Companies and organizations from countries in the Caribbean still come across many challenges when they want to do business in the region. During her keynote speech at the 16th edition of the Business Forum of the Association of Caribbean States that commenced in Torarica Warsha Sardjoe, representative of the Caricom Private Sector Organization (CPSO) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Rudisa Group of Companies, talked about the many challenges but also explained how the private sector in these economies that radiate so much potential could be more proactive when it comes to unlocking the potential for growth and development.

“Navigating the way of doing business in the vast Caribbean landscape can be complex. The standardisation of processes and the streamlining of legislation can sometimes differ from country to country. This inconsistency produces many challenges to companies that want to expand their reach in the region. However, the truth is that the Caribbean offered a wealth of potential through its abundant natural resources, blooming tourist sector and talented workers. By working together to tackle existing problems and to profit from ongoing reforms we could create a more streamlined and friendly environment for companies of different sizes,” said Sardjoe. The lack of standardisation produces several challenges especially when companies want to operate in the entire region. The limited infrastructure and the lack of access to loans also creates obstacles for small to medium sized companies.

“The Caribbean is known for its tourist products, sun shine and sandy beaches but is also confronted with a hidden double reality namely the strong dependence on imports. This dependency on external sources for essential goods makes the region vulnerable. Delays, shortages and high shipping costs produce a ripple effect which has consequences for the companies that operate within the Caribbean. It is getting increasingly difficult and expensive to import essential goods from base materials to final products.”

Sardjoe pointed out that the region could become more resilient against external shocks by concentrating on self-supplying in important sectors. Investments in agriculture, local production and renewable energy could help to decrease the dependency on imports while also creating a sustainable economic future. “We must make companies stronger so that they can have more growth opportunities in the Caribbean region. This is why the CPSO focuses its attention on certain aspects. One of the things that we focus on is improving access to the markets because our products get a different treatment on the markets of our Caricom partners. The free movement of people can also offer the Caribbean a wealth of talent. The CPSO was therefore disappointed when the Caricom missed its deadline to fully embrace the complete free movement of people by March 31, 2024. However, we remain optimistic that this promise could be actualized within the 3 year period that is offered to member states for making changes to their laws and administrative procedures. Another important thing that must be improved is the tariffs as this will provide the balance that enables the import of essential goods while also protecting the local producers,” said Sardjoe who added that the CPSO tackles these issues to create an environment where Caribbean countries could flourish. “We believe that the Caribbean region could secure a better economic future for everyone through collaboration and commitment to regional integration.”…[+]

RUSSIA – Vladimir Putin has formally begun his fifth term as Russia’s president in a carefully choreographed inauguration ceremony, in a country he has shaped in his image after first taking office nearly a quarter of a century ago.

Putin won Russia’s stage-managed election by an overwhelming majority in March, securing for himself another six-year term that could see him rule until at least his 77th birthday.

With most opposition candidates either dead, jailed, exiled or barred from running – and with dissent effectively outlawed in Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – Putin faced no credible challenge to his rule.

The inauguration ceremony, held yesterday in the Kremlin, was attended by Russia’s top military and political brass, but the United States and many European nations declined to send a representative after dismissing Russia’s elections as a sham.

Putin’s first inauguration ceremony, held in 2000, was heralded as the first time in Russia’s history that power within the Kremlin changed hands through an electoral process. In his speech then, Putin said his election “proved that Russia is becoming a modern democratic state.”

Twenty-four years on, Putin has since remained in power as president or prime minister, and tinkered with Russia’s constitution to remove term limits and extend each term’s length from four years to six.

While Putin received 53% of the vote in the 2000 presidential election, deemed by the US Embassy in Moscow to be “reasonably” free and fair, he won 87% in March’s election – a figure the US called “farcical.”

In the days after March’s vote, Putin appeared on stage in Moscow’s Red Square alongside the three opponents allowed to run against him. The men sang Russia’s national anthem shoulder to shoulder, as if to confirm the illusion of competition.

In a terse speech yesterday, held the day after he again rattled his saber by announcing a non-strategic nuclear weapons exercise, Putin said Russia does not refuse dialogue with Western countries, but “the choice is theirs” whether to pursue aggression or peace. “Do they intend to continue trying to restrain the development of Russia, continue the policy of aggression, continuous pressure on our country for years, or look for a path to cooperation and peace?”

Among those in the audience were the Russian-installed leaders of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – four occupied regions of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2022.

Putin’s inauguration comes as Russia is attempting to press home its vast manpower and ammunition advantages in Ukraine before the bulk of a long-delayed US aid package arrives to bolster Kyiv’s depleted forces.

Ukraine said the inauguration ceremony sought to create “the illusion of legality for the nearly lifelong stay in power of a person who has turned the Russian Federation into an aggressor state and the ruling regime into a dictatorship.”

While many European nations declined to send a representative to the ceremony, France – whose President Emmanuel Macron has sparked much of the Kremlin’s recent ire – chose to send an envoy, a French foreign ministry source told CNN.

The source stressed that France condemned “the context of repression” in which Russia’s presidential election was held, “depriving voters of a real choice.”

Putin has strived to keep Russians isolated from the effects of the war, by recruiting soldiers from Russia’s prisons and more rural regions and trying to keep its urban centers stuffed with goods despite Western sanctions.

But pockets of dissent have pierced the veneer of normality. The most direct challenge to Putin’s rule was made by then-Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin who, angered by Russian military blunders in Ukraine, ordered his mercenaries to march on Moscow in a bizarre spectacle that briefly threatened to undermine Putin’s monopoly on power. Within 24 hours, Prigozhin had called off his mutiny. Two months later, he was confirmed dead in a plane crash. The Kremlin denied involvement in the incident.

Alexey Navalny, Putin’s most formidable political opponent, also died before the most recent election. Navalny died in an Arctic prison in February after he “felt unwell after a walk” and lost consciousness “almost immediately,” Russia’s prison service said. The Kremlin denied involvement.

(CNN)…[+]

SOUTH AFRICA – At least six people have died and 48 so far unaccounted for after a multi-story building collapsed last Monday afternoon in the South African city of George, officials said yesterday.

Rescue missions remain underway, and 26 people have been removed from the rubble since the building collapsed in the Western cape province around 2 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) last Monday, George Municipality said in a statement.

“Three teams of rescue personnel are currently working on three different areas within the site of the collapsed building,” the statement said. The rescue operation is estimated to take four to five days, with 111 emergency personnel on site, the Western Cape Government said yesterday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa offered his condolences in a statement from his office yesterday, saying: “The President’s thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones as well as the families of close to 50 people who are trapped in the rubble.” Ramaphosa also called for an investigation into how the incident happened, to “bring closure to the community and prevent a repeat of this disaster.” the statement said.

(CNN)…[+]

RIO GRANDE DO SUL – Heavy rains which caused widespread flooding in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have left hundreds of towns under water. At least 85 people died in the floods and about 150,000 have been displaced from their homes, officials said. Some towns remain isolated and hopes of finding the more than 130 people who are still missing are dwindling. Further heavy rains forecast for this week are expected to further exacerbate the situation in the region. Many residents had to leave their homes, with some of the most vulnerable people evacuated by rescue workers. The Brazilian Airlines Association said on Tuesday that the airport in Porto Alegre would remain closed until at least the end of the month after the Guaíba river burst its banks and flooded the runway and key buildings.

The river reached a record high level of 5.3m (17.4ft), local officials said. The previous record was reached in 1941 and stood at 4.76m.

The airport is not the only large building which had to close in Porto Alegre, a city which is home to some 1.5 million people. The pitch of the Arena do Gremio stadium is also covered in brown sludge. The situation in some of the areas surrounding the city of Porto Alegre is even worse. Canoas is one of those badly hit.

The extreme weather has been caused by a rare combination of hotter than average temperatures, high humidity and strong winds.

Climate expert Francisco Eliseu Aquino told AFP news agency that Rio Grande do Sul had always been a meeting point between tropical and polar air masses but said that “these interactions intensified with climate change”.

BBC…[+]

IRAN – The head of the United Nations nuclear body has called on Iran to increase its efforts to make cooperation tangible and “concrete”. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi urged Tehran yesterday to adopt “concrete” measures to foster collaboration. The UN is seeking to re-establish oversight of Iran’s atomic activities but has met various setbacks over how to implement a deal struck last year.

However, officials on both sides suggested that there is some distance between their positions.

At a news conference in the Iranian city of Isfahan, Grossi said he had proposed in talks with Iranian officials that they focus on “very practical and tangible measures that can be implemented in order to accelerate” cooperation. “What we are looking at is concrete measures that could make this [the deal] operational,” the IAEA head said. Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran insisted that the talks with Grossi had been positive and productive. “We continue interactions over unresolved issues,” he remarked. “The important point is that Mr Grossi takes the necessary actions to settle the problems that are mainly political.”

While both men said there would be no immediate new deal during Grossi’s visit, they pointed to a March 2023 joint statement as a path forward for cooperation. That statement included a pledge by Iran to resolve issues around sites where inspectors have questions about possible undeclared nuclear activity, and to allow the IAEA to “implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities”. Iran and IAEA have often clashed over the UN agency’s task of monitoring a nuclear programme that Western nations suspect is aimed at eventually developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies wanting to build nuclear weapons. Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to about 90 percent of weapons grade. If that material were enriched further, it would suffice for two nuclear weapons, according to an official IAEA yardstick. No other state has enriched to that level without using it to produce weapons. Grossi has already warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chooses to do so. He has acknowledged the agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran’s centrifuges may have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment.

(Al Jazeera)…[+]