David Jessop

Over the last two to three years Russian interest in the Caribbean has been growing, so that today Moscow’s diplomatic profile and its economic presence in a number of Caribbean nations is now stronger than at any time since the end of the cold war.

A few days ago the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hosted an economic growth forum in the Bahamas.

All Caribbean nations have well developed contingency plans in the event of a natural disaster. 

Caricom governments are struggling to maintain the levels of social and other spending that electorates have come to expect. 

One of the strikingly different aspects of today’s Caribbean to that of the late 1970s and early 1980s, is the near invisibility of the private sector as a vocal single entity at a regional level.

By the time this is published, it is likely that the US administration will have authorised a military attack on Syria.

Something interesting is happening in the US Senate’s Com-merce, Science and Transportation committee.

Two weeks ago, after a fierce debate, the lower house of the Uruguay Parliament took the first step towards legalising the production and possession of ganja/marijuana for domestic personal use.

Sometimes it is easier to hold on to the past than to address the present; for elites to interact only with each other, to repeat the same actions, and to lose touch with those whom they seek to help.Recently,

Stretching 200 miles offshore, the Exclusive Economic Zones of most Caribbean nations cover areas of ocean vastly larger than the land masses to which they belong. 

Two United Nations specialist agencies, the Inter-national Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) and the international Maritime Organisation (IMO) may this year separately agree a basis on which all carriers by sea and air will limit their carbon emissions, reported in the case of aviation to be contributing around two per cent of global carbon emissions, and for maritime transport to be at over three per cent.

When Britain assumed the presidency earlier this year of the G8, the grouping that brings together the world’s most powerful developed economies, it made clear that tax compliance would be one of its core priorities.

For many economists, journalists and commentators, the Doha development round at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) died a while back, but has yet to be laid to rest. 

Whether you believe that global warming is caused by human activity, is in one or another way cyclical, or is a complete myth, there is sufficient scientific evidence to show that the world’s weather is changing, the seas are warming, sea levels are rising and the Caribbean is at risk.

Remittances continue to play a central role in the lives of many families in the Caribbean.

  In 2020 the Cotonou Convention will expire. Then the trade, aid and development mechanism that links 79 nations in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP) to Europe may well come to end without any successor agreement being put in pace.

It is quite possible that in less than ten years from now, raw Caribbean sugar will cease to enter the European market.

This weekend President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China will hold their first summit.

Caribbean nations have been relatively slow to recognise that long-term structural changes taking place in tourism require a new and strategic vision for a sector that many industry professionals in the region regard as underperforming.

Spend time in Brussels, or in any other European capital that has a close relationship with the Caribbean, and it soon becomes apparent how fast thinking about policy is changing on a broad range of issues that may affect the region’s long term interests.