Antigua and Barbuda
The Antigua and Barbuda government has signed a US$14 million grant and blue economy feasibility agreement with China.
“China has been there for us, quietly, respectfully, and consistently.”
“From climate resilience and renewable energy to education, infrastructure, and healthcare, China has played a central role in building our capacity and lifting our people,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne said at the grant signing ceremony.
Unlike others, China doesn’t ask us to take sides in geopolitical conflicts. They respect our sovereignty and support our development based on solidarity, not strings.”
Browne reaffirmed St. John’s commitment to Beijing as a “reliable and principled partner.”
He said his government is willing to serve as an honest broker in global diplomacy to foster peace, particularly amid rising tensions between global powers.
China’s ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda, Zhan Yan-ling, affirmed her country’s commitment to building a “shared future” with the Caribbean nation. She is confident that the cooperation will yield transformational outcomes in the years ahead.
The agreements include a US$14 million grant for socio-economic and infrastructure development and a technical cooperation agreement to conduct a feasibility study on Antigua and Barbuda’s blue economy potential.
Browne said that the multi-million dollar grant will directly support critical projects, including the replacement of ageing water pipes, housing developments, agricultural initiatives, and solar energy infrastructure.
One of the signed agreements will initiate a feasibility study on Antigua and Barbuda’s blue economy, with the support of Chinese technical experts.
The initiative seeks to identify pathways for economic growth through the sustainable use of ocean and coastal resources, positioning Antigua and Barbuda as a regional leader in marine-based development.
Dominica
In his contribution to the budget debate in Dominica’s parliament at the end of July, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said that his administration is willing to hold public consultations on the possibility of allowing Palestinians to settle on the island.
“We have the Palestinians, I believe that we will be open to engage the governments of Qatar and Saudi Aria with the view to quite possibly allowing the resettlement of a couple of hundred Palestinians in Dominica.”
“You have very talented people in these countries, doctors and engineers who we believe can assist us in our efforts to growing the economy and filling the gaps.”
His statement comes in the aftermath of several countries saying that they were willing to press for Palestinian statehood at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly.
Before Skerrit’s statement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his country’s plans to recognise Palestine formally. In addition, France and 14 other countries co-signed a declaration that pointed towards a wave of future recognitions of an independent Palestinian state.
Carney’s announcement was made due to growing pressure on Israel to end its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which started on October 7, 2023, in response to a Hamas attack on Israel.
However, Israel has promised to continue fighting until Hamas is eliminated.
Guyana
The Guyana government defended its decision to give full approval to the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) to source a US$650,000 monthly consultancy contract with a Dominican Republic company.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said that the InterEnergy Group was hired to supervise the US$422 million expansion of GPL’s transmission and distribution network because it provided the best deal.
“I think they had several proposals from different groups that they considered, so that was it and this one was the most cost-effective one,” he said, adding that the agreement, which is still being negotiated, would result in InterEnergy providing its services at “significantly lower” than the 5 to 8 % of the contract price.
“When you look at the cost compared to other supervision costs, based on the scale of the civil works contract, you can see it’s a small amount,” he added.
However, in a statement, the main opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), criticized the agreement with its vice presidential candidate, Ganesh Mahipaul, describing it as a slap in the face to the Guyanese people.
He said the secretive, bloated arrangement is emblematic of a government more concerned with wasting Guyanese money than empowering local talent or delivering reliable electricity to citizens.
Mahipaul said that the contract will cost US$7.8 million per year and was awarded to a single company without competitive tendering, public consultation, or parliamentary scrutiny.
Jagdeo insisted that no secret deal had been signed, noting that GPL and Inter Energy had signed a memorandum of understanding in 2024.
Haiti
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, has again called on the international community to give immediate global attention to the situation in Haiti.
Ramdin, who recently participated in the first Group of Friends of Haiti meeting, said that the international community must provide support and resources in accordance with the urgency of the country’s security and humanitarian situation.
He also said that all efforts would remain strictly within the mandate provided by the OAS charter.
Haiti has not held presidential elections since 2016, when Jovenel Moise was elected head of state. Moise was assassinated on July 7, 2021, and the country has not held legislative or presidential elections.
Since then, criminal gangs have sought to overthrow the interim governments, controlling a majority of the French-speaking country, forcing people to flee their homes.
The United Nations has said that gangs are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Haiti, with over 1.3 million people being displaced because of this violence, noting that food insecurity among displaced Haitians is rampant.
The Group of Friends of Haiti is a platform to informally share information on the situation and ongoing cooperative activities in Haiti.
Ramdin said that by promoting a space for information sharing among relevant stakeholders, the hemispheric body seeks to facilitate greater coordination and alignment of efforts to better respond to the urgent critical situation in Haiti.
He provided an update on the preparation of a Roadmap for Haiti, resulting from an OAS General Assembly resolution, which calls for the development, in consultation with the government of Haiti, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, and the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, of a consolidated action plan addressing the security, humanitarian, political and development challenges.
St. Lucia
The St. Lucia government has instructed the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) to propose establishing an unemployment insurance programme.
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Phillip J. Pierre said the unemployment insurance program aims to benefit nationals who become involuntarily unemployed.
“In keeping with the government’s policy to improve the quality of life and social protections afforded to citizens, the government has commissioned the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) to present proposals for establishing an unemployment insurance program,” Pierre said.
“This program will allow people who have become involuntarily unemployed to receive unemployment benefits.
“The government is committed to establishing this unemployment insurance program, which will be implemented alongside an active labor market policy,” he added.
The government says that the active labor policy will provide basic work training for disadvantaged groups by securing work placements that encourage entrepreneurship and small business development, and providing employer incentives for staff training.
“Involuntary unemployment means you become unemployed through no fault of your own, and most important is the active labor market policy where the NIC will try to re-skill and re-train so that those who become unemployed can get another job.”
“We don’t want people in a perpetual state of unemployment, and the government pays.”
“If a person has lost a job involuntarily, the NIC will try to retrain that person so that they can obtain alternative employment.”
“It is a stopgap between losing one job and gaining other, meaningful employment,” Pierre added.
The government defines the involuntarily unemployed as those willing to work but unable to due to business closures, job cuts, seasonal fluctuations, or mismatched skill sets.
– Compiled by Devika Ragoonanan
