In marked contrast to the protestations of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) over what it said were government-imposed wages and salary increases that were devoid of consultations with the union, Jamaica is reporting that more than thirty of the country’s trade unions representing Public Servants have accepted the government’s four per cent salary increase offer for the period April 2021 to March 2022, apparently without murmur.
For all the ‘notable achievements’ of the country’s tourism industry recorded in 2021 as outlined by the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) in its yearend review, there can still be no disputing the fact that insofar as the national ambition of developing the key sectors of the country’s economy is concerned, the ‘tourism industry’ occupies a less than prominent position on the ‘food chain’.
A recent World Bank Symposium on Data Analytics for Anticorruption in Public Administration has tagged corruption as a major challenge to the Bank’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity for the poorest 40 per cent of people living in developing countries.
With both countries seeking to steer their significant oil resources in the direction of meaningful socio-economic transformation, Guyana and Ghana have signed a broad swathe of enabling agreements following a visit here earlier in December by Ghanaian Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
The Caribbean may still be some distance away from leaving its COVID-19 woes behind, but on the basis of the available evidence it would very much appear that the region is sparing no pains to ensure that it does everything in its power to ensure that its tourism industry survives, and, if possible, prospers in a challenging environment.
High hopes are being expressed for the contribution that aquaculture can make to a more robust response to global hunger-related challenges, according to a recent Caribbean News Global Report.
At a time when the twin effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-driven environmental challenges are having a serious negative impact on the agriculture sector in low-income countries, the Government of Canada has announced its further commitment to ensuring the continued resilience of small-scale farmers in rural communities by increasing its financial contribution to the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Throughout history, stakeholder communities have asked what skills and competencies children need to fit into the larger society and how to best cultivate those skills; indeed, various societies have tailored education to the demands of each new age.
Several years after the Stabroek Business first encountered the Region Nine farming couple, Marko Codrington and Kim Casimiro, we met them again, in November, at Lethem.
The Caribbean’s tourism industry, having endured for almost two years a disastrous decline on account of the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, would appear to be on the way to recovery at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world, according to recent information gleaned from a World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) probe.
Efforts by developing countries to maximise food production and generate job-creation by moving to expand their agro-processing sectors could come under closer official scrutiny following claims made in a recent study published by the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) that the pursuits of food processing, packaging, transport, household consumption and waste disposal “are pushing the food supply chain to the top of the greenhouse gas emitters list.”
If the ‘lighting up,’ the product display, and the various other attractions trotted out to ensure that this year’s Main Street Christmas Village offered a ‘lift’ of spirits from the emotional trough associated with the coronavirus pandemic, it appears to have worked.
The recent outburst of fretfulness by the World Bank over what it says is the problem of governments seeking to “unfairly determine the winners of government contracts, with awards favouring friends, relatives, or business associates of government officials” (and which is reported in this issue of the Stabroek Business), came shortly before a revelation emanating from the Office of the Auditor General here in Guyana regarding a particularly outrageous instance of seeming manipulation of the state tender process in a manner that appeared to bend over backwards in favour of an un-named contractor.
Recent media reports seen by the Stabroek Business indicate that EXXON Mobil, the lead player in Guyana’s oil exploration and recovery pursuits have been ‘talking up’ what one report describes as the company’s “astronomical oil exploration success offshore Guyana.”
There is much that the Government of Guyana, the country’s banking sector, and its Business Support Organizations can learn from the recently announced JM$60 million Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) investment in the development of sixty enterprises in the country’s micro, small and medium-sized (MSME) sector.
