Business

The World Bank is backing Jamaica’s economy to expand in 2024, for the fourth consecutive year, notwithstanding the somewhat gloomier projections for the remainder of the member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) with the exception of oil-rich Guyana.

A great deal of the state-orchestrated hype that followed the promulgation of the country’s maiden trillion-dollar budget had to do with the kind of messaging that the government wished to disseminate at the start of 2023.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 1055’s trading results showed consideration of $77,305,803 from 151,771 shares traded in 37 transactions as compared to session 1054’s trading results, which showed consideration of $33,234,347 from 112,233 shares traded in 45 transactions.

With local Agro Processors having reportedly created 130 new agro processed products last year, comments elicited by the Stabroek Business from Agro Processors in Regions Four, Five, Six and Ten suggest that the sector is looking to the Ministry of Agriculture to allocate a generous portion of its multi-billion dollar 2024 budget allocation to facilitate continued growth in the sector.

Evidence that increasing numbers of unemployed and underemployed Guyanese are seeking out either full time or part time income generating options in the micro and small business sectors would appear to have largely influenced the decision by government to allocate almost G$800 million to a “Small Business Fund” and the operations of the Small Business Bureau, respectively, in the 2024 Budget.

The Bank of Nova Scotia in Jamaica has extended its opening hours to accommodate customers inconvenienced by challenges at its Automated Banking Machines (ADM’s) BMs.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 1054’s trading results showed consideration of $33,234,347 from 112,233 shares traded in 45 transactions as compared to session 1053’s trading results, which showed consideration of $15,355,747 from 46,362 shares traded in 29 transactions.

If concern over food insecurity in the Caribbean has triggered a region-wide initiative aimed at altering the region’s food security bona fides, a recent report emanating from the World Food Prograqmme points to the fact that the region’s challenge is a microcosm of a wider, and in some instance, a much more acute dilemma associated with food scarcity in other parts of the world.

For all the furore over threats of likely food insecurity in various parts of the world, including the Caribbean last year, world food prices actually fell over the just concluded calendar year, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says.

It is altogether unsurprising that the country’s agriculture sector has been allocated the enormous sum of $G97.6 Billion from this year’s overall budget allocation for the execution of the various assignments that fall under the Ministry’s portfolio.

AT the risk of stating the obvious, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are vital to the Caribbean economy.

The year in tourism – A phoenix moment Reprinted from the Jamaica Gleaner Published: Sunday | January 7, 2024 Janet Silvera – Senior Gleaner Writer The year 2023 stands as a testament to the resilience and collaborative efforts that fuelled the remarkable recovery of tourism in Jamaica.

(Trinidad Guardian) Vehicle traffic congestion imposes a direct economic burden of roughly 1.37 per cent of annual GDP on T&T.

China has, over several decades, been ceaseless in its quest to strengthen relations with the Caribbean.

The real significance of Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley’s presentation on Wednesday, January 10, regarding the role that his country will play in shoring up the region’s overall food security bona fides, going forward, is significant from two perspectives.

While some small scale business owners in the agro processing sector still appear to hold the view that the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) has an important role to play in the helping their businesses to grow and particularly to secure more markets both within and outside the region, they insist that the state-run entity can only realize these objectives if it is removed from within the operating framework of the Ministry of Agriculture and allowed to function outside the framework of the conventional state sector.