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News
www.caribbeantimesinternational.com | WEEK ENDING November 20, 2014
Diamond-Grove Housing Scheme a bustling, thriving community in Guyana
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EORGETOWN, G U Y A N A : What was once a dense sugarcane field and swamped area is now a beautiful and thriving community. The Diamond-Grove Housing Scheme is located approximately 11 miles from Georgetown and is home to over 40,000 people from all walks of life. The community has seen an explosive growth in the number of people, houses, and businesses over the past decade. On its journey to ‘Township’, diverse businesses have sprung up throughout the community, such as small grocery outlets, Internet
cafes, minimarts, video game shops, barber shops, taxi services, and Chinese restaurants, among others. There is also the popular G3 building at the entrance of the scheme which accommodates a pharmacy, an auto sales dealer and a state-ofthe-art gym. Practically everything you need, you can find it in this community. The community also has its own Police Station, Fire House, and public and private schools from primary to secondary schools. It has definitely undergone a rapid transformation from a quiet neighbourhood to a bus-
tling hub of activity and commercialism. Residents no longer need to rush to the capital city to do their banking transactions. Three commercial banks have opened their doors for business in Diamond. In addition to the banks, there are many other developments including a gas station and food court, a Courts branch, supermarket, general stores, small boutiques, technological stores and a Moneygram outlet, to name a few. There is also the Diamond Diagnostic Centre which serves as a great relief for residents who used to travel to Georgetown to seek
medical attention. Shawn Hamid reminisced when he was a little boy residing on the outskirts of the popular cane field. He spoke in awe of the drastic transformation he witnessed throughout the years. “When I move into this scheme in early 2000, in here didn’t had water or light or roads. Up to Second Bridge had road, everywhere else was track,” Hamid said. Hamid, a taxi driver in his 40s, was proud to say he was the first taxi driver in the scheme when it opened. Indeed, when the community initially saw its first few houses, the infrastructure was in a
terrible state. The roads resembled those “bush roads”. They were basically mud tracks, with numerous potholes. Mohanie Keyman who has been living in the community for over 13 years said the roads have really improved since she moved in. “When we move in here, we were the third house to put up in Avenue B and the roads really improved.” Nevertheless, there are still several streets that need maintenance. Taxi drivers have complained about the appalling conditions of the roads, particularly through 6th, 11th, 17th and 19th avenues.
Sharmilla, another resident who resides a corner away from the tarmac, mentioned that her street was in a terrible state due to the many trucks bringing in materials to build homes. However, the matter was resolved after a team from the area raised the concern with the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC). But while the new Diamond-Grove Housing Scheme has seen so much progress in a short time, residents in neighbouring Caneville appear to be the treated as the step child. (Guyana Times)
Report card suggests Caribbean must work harder at exports
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RIDGETOWN, BARBADOS: Exports from the Dominican Republic and Jamaica to Europe are trending up, but the Caribbean as a whole has earned a less than stellar report card from the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA). Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of CEDA, assigned grades ranging from a Bto an F in giving the report card on various areas of export-related performance in the region at the Caribbean Exporters' Colloquium 2014 held last week in Bridgetown under the theme 'Building Economic Resilience in the Caribbean'. Coke-Hamilton was incisive in her presentation Tuesday to the event's first session titled 'Making the Grade: An Examination of the Region's Export Performance'. For overall economic performance, the region earned a Bgrade with economic growth offset by high fiscal and external debt. Economic growth for the region is projected at 2.5 per cent for 2014, down from three per cent in 2013, Coke-Hamilton said. Regional GDP for the area was US$132 billion, with the Dominican Republic having the largest share, followed by Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Barbados. Total exports for the region stood at US$51 billion, with services representing 62 per cent. Other grades included a Bfor conformity to international standards and a sub-par D
James Moss-Solomon participating at the Caribbean Exporters’ Colloquium 2014 in Bridgetown, Barbados last week.
grade for innovation. Export diversification is another concern. "We still rely on what we did 50 years ago, and we have to get beyond that," Coke-Hamilton said. The role of the private sector in the Region's economic development earned a C grade. Branding and intellectual property rights, as well as access to finance both earned C- grades. "Our banks tend not to ascribe value to an idea," CokeHamilton said. The result is that businesses need to look at non-traditional providers for capital and investment. For global logistics and shipping, the region performed
at a satisfactory level with a grade of C+ with easy accessibility from the Region to locations like Miami, New York, and London. But the worst-performing area was intra-regional logistics and shipping, which received a failing grade of F. "If we don't address it, everything else becomes, frankly, theoretical," Coke-Hamilton said. But despite the mediocre report card, the Region may have a brighter future, according to panellist Ashish Shah, director of the division of country programmes at the International Trade Centre. "I stand convinced that the
turning point has come. The report card is a very good C, in my view," and could soon improve to a B+, Shah said. "To succeed in trade you have to be able to compete and be able to out-compete your competitors," Shah said, adding that the focus on small and medium businesses (SMBs) is most important. Professor Victor Bulmer Thomas, honorary professor at University College, London and professor emeritus of London University, noted the danger of looking at Regionwide statistics, as they are heavily influenced by the performance of one country. "Everything is about
Trinidad and Tobago," Bulmer Thomas said. He analysed 27 individual territories in the region by looking at their economic performance. The top-rated country for the Region, he said, was Cuba, which received a top score of five, followed by Haiti at four. Cuba benefited from having access to all sorts of special arrangements, Bulmer Thomas said. One example was that the country gets Chinese tourists "in numbers that other countries can only dream of". The export-led growth message had been received "loud and clear", across the Region, Bulmer Thomas said. But there has to be a "much greater effort" put into the measurement or metrics. Other participants in the session included Ambassador Mikael Barfod, head of delegation of the European Union to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, who moderated the discussion, and Vassell Stewart, president of the Caribbean Agricultural Business Association. The day had a total of four sessions. The second session was titled 'Clearing the Hurdles: Key Issues Affecting Caribbean Private Sector Competitiveness', while the third session was 'The Role of the Private Sector in Regional Economic Development'. The fourth session was 'Branding and Intellectual Property Rights - The Counterweight to Volume'. (Jamaica Observer)
Range Resources oil production up 15 per cent
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ORT-OF-SPAIN, T R I N I D A D : Australia’s Londonlisted Range Resources Ltd (RRL) production out of TT continues to increase following successful drilling operations, the company said in a release. “Since the last reported production figures
there has been a five per cent increase from 564 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to 592 bopd. This represents nearly a 15 per cent increase in production since January,” the company said. The increase in production, the company said, is a result of “continued develop-
ment drilling and successful workover operations. Two shallow development wells in the Morne Diablo field have been successfully drilled since September 30, to depths of 807 and 1,111 feet and are now producing.” Operations continued without any significant health, safety, security
and the environment (HSSE) incidents. RRL CEO Rory Scott Russell said: “We are now seeing the start of results from our investments in our TT production projects, staff and rigs. We look forward to seeing steady progress with production continuing to ramp
up in the coming months. We expect to complete a number of additional shallow development wells by the end of the year by which time we will have several rigs drilling in parallel, as well as continuing to progress with our workover programme.” (TT Guardian)