Dominica seeks to benefit from destination wedding and honeymoon market
ROSEAU, Dominica — The government of Dominica through the Ministry of Tourism, the Discover Dominica Authority and the Ministry of Social Services, Community Development and Gender Affairs is seeking to position the country to take advantage of the new niche destination wedding and honeymoon market.
In 2009, the government of Dominica, with financial support from the European Commission under the SFA 2006 Tourism Sector Development Programme recruited Nathalie John, a wedding and honeymoon consultant to provide technical assistance to help prepare the country for the lucrative destination wedding and honeymoon market.
A four part wedding and honeymoon workshop series got underway in Roseau on Monday.
The workshops are targeted at wedding planners, customer relations managers, hoteliers, taxi drivers, caterers, musicians, cake makers, florists, decorators, videographers among other stakeholders.
Topics to be covered during the workshop series include: Preparing for the Destination Wedding and Honeymoon market;
Understanding the Destination Wedding and Honeymoon market and Creating a Wedding friendly culture: Design and Décor.
Speaking at the opening of the Workshop Series, Minister for Social Services, Community Development and Gender Affairs, Gloria Shillingford stated that her Ministry was committed to working with the Ministry of Tourism and the Discover Dominica Authority in an effort “to establish Dominica as the premier wedding and honeymoon destination of the Caribbean if not the world”.
The Minister acknowledged that the present system of processing the marriage licence application in Dominica “requires review and modernisation”.
“I am happy to inform you that efforts are being made to address these concerns and we are at the stage where Cabinet has approved amendments to the Marriage Act. These amendments, it is hoped will greatly expedite the process and help place Dominica at the forefront as a wedding and honeymoon destination.”
The destination wedding and honeymoon market is one of the fastest growing segments in the tourism industry worldwide valued at US$12 billion.
Tourism is a major foreign exchange earner in Dominica. The sector brought in $193 million into the economy in 2008 both in direct and indirect contributions.
The Government of Dominica is convinced that through a partnership between the public and private sectors, Dominica can increase significantly its foreign exchange earnings from tourism by taking advantage of the financially rewarding destination wedding and honeymoon market.
Jamaica to sell bauxite/alumina stake to China firm
By Horace Helps
KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) — Jamaica’s government plans to sell its stake in bauxite producer and alumina refiner Clarendon Alumina Production Limited (CAP) to a Chinese company, the prime minister said.
Bruce Golding told parliament late on Tuesday that negotiations were advanced for the sale of the government’s 45 percent stake in CAP, also known as Jamalco, to Chinese company Zhuhai Hongfan.
The other partner in Jamalco is Alcoa Inc <AA.N>, which owns 55 percent of the shares.
“We have entered into an agreement with a Chinese firm, Zhuhai Hongfan, for the sale of CAP,” Golding said, adding:
“The sale is subject to the inherent right of Alcoa, our joint venture partner in Jamalco, which has a 90-day right of first refusal”.
Golding said Zhuhai Hongfan had an alumina supply contract with the Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco), the country’s top aluminium maker, and had also secured financing commitments from the China Development Bank.
“Hongfan is also committed to expanding the Jamalco plant from 1.2 million tonnes to 2.7 million tonnes, provided adequate long-term bauxite reserves can be assured,” the Jamaican prime minister said.
“Representatives of Hongfan, Chalco, China Development Bank and Alcoa met in Jamaica last week and we are optimistic that the agreement will be consummated,” he added.
Jamaica’s strategic bauxite and alumina export sector was badly hit by the global economic downturn that reduced international demand, forcing several plants on the Caribbean island to halt or slash production and lay off workers.
Clarendon Alumina Production, located in the central parish of Clarendon, was the only one not to cut output or lay off workers.
But Golding said that despite the plant’s relatively high level of efficiency, the government found that it was still losing money on every tonne of alumina produced, and the government stake had become a heavy burden on taxpayers.
He blamed this on “fixed-price forward sale contracts entered into between 2002 and 2005” which were then affected by the upward movement in production costs and downward movement in aluminum prices.
“The government has had to provide a total of $176 million to meet CAP’s obligations to Jamalco. And that is in addition to assuming $369 million of debt for monies borrowed through CAP to help finance past budgets and cover its share of capital investment costs,” he said. Reduced bauxite and alumina export revenues was one of the factors that forced Jamaica to enter a $1.27 billion standby loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund in February, in a bid to shore up its vulnerable economy against economic shocks.
There are some signs however that the outlook might be improving for the Jamaican bauxite and alumina sector.
Mining and Energy Minister James Robertson said this week that Russian aluminum producer, UC Rusal, would restart in June production at its Windalco Ewarton bauxite and alumina refinery in Jamaica, which closed its doors last year.
The planned reopening, six months earlier than expected, was due to improving global demand, Robertson said.
Dominican Republic to sell benchmark bonds overseas
By Veronica Navarro Espinosa
NEW YORK, USA (Bloomberg) —
The Dominican Republic plans to sell dollar bonds in the country’s first international dollar offering in more than three years.The country, which hired Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. to arrange the offering, will begin meeting with bond investors April 23, said the person, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set. Benchmark typically means a sale of at least $500 million.
The Dominican Republic is tapping overseas debt markets to take advantage of its lowest borrowing costs since January 2008. The extra yield investors demand to own the country’s dollar bonds instead of US Treasuries narrowed to 3.22 percentage points on April 15 from 4.05 points at the end of last year, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
“The issue will be well received by the market and provide positive momentum for Dominican Republic assets,” Alejandro Grisanti, an analyst at Barclays Plc in New York, wrote in a report today. Grisanti has an “overweight” rating on the country’s bonds as “reconstruction aid flows for Haiti are likely to be funneled via the Dominican Republic,” he wrote.
The Dominican Republic’s economy will grow 7.9 percent this year, after expanding 3.5 percent in 2009, according to Barclays.
Puerto Rico Electric boosts debt issue by 67% as yields attract
By Brendan A McGrail
NEW YORK, USA (Bloomberg) —
Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority increased its debt sale by 67 percent to about $963 million of tax-exempt and Build America bonds and lowered its borrowing costs in an issue on Wednesday.PREPA had planned to sell $575 million in debt. It more than doubled the tax-exempt refunding bonds to about $643 million after investor bids exceeded the amount of securities offered in some maturities, said John Flahive, director of fixed income for BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Boston. The Build America portion rose to $320 million from $300 million, said David Desevilla, assistant vice-president at Santander Securities, lead underwriter on the taxable segment.
Flahive, who helps manage $22 billion in municipal holdings, said he purchased some of the bonds and that he’s been a “buyer and holder of Puerto Rico debt for years.”
Average yields on Build America debt fell to 6.13 percent on Tuesday, the lowest since March 17, according to the Wells Fargo Build America Bond Index. Top-rated, 10-year tax-exempts yielded 3.21 percent, the lowest since March 29, a daily survey by Muncipal Market Advisors shows. Yields on PREPA’s 15-year tax-exempts were 4.67 percent, 9 basis points less than on the same maturity in a prior issue March 26, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
The authority, a monopoly that provides electricity for 1.4 million customers, is rated BBB+ by Fitch Ratings, its third-lowest investment grade.
PREPA offered tax-exempts in serial maturities from 1 to 18 years. Bonds due in 2026, the largest portion at $85 million, were 9 basis points below the previous sale at 4.75 percent. Bonds maturing in 2027 and 2028 were only offered with a 2015 optional call — a defensive move for PREPA against potential interest-rate increases, said Michael Walls, manager of the $538 million Waddell & Reed Advisors Municipal High Income Fund in Shawnee Mission, Kansas.
The Build Americas, which will fund capital projects, according to preliminary offering documents, are the first such issue for the island. Preliminary pricing on the bonds, which mature in 2040, was for a yield of about 151 basis points above comparable-maturity Treasuries, Desevilla said. The 30-year Treasury yielded about 4.62 percent on Wednesday.
Bonds of Puerto Rico, a self-governing commonwealth ceded to the US in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, offer investors an exemption from any state tax, unlike most municipal debt. The US Treasury pays issuers of Build America Bonds, which are subject to federal income tax, a 35 percent subsidy on interest costs. “This was the right time to go to market and take advantage” of the Build America Bond programme, said Fernando Batlle, vice-president of finance for the Government Development Bank, Puerto Rico’s fiscal manager, in an interview on Tuesday. He wasn’t immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
Jamaica in sugar export deal with British firm
KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) — Jamaica has reached a forward sale export agreement with Tate & Lyle PLC to provide the British firm with 100,000 raw tonnes of sugar, according to Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
Under the deal, outlined by Golding during a budget debate in the Caribbean nation’s parliament on Tuesday, Tate & Lyle will make a $26 million prepayment for the sugar. An additional $20 million will be paid to the island next year.
The deal is similar to one Jamaica struck, covering the export of 79,000 tonnes of raw sugar, with Anglo Italian firm Eridania Suisse last year. “The agreement we have with Tale & Lyle is based on a reserved price of 370 Euros per tonne and a 50-50 share of the profit that is made from the final sale of the sugar,” Golding said.
Commentary: Our food shouldn’t travel more than we do
By Maura Curley
Bite into a piece of fruit and think about its origin. What about tonight’s dinner?
You might realize that tomatoes don’t grow wrapped in cellophane. But do you have a clue about the nature of your other vegetables, fruit, bread, fish, and especially meat?
Maura Curley is publisher of www.virginvoices.com based in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico
Food shouldn’t travel more than we do. Yet most of it takes a circuitous and sometimes scary route to our table.
Organic markets, local farms and movies like Food Inc. have done a lot to raise our awareness that locally grown tastes better and is a lot safer.
Still it’s more novelty that the norm.
We’re still stuck on the stuff on the supermarket shelves with additives and chemicals we can’t pronounce let alone digest. A while back I came across an in flight magazine with a story, which focused on a growing number of stateside committed to eating only foods produced within their region. This movement gained momentum from Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods, written by Professor Gary Paul. The book chronicled Paul’s yearlong quest to eat only foods produced within a 200 – mile radius of his home in Arizona’s Sonoran desert.The statistics for trekking food across the country, let alone from the mainland to the Caribbean could be enough make you lose your appetite.