency
is key and being a part of helping the Dhanpaul has a strong financial background
Antigua team get to that level is a and over 25 years career experience in
challenge that I am looking forward to.” St. Lucia, with 15 of those years in senior
management at the company. В¤
Elliott has a very strong team of
managers and other staff to work
alongside. He noted they understand
the importance of the industry to the
economy of this island, hence, moving
forward, he does not foresee challenges
that cannot be overcome.
The new hotel manager sees himself as
a caring, calm and responsible individual
who loves to interact and encourage
people on a daily basis. “I truly believe
that most people are inherently good
and they want to do good at all times
and I try to tap into that trait whenever
I interact with people. I am a driven
individual and believe that if I can make
the lives of the people around me better,
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
98
Prime Minister Browne with Dr. Webson and Foreign Affairs
Minister Charles Fernandez following his presentation of the
National Address at the UN General Assembly
Dr. Walton Alfonso “Aubrey” Webson has
been appointed as Antigua and Barbuda’s
Permanent Representative to the United
Nations as Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary.
During the town hall meeting Browne
also announced that Dr. Dave Ray is now
the Diaspora Liaison Officer creating
a link between the Diaspora and the
government. He said the move is
designed to strengthen the relations with
Antiguans and Barbudans in the Diaspora
and to have them play and active role
in the development of their homeland.
He said the aim is to have Dr. Dave Ray,
as Diaspora Liaison Officer, capture the
issues of Antiguans and Barbudans in the
Diaspora and he will then liaise with the
Antigua Office in New York headed by Dr.
Webson
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
99
events 2014
29th Biennial Conference of the Caribbean Nurses Organization
October 25th – November 1st, 2014 - Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Saint Lucia has been identified as the host country for the 2014 Biennial Conference with
the St. Lucia Nurses’ Association having responsibility for the planning and organization of
the prestigious event. This Conference is expected to attract over 300 participants throughout
the Caribbean, including the USA and Canada. This Conference is expected to attract over
300 participants throughout the Caribbean, including the USA and Canada. The theme for the
conference is “Nursing and Midwifery: Integrating Knowledge, Skills and Attitude for Delivery
of Safe Quality Patient Care.” The Biennial Conference of the Caribbean Nurses’ Organization
(CNO) provides a forum for nurses from member countries to meet, discuss and conduct the
business of the organization every two years. For more information visit:
www.stlucianursesassociation.lc
URISA’s 7th Caribbean GIS Conference
October 26-30th, 2014 - Curacao
The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) is pleased to announce
its Seventh Caribbean Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Conference. The conference,
themed “Spatial Technologies: Fueling Economic Growth and Development” features important
regional conversations, preconference courses and workshops, comprehensive education, and
opportunities to connect with experts, peers and private sector sponsors. The conference will
be held at the Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort. For more information visit www.urisa.org
World Travel Market 2014
November 3rd – 6th, 2014 – London, UK
World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend fourday business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. More than
50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press,
embark on ExCeL - London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest
industry opinion and trends at WTM. For more information visit: www.wtmlondon.com
2nd Caribbean Regional Conference Psychology
November 11-14th, 2014 - Paramaribo, Suriname
CRCP2014 is held under the auspices of CANPA, the Caribbean Alliance of National
Psychological Associations. The conference is being held under the theme, “Caribbean
Psychology: Unmasking the Past and Claiming Our Future,” and reflects an acknowledgement
of psychology as a product of time and place. The conference will be held at the Toriarca Hotel
and Casino. For more information visit: www.canpanet.org
11th Annual Conference of the Caribbean Area Network for Quality
Assurance in Tertiary Education (CANQATE)
November 12 – 14th, 2014 - Belize City, Belize
The CANQATE Pre-Conference Workshop and Conference will provide an interactive platform
for practitioners, researchers, policy makers, educators, quality assurance professionals, and
industry personnel to share experiences, best practices, practical strategies, case studies,
literature reviews, research findings, and disseminate information on developments in quality
assurance in tertiary education. For more information contact: [email protected]
BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
100
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|
101
NEW COMPANY REGISTRATIONS
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BusinessFocus Oct / Dec
|
103
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|
104
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