Dismantling the ‘paternalist state’ in Cuba
Last March, Cuba’s Sixth Party Congress took what its leadership described as an irrevocable decision: to adopt a large number of economic guidelines that will gradually reform, decentralise and liberalise aspects of the Cuban state. The process is intended to accelerate economic growth and remove bureaucracy while continuing to relate development to nationally planned objectives. A [...]
UK’s approach to the region is based on pragmatism
Two weeks ago four British ministers including William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, plus a large number of senior officials and representatives of UK companies met with Caribbean foreign ministers, officials and others in Grenada. The event, the much delayed biennial UK Caribbean Forum, sought to reset Britain’s agenda with the region. Opening the meeting, Mr [...]
Events off the coast of Italy should be a wakeup call for the Caribbean
Caribbean governments, tourist boards and hoteliers are no strangers to the difficulties of dealing with the cruise lines when it comes to issues that touch their loosely regulated but highly profitable industry. They may therefore be less than surprised by the public response to some of the more worrying aspects of the January 13 capsizing [...]
Caribbean nations will have to start to think differently in a slowing world economy
A few days ago the World Bank issued a report containing a dire warning to developing countries. It made clear that they needed to begin to prepare for a significant downturn in the global economy. In unusually direct language it warned that such nations should prepare now for further economic shocks and evaluate their vulnerabilities. [...]
The tourism product needs to be nurtured so Caribbean economies can grow
In a week’s time Caribbean Market Place, the Caribbean Hotels and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) premier annual business event will take place in Nassau. This very large gathering brings together the industry in the region with those internationally who buy and sell the region’s tourism product: the tour operators, airlines, cruise companies and the sector’s allied [...]
Europe views the Caribbean as failing to relate to its current thinking
Most years Caribbean governments and their counterparts from beyond the region hold policy level encounters at which they discuss matters of common interest. Such meetings, involving heads of government or senior ministers, have in the recent past included a meeting in 2011 in Trinidad with the Chinese leadership; a bi-regional summit between Europe, Latin America [...]
The Cubans will continue to manage change in their own way
Ever since President Castro first announced that Cuba was embarking on a far-reaching process of economic change there have been concerns about the implications this may have for the rest of the region. This concern, however, seems to arise from a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of what Cuba is trying to achieve. Amid sometimes [...]
UK-Caribbean relations in a difficult place
The UK Treasury’s failure to reform Britain’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) leaves the Caribbean’s relations with the United Kingdom in a difficult place. After saying that it would consult, suggesting parameters for changing the tax, engaging in dialogue with the region’s tourism ministers, and receiving nine separate submissions from the Caribbean and its community in the [...]
Prospects for near-term growth in Caribbean appear bleak
With the present Eurozone on the point of collapse, the world’s developed economies on the brink of a second recession, and a slowing in advanced developing economies such as China and Brazil, the prospects for near term growth in the Caribbean appear bleak. Having failed to find a way to address the 2007-08 global economic [...]
The region is being outpaced by changes in thinking elsewhere
Since 1964 the Caribbean has received European development assistance. This has been provided, largely unconditionally, on both a regional and national basis to every Caribbean nation, including at times, Cuba. Despite problems of slow disbursement, complex bureaucratic procedures and changes to the manner in which funding is made available, there has always been the sense [...]
The new EC proposal on sugar exports from the Caribbean will be damaging
Sugar no longer gets the coverage it once did. In years past when a development occurred that threatened the industry’s viability, there would have been extensive press and radio coverage, political comment, and a subsequent reaction from Europe and its diplomats. Today, tourism has taken King Sugar’s crown. The sentiment in much of the Caribbean [...]
Everything within the power of governments and the private sector should be done to foster tourism’s growth
Every year tourism trade fairs take place in locations from Berlin to Hong Kong. These are international events where those involved in what is now a US$1,850B global industry, meet to strike deals, promote their image and consider industry trends. These occasions act as a bellwether for the sector and by extension the fortunes of [...]
The Caribbean will not be immune to the sentiment for change arising in Europe and North America
For the last two weeks a large group of mainly young people have been, quite literally, camping out in the precinct of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. They are a part of the so-called anti-capitalist protests which have spread in an uncoordinated and haphazard way across a number of cities in the developed world. By the [...]
Caribbean governments and the diaspora need to keep up the pressure on the British government
On November 29 the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, will present his autumn statement to the UK Parliament. While it is by no means definite that he will address the issue of Britain’s discriminatory Air Passenger Duty (APD), there are indications that around that time the UK Treasury will publish the outcome of [...]
Central America moving swiftly on EU deal, Caribbean still slow
Some time early next year the association agreement reached in May between Central America and Europe will come into force. It will open quickly the EU market to agricultural products and manufactured items from Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In many cases access will be for products for which the Caribbean [...]