Business

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.

If the same can probably not be said for some state agencies charged with providing important, often critical services to local consumers, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) would appear to be doing its best to be an exception.

The impending emergence of Aubrey Odle’s A-Pro Photography Establishment would appear all set to coincide with the surfeit of transformations that are taking place in now oil-rich Guyana and which will have to be captured for posterity.

Still preoccupied with emergency measures designed to stave off what some international agencies described as serious food security challenges, the Caribbean has been the recent recipient of what is perhaps a surprisingly upbeat 2024 prognosis for its economic prospects, going forward, from the World Bank. 

One of Trinidad and Tobago’s leading daily newspapers has painted a disturbing picture of a likely increase in what is already an alarming rate of what it says are “acts of criminality” that target the business community in the twin-island Republic.

By Joseph Boll Reprinted from The Royal Gazette, January 4, 2024 Climate change, its detrimental effects and the potential to wipe out the region completely have received an increasing amount of attention over the past few years as major world powers move to cut back on fossil-fuel use and adopt clean energies.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 1053’s trading results showed consideration of $15,355,747 from 46,362 shares traded in 29 transactions as compared to session 1052’s trading results, which showed consideration of $7,994,953 from 23,046 shares traded in 18 transactions.

Later this year Guyana will host the 38th session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean.

For all its socio-economic challenges in recent years, not least the near decimation of its tourism industry inflicted by COVID 19, the World Bank continues to see Jamaica as being on a positive growth trajectory, asserting at the beginning of 2024 that the island’s economy is poised to continue to grow for a fourth year in a row, albeit at a more gingerly pace than in previous years.