CARICOM

Caribbean Region Quarterly Bulletin: Volume 7, Issue 4: December  2018

AUTHORS  Schmid, Juan Pedro; Wright, Allan;Khadan, Jeetendra; Smets, Lodewijk;Mooney, Henry; Giles Álvarez, Laura;Schwartz, Moises; Gauto, Victor

DATEDec 2018  DOWNLOAD:English (235 downloads)

The divergence in the development of the countries that correspond to the Inter-American Development Bank’s Caribbean Country Department and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) continued into 2018.

While The Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica have benefited from strong world demand and still low commodity prices, they are also each dealing with fiscal challenges resulting from high debt-to-GDP ratios and related vulnerabilities.

The situation in Barbados required immediate attention, and the authorities signed a four-year Extended Fund Facility supported by the International Monetary Fund. At the same time, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are still recovering from the fall in commodity prices, with both countries barely exiting recessions.

Guyana is an outlier in the region. Based on strong gold prices and the prospect of income and revenue from oil extraction scheduled for 2020, the country is experiencing strong economic growth, partly caused by fiscal expansion.

The situation in the OECS countries is similar – while rebuilding from the 2017 hurricanes is ongoing in some countries, others have made important progress on their fiscal reform agenda.

 Guyanese national is new Attorney General in Grenada

Guyanese national is new Attorney General in Grenada

Grenada’s New Attorney General, Mr. Darshan Ramdhani began his legal career in private practice in his homeland of Guyana. He worked with the Governments of Grenada and Turks and Caicos Islands. He was an Acting Judge in the Caribbean region and is a former Solicitor General of Grenada and is the third person to be appointed to the post since the ruling New National Party won the February 2013 elections. The Guyanese national, on the invitation of the OECS Supreme Court, served as a High Court Judge in St. Kitts as the Resident Judge, in St. Lucia as a Judge in the Criminal Jurisdiction and in the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Anguilla. Mr. Ramdhani delivered over 70 written decisions.

Caricom heads meet:

UN to help on roadmap towards Venezuela peace, security

A press re­lease in Trinidad revealed that , the Unit­ed Na­tions (UN) will as­sist in es­tab­lish­ing a roadmap to­wards peace and se­cu­ri­ty for Venezuela and the re­gion.

A Cari­com del­e­ga­tion, led by its chair­man and Prime Min­is­ter of St Kitts and Nevis. including Prime Min­is­ters of Trinidad & Tobago, Bar­ba­dos Cari­com sec­re­tary- gen­er­al and Am­bas­sador for T&T to the UNs dis­cussed Venezuela with Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res at the UN head­quar­ters in New York.

Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment in an emer­gency video con­fer­ence agreed that it would seek an ur­gent meet­ing to as­sist Venezuela where Pres­i­dent Maduro has been un­der in­ter­na­tion­al pres­sure to step down, while Juan Guai­do had de­clared him­self in­ter­im pres­i­dent . The Heads of Gov­ern­ment al­so af­firmed their guid­ing prin­ci­ples of non-in­ter­fer­ence and non-in­ter­ven­tion in the af­fairs of states, re­spect for sov­er­eign­ty, ad­her­ence to the rule of law, re­spect for hu­man rights and democ­ra­cy. The re­lease ex­pressed hope that there will be “sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ment and a di­min­ish­ing of ten­sions in T&T’s neigh­bour­ing ter­ri­to­ry. The Cari­com del­e­ga­tion is sat­is­fied that if the con­di­tions for such can be met the UN will as­sist in es­tab­lish­ing the roadmap to­wards peace and se­cu­ri­ty for Venezuela and the re­gion. …there will be work to­wards di­a­logue so that the in­ter­nal dif­fi­cul­ties in Venezuela can be ap­proached with­out in­ter­ven­tion and in­ter­fer­ence from those who may have a dif­fer­ent ap­proach.”

US Am­bas­sador to T&T Joseph Mon­del­lo de­scribed as “deeply con­cern­ing” state­ments com­ing from the T&T Gov­ern­ment recog­nis­ing the “un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic and il­le­git­i­mate gov­ern­ment of Maduro. Mon­del­lo said Guai­do and the de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed Na­tion­al As­sem­bly have the full recog­ni­tion and res­olute sup­port of the US and the ma­jor­i­ty of democ­ra­cies in the West­ern Hemi­sphere. Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so en­dorsed Guai­do and called for fresh elec­tions in Venezuela su­per­vised by in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers.

Prime Minister Row­ley denounced Mon­del­lo’s state­ment. “I take um­brage at the Unit­ed States Am­bas­sador in T&T mak­ing a pub­lic state­ment, crit­i­cis­ing the ac­tions of the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go as we take ac­tion in pro­tec­tion of the in­ter­est of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

As 16 of 34 na­tions in the Or­gan­i­sa­tions of Amer­i­ca States recog­nised Guai­do at an emer­gency ses­sion, US Sec­re­tary of State Mike Pom­peo urged mem­bers to op­pose the “il­le­git­i­mate” Maduro and pledged to make US$20 mil­lion avail­able for hu­man­i­tar­i­an as­sis­tance to the coun­try.

The meet­ing with the UN President fol­lowed talks with UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res when they put for­ward CARI­COM’s po­si­tion on Venezuela. CARI­COM is seek­ing me­di­a­tion and has tak­en a po­si­tion of non-in­ter­ven­tion and non-in­ter­fer­ence in Venezuela.

The CARI­COM team ex­press­ed op­ti­mism that the UN will as­sist in es­tab­lish­ing the road map to­wards peace and se­cu­ri­ty for Venezuela. The CARI­COM team al­so met Cana­di­an am­bas­sador to the Unit­ed Na­tions, Marc-An­dre Blan­chard and of­fi­cials from Rus­sia, Chi­na and Venezuela.

PM, CARICOM team meet with UN President

by Sampson Nanto

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is part of a CARICOM delegation which is meeting with President of the United Nations María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was part of a CARICOM delegation meeting with President of the United Nations María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés. in New York.

Maduro open to mediation 

Maduro told CARI­COM lead­ers  that he is open to me­di­a­tion talks in “Trinidad and To­ba­go or wher­ev­er”, with the Venezue­lan op­po­si­tion,  in a speech to mem­bers of the Venezue­lan diplo­mat­ic corps in Cara­cas .

“As I said to the Caribbean Prime Min­is­ters to­day. They were in New York. They met with the UN Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al An­to­nio Gut­teres. I spoke with all of them at length dur­ing the af­ter­noon. I spoke with Evo Morales (Pres­i­dent of Bo­livia). We are al­so es­tab­lish­ing con­tact with gov­ern­ments who of­fered to me­di­ate di­a­logue and I told them I am ready once again in Venezuela or in Trinidad and To­ba­go or wher­ev­er to be­gin a round of con­ver­sa­tions, di­a­logue, ne­go­ti­a­tions, with all of the Venezue­lan op­po­si­tion when and where they want them.”

CARICOM’s crisis talks with UN

Caricom delegation and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The de­ci­sion to trav­el came af­ter CARI­COM met in an emer­gency ses­sion to dis­cuss and reaf­firm its po­si­tion of non-in­ter­fer­ence and non-in­ter­ven­tion in the af­fairs of Venezuela. After Caricom heads lavished taxes on a futile visit to the UN and Uruguay to claim non-intervention, Venezuela denied US aid to suffering citizens.

Integrated LNG Company New Fortress Energy Launches $400 Million IPO

Integrated LNG Company New Fortress Energy Launches $400 Million IPO

New Fortress is an integrated gas-to-power LNG company formed by Fortress Investment Group. (Source: Shutterstock.com)

New Fortress Energy LLC, an integrated gas-to-power LNG company formed by Fortress Investment Group, launched an IPO with plans to raise $400 million.

In the proposed IPO, New Fortress plans to offer 22.2 million shares priced between $17 and $19 per share. The company also intends to grant a roughly 3.3 million greenshoe option as part of its offering.

At the midpoint of the proposed price range, New Fortress would command a fully diluted market value of $3 billion, according to a report by global IPO investment adviser Renaissance Capital.