News
Pandemic, War, China, Climate & Food Security make welcome remarks of Regional CDB Governors
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, June 25, 2022 – The 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank opened with in style, becoming the first face-to-face meeting for the CDB since 2019. The opening ceremony was held on Wednesday the 15th of June at the Ritz Carlton and attended by dignitaries across the Caribbean.
Board of Governors member for Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo spoke on behalf of the Borrowing Member countries warning people not to get lulled into a sense of security or think it was business as usual because covid, shipping delays, and the war in Ukraine were all still factors in play. He explained that not only was growth down in the borrowing countries, but debt was also up.
“The Caribbean needs the CDB, our bank, more than ever before as we tackle long-standing problems of infrastructure gaps, human capital development, access to basic social services, food security, and climate vulnerability.”
The Borrowing Members of the CDB include: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos.
Board of Governors Member for Brazil Roberto Fendt Junior delivered remarks on behalf of the regional non-Borrowing Member Countries reminiscing on what the pandemic taught governments in the region and their admirable efforts at resilience.
“We have learned that on this planet political borders cannot fully protect populations from being impacted and most of all we have learned that trustworthy information, knowledge sharing, and co-operation are key to overcoming man-made crises and natural disasters.”
In this vein, he praised the CDB’s efforts in creating a digital Knowledge Hub which will be a consolidated cloud of data that can be shared between member states. He stressed that in this effort the information should be both trustworthy and timely to avoid missed opportunities.
Mr. Sun Ping of China delivered the remarks virtually on behalf of the international Non Borrowing Member Countries. He expressed understanding of the difficult position Caribbean countries were in at the moment and maintained that China was ready to work with the bank to see how they could alleviate some of those issues.
“China attaches great importance to bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the Caribbean through trade investment and cultural exchanges, we will spare no efforts to support the CDB in key areas such as regional infrastructure, environmental protection, educational transformation, and pandemic response.”
During the keynote address, President of the CDB Dr. Gene Leon explained what the bank was trying to do in the Caribbean.
“The challenge before us is how best to navigate a safe path from legacy structural weaknesses to transformative development while maintaining debt sustainability, enhancing macroeconomic and financial stability and resilience.”
Leon mentioned several ways the bank planned to tackle this in 2022:
By advancing food and nutrition security,
By advancing energy security,
By advancing water security.
He explained that we are too reliant on overseas food noting that at least 2.7 million people in the English-speaking Caribbean were food insecure. Thus CDB has created a plan to reduce imports of food by 25 percent by 2025 food. In terms of energy, the CDB says member states are aiming to be 55 percent powered by renewable energy by 2939 at a cost of $ 20 billion.
In terms of water, Leon said they were partnering with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance facility on a Regional Water Utility Insurance company.
By creating access to Access to Adequate and Affordable Finance. Over the next decade, the Caribbean must drum up over 100 billion dollars in investments to hit all its goals. He said access to this type of financing would “shape a future where our citizens are able to live quality lives in societies that have embraced digitalization and have robust private sector partnerships with the requisite governmental arrangement to safeguard food and energy security.”
These goals are in line with the region’s aim to become the region of choice to live in and are essential if the Caribbean is to keep up with the rest of the globe.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, April 19, 2024 – In an attempt to move to 24-hour-a-day operations Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) is steadily recruiting Air Traffic Controllers to work at the Providenciales/Howard Hamilton International Airport, according to Godfrey Smith, TCIAA CEO, reporting to the Appropriations Committee.
Speaking on April 8th Smith said a cabinet paper would be sent soon requesting six more Air Traffic Controllers to make round the clock operation at the Provo International possible and to open the airport in Grand Turk till 12 a.m.
Currently, 17 posts are filled and seven are vacant.
Smith was candid with his responses to recent industrial action from ATCs which led to resignations and firings.
“What we have to do is find systems to mitigate such actions and that has to start with filling these jobs, putting people in that want to
work and doing right by people – and we always try to do right by our staff. Persons may not think that we are but we always do – we ain’t pick no fight,” he said in the meetings held at the NJS Francis building ahead of the National Budget Communication.
Smith indicated that recruitment was an issue across the board, ‘we need to find ways to recruit a little bit better’ he told the committee. Also in need of a push was capital spending or projects according to the CEO, who said the agency had ‘not been very good’ at meeting that mark but insisted they had recognized the issue and could do better.
A very important key performance indicator drawn up by the TCIAA is increasing passenger satisfaction at the Howard Hamilton International Airport. For the TCIAA part of this means a 30 percent increase in seating by Q2 of this year.
When queried on if they could even handle this increase the CEO said,
“The fact of the matter is we already have the capacity there. What we need is to make the service a bit better.”
Staff shortages have become such a frustrating issue that the TCIAA is instituting a scholarship program created by Authority Chairman, Selvyn Hawkins
“What the board wants to do is basically allocate $25,000 annually for a scholarship and they’ve approved it already.”
This process would cover tuition and all other costs for one student.
The student would return as a summer intern and other breaks to work at the TCIAA and upon graduation, assume a role at the company.
“We identify a particular skill we need, we go after it and we build capacity that is in a nutshell the nexus of the program,” Smith said.
The Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) is allocated $49 million this financial year; over $20 million goes to salaries.
Company delivers fastest speeds nationwide and boosts service reliability
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS, APRIL 19th, 2024 – More connections, faster speeds and greater support for customers. This is the promise from communications and entertainment provider, Flow TCI, as it embarks on an initiative to provide households with enhanced connections, greater overall reliability and now, for the first time, speeds up to one gigabit person second.
FLOW TCI Country Manager, Joanne Missick shared: “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We listen to our customers and want to exceed their demands, so we are focused on delivering unmatched value with customer centric products and services that are future proof. Flow subscribers on our Fibre Extreme package can now access up to one gigabyte speeds and subscribers on our Fibre Plus and Fibre Max package, as of April 1st, are also now benefitting from up to 5x more speeds.”
This is third speed boost for Flow customers in the last two years. This comes under the umbrella of the the Company’s recently launched “Working for You” campaign, where technicians are going into the neighborhoods across the island to conduct repairs, decommission copper cables, and increase the brand’s visibility in local communities.
“To date several neighborhoods have been served by technicians and the company will continue to go across the islands to ensure each neighborhood receives personal attention. We recognize that over the past few months some customers have experienced issues with the quality and delivery of our services. This is not what we stand for. Flow remains committed to providing technology and innovation
that enables growth and positively impacts lives”, says, newly appointed Head of Technical Operations, Simeon Thomas.
Thomas adds, “We have been closely monitoring and reviewing every aspect of our network and there is room for improvement across each of the islands. Where we find shortcomings, we are taking concrete actions and assigning our technicians to rapidly make all necessary adjustments and improvements for our customers”.
Flow has made significant investments in expanding and modernizing its infrastructure and delivering a more robust and reliable network paving the way for the country’s digital transformation.
For more information on speed increases visit https://www2.discoverflow.co/turks-and-caicos/price-adjustment-speed-increase on our website.
Thank you for your usual assistance in sharing our stories.
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