07012019 BUSINESS

business@tribunemedia.net

MONDAY, JULY 1, 2019

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Six-month plant delay hits Pharmachem jobs

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A

SIX-month construction delay has forced Pharmachem Technologies to lay-off 23 staff, with possibly more to follow, in what was yesterday described as a “major blow” for Freeport’s economy.

Tribune Business understands that the Grand Bahama pharmaceutical drugs manufacturer has moved to minimise the negative financial impact from the six-month gap between

• GB firm lays-off 23; figure could rise to 40 • Production gap with $180 new plant • DPM says move is ‘significant blow’ when its new $180m facility comes online and the planned closure of its existing plant.

Pharmachem had been planning for both events to occur simultaneously by year-end 2019, but slippage associated with the construction schedule for the new plant has pushed its physical completion back six months.

KP TURNQUEST, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

‘Unusual’ claims volume knocks Summit off peak

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN insurer has blamed “an usually large number of claims” for a non-hurricane year resulting in 2018 profits being slashed almost in half.

Tim Ingraham, Summit Insurance Company’s president, told Tribune Business that the underwriter’s 48.1 percent “bottom line” fall had been driven “by a large number of small and medium-sized claims” stemming mostly from property fires.

Net claims soared by 40.3 percent to $2.993m,

compared to $2.133m in 2017, with the $860,000 increase accounting for much of the $1.22m profits decline.

Net income dropped from $2.664m to $1.382m, but Mr Ingraham voiced optimism that Summit’s bottom line will return to the peak in 2019 hurricane season permitting.

He added that the government’s 2018-2019 budget decision to exempt residential property insurance from 12 percent VAT had helped offset a five to ten percent increase in reinsurance costs, ensuring that premiums largely remained flat on policy renewals.

SEE PAGE 4

Bimini power crisis ‘like visiting the Third World’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A CABINET minister has admitted that Bimini’s power crisis is “extremely vexing” for the island’s tourism lifeline as furious visitors cancel bookings, leave early and demand refunds.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, pictured, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas’ “reality” was such that all serious tourism and restaurant businesses

are “almost forced to build back-up power into your business plan” given the severity and frequency of

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SEE PAGE 7

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Bahamas’ case for lesser KYC regime still ‘not sufficient’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas cannot rely on the Central Bank’s “low risk” finding alone to persuade international regulators it should lower an onerous compliance burden, an ex-attorney general is arguing.

Alfred Sears QC, who held the post from 20022007, told Tribune Business that the regulator’s research showing that the domestic economy poses “negligible” financial crime risks confirmed that The Bahamas had “over-reacted” to every single global initiative to target it since 2000.

ALFRED SEARS QC The former Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) chairman, though, said that while the Central Bank’s study made a compelling case for the relaxation of Know Your

SEE PAGE 6

PAGE 2, Monday, July 1, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

GOVT RENEWS 52-WEEK JOBS INITIATIVE FOR YEAR THE government is renewing its 52-week jobs initiative with a pledge to “re-engage” those of the 1,000 participants who received “satisfactory” reports from their employers and ministries.

Brensil Rolle, pictured, minister of public service and National Insurance, said in a statement that hundreds have been re-hired for the initiative’s second year with effect from July 8.

He added that 1,000 persons have benefited from the National Job Creation and Skills Enhancement programme, which started

in August 2018 and came to an end on June 30, 2019.

“Because of the hard work performed by the programme’s participants and the feedback we’ve received from the employers, the government has decided to renew the

programme for another year,” said Mr Rolle.

“We made a commitment that we would re-engage all participants who received a satisfactory report from the various government ministries and departments, and the private sector.”

Mr Rolle said his ministry is in the process of issuing re-hiring letters to participants who are scheduled to return to work on Monday, 8 July.

The government-led initiative was established to provide unemployed persons between the ages of 19 and 30 with hands-on

skills aimed at enhancing their ability to find gainful employment.

It is designed to include elements of classroom learning through partnerships with the Ministry of Education and the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI); paid internships in the areas of construction, plumbing, electrical installation, hospitality, fashion design, business and information technology; and opportunities for professional certifications.

The National Training Agency provides

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY KEY AS WTO AWAITS MORE than 30 Bahamian entrepreneurs have been equipped with tools to assist their venture’s development by protecting its intellectual property.

Participants from small and medium-sized companies producing native drinks, jams and jellies, business consultants, financial advisors, car rentals, landscaping, designers, the Ministry of Tourism, the Department of Rehabilitation and Welfare and the

University of the Bahamas attended a national capacity building workshop on intellectual property rights protection.

The workshop, held over two days at the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation’s (BAIC) training centre from June 20-21, gave attendees information on how to make their brand work; the intellectual property rights framework in The Bahamas; and how to create value

WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

BISHOP GREGORY COLLIE

from intellectual property.

The workshop was sponsored by BAIC and the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA).

It was led by consultant Erica Smith, and Gayle Gallop, CEDA’s special advisor for legal and export development.

participants with soft skills and hospitality training, while BTVI provides additional workforce readiness training and a 22-week internship with independent professionals. Private sector companies provide training for participants in a variety of areas, including law, construction, customer service and home maintenance.

Mr. Rolle said participants were placed in the public and private sectors in New Providence, Grand Bahama and all of the Family Islands.

He estimated that about

200 participants, engaged by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, the Passport Office and the Registrar General’s Department, will work through the week-long break due to the demands of the agencies.

Mr Rolle said many participants have been offered full-time employment in the private sector, and government ministries and departments - including the Water and Sewerage Corporation and the National Insurance Board (NIB) - as a result of the initiative.

The two-day event also focused on the need to protect intellectual property in the agro-processing sector.

It used a Belizean agroprocessing company to highlight the importance of brand development and the strategic use of intellectual property rights, so that Bahamian enterprises avoid pitfalls in ownership, trademarks, trade secrets, distribution and unfair competition.

Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods Ltd, which manufactured pepper sauce, was undermined by a distributor in the US because the company was not registered there.

Bishop Gregory Collie, BAIC’s chairman,

encouraged attendees to register their businesses so that they benefit from their creative works and maximise the benefits while ensuring others do not steal their works and pass them off as their own.

Ms Smith said that with The Bahamas soon to become a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) it is vital that businesspersons become aware of their legal and commercial rights.

She gave an overview of different intellectual property rights, including copyright; trademarks; branding; industrial rights and designs; patents and trade secrets.

THE TRIBUNE

BRAN: END BLAME GAME OVER BPL ENERGY CRISIS

By NATARIO MCKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE DNA’s former leader has called for the political blame game over Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) generation woes to cease, branding the crisis as an “economic disruptor”.

Branville McCartney told Tribune Business that the load shedding and power outages, which appeared to lessen in severity over the weekend as the 25 Aggreko-supplied rental generation units came online, had caused “significant” losses for New Providence residents and businesses in recent weeks.

“It’s really unfortunate.

Its shows a lack of planning on behalf of BPL,” he said. “They knew that new generators were coming in and there would have been disruptions, but they ran into other issues which has only increased the level of discomfort.

“Businesses are losing money because many who

BRANVILLE MCCARTNEY are without back-up generators have to close up shop when the power goes off.

Apart from that people are still paying a high cost for an unreliable service.”

Mr McCartney added: “This is a complete

disruption and will have an adverse effect on the economy. The economy is bad now; we don’t need this type of disruption to cause the economy to be in disarray.

This is no time to speak

about whether or not electricity went off under the PLP or FNM. The bottom line is it’s been going on for years under successive governments and it is the people who suffer.”

Dr Donovan Moxey, BPL’s chairman, last week apologised to the company’s consumers for what he described as “unacceptable power conditions” experienced over the weekend before last, together with the “gross inconvenience” caused by widespread and extended power outages.

He added that what occurred over the “unexpected difficult weekend” was an “anomaly” for the state-owned utility.

Desmond Bannister received heavy Opposition criticism last week when he said that despite several consecutive days of load shedding by the energy monopoly, BPL’s performance so far this summer has been better than any of the years under the former Christie administration.

BAHAMAS MUST ‘COME TO GRIPS’ WITH FATF REALITIES

By NATARIO MCKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE DNA’s former leader says The Bahamas must “come to grips” with the fact that its efforts to comply with global financial services regulatory demands will “never be enough”.

Urging this country to pursue economic diversification and the development of new industries, Branville MrCartney said: “We have to come to grips with the fact that the powers that be do not want us in financial services. They don’t have our best interest at heart, and we need

to recognise that.

“Successive administrations have done what is necessary to try and comply with the ever-changing rules and requirements. I must admit that both have done, and continue to do, what is best. We have done everything asked of us but we have to realise that the powers that be don’t want us in this space.”

Mr McCartney was responding after Carl Bethel QC, the attorney general, last week urged the Bahamian financial services industry to “do what you have to do” over the summer to ensure this nation swiftly escapes the

Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) monitoring list of nations with deficiencies in their anti-financial crime defences.

“Sure, we need to do what is necessary to maintain our status as an offshore financial centre,” Mr McCartney added. “However, looking down the road, these entities are going to try and wipe us out. What do you do?

You have to look at other industries.

“At the end of the day we won’t be able to fight the powers that be. They are stronger and will get their way. I understand the good attorney general making overtures. We have

complied over the years, but everything we do will not be good enough. They will find some rules or regulation.

The goal post will continue to move. We can play their game but we have to look at other industries because we won’t be able to rely on financial services much longer.”

Mr McCartney again identified a national lottery and medical marijuana, would he said could evolve into a $1bn industry, as economic diversification opportunities that The Bahamas needed to target.

Monday, July 1, 2019, PAGE 3

BTC APOLOGISES FOR ‘CRITICAL FAULT’ THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) yesterday apologised after “a critical fault” on its network disrupted fixed-line and mobile voice communications throughout the weekend.

Garfield “Garry” Sinclair, BTC’s chief executive, said the company’s technicians worked with its technology suppliers and immediate parent “day and night” to restore services that also impacted its rival provider, Cable Bahamas/Aliv.

The fault meant that system connectivity between BTC and its competitors was lost, resulting in Aliv and Cable Bahamas customers being unable to call BTC clients and vice versa.

“Our New Providence node is back in service and all landline services have been restored,” Mr Sinclair said. “We sincerely apologise to our customers who were affected by an interruption in their fixed-line and mobile voice services.

“The disruption was the result of a critical fault which occurred on June 29 on our transmission ring between Grand Bahama and New Providence. Our local technical teams and international teams, inclusive of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) and our vendor partners, worked all day and night, and the root cause of the issue was resolved earlier this morning.”

GARFIELD SINCLAIR Mr Sinclair added: “While our broadband data services, Flow TV and mobile data, were not impacted by this service disruption, there were intermittent issues with BTC mobile voice services as customers were unable to reach some off-net destinations...

“We sincerely apologise again to our customers for the inconvenience, and our teams are now engaged in a comprehensive review of what occurred and to mitigate against further reoccurrences.”

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PAGE 4, Monday, July 1, 2019

‘Unusual’ claims volume knocks Summit off peak FROM PAGE ONE However, Mr Ingraham warned that while the VAT homeowners exemption had largely benefited homeowners to-date, “there could be some negative impact” when clients have to make claims.

This, he explained, is because the property and casualty industry’s claims costs and business expenses have increased for all companies as a result of

underwriters no longer being able to reclaim or ‘net off’ the VAT paid on their ‘input’ costs due to the residential property exemption.

The Summit chief echoed his colleagues in urging Bahamians to “review the sums insured” on their homeowners and personal contents policies, especially those who had purchased their properties before VAT’s introduction on New Year’s Day 2015, as could

THE TRIBUNE have resulted in their assets becoming under-insured.

Conceding that Summit’s 2018 financial performance “fell slightly below expectations”, Mr Ingraham told this newspaper: “Last year we had a number of claims we do not usually see. It’s the kind of year that reminds us we’re not in business only for hurricane claims but all claims clients are insured for.

“It was really a large number of smaller claims or medium-sized claims; an unusually large number of claims last year compared to a normal year which led to that. There were two significant fires. We had a warehouse fire, which cost

us a few million dollars, and a shopping centre fire around $1m, plus a number of homeowner fires in the $100,000 to $150,000 range.

“We had a number of more attritional losses that usual, which would have impacted the bottom line.

We also saw reinsurance costs go up in 2018.” The claims surge cancelled out a 7.2 percent rise in Summit’s net written premiums, which rose by more than $650,000 to $10.043m.

The claims increase, together with a $450,000 rise in catastrophe and excess of loss reinsurance, resulted in the general insurer’s total direct expenses jumping year-over-year by more than $1.2m or 21.5 percent to $5.645m. As a result, Summit’s underwriting gain fell by 26.3 percent to $2.987m from $4.054m the year before.

Mr Ingraham said Bahamian insurers saw increased reinsurance costs as a result of 2017’s multi-billion dollar hurricane losses, stemming mainly from storms such as Irma and Maria, as well as other natural disasters such as the Mexico earthquake.

Collectively, these resulted in a $140bn loss for the global reinsurance industry.

Bahamian property and casualty insurers, which have little choice but to buy huge quantities of reinsurance, were forced to accept reinsurance rate increases that were implemented “across the board” as companies sought to recoup “significant losses” from 2017.

“It was probably anywhere from five to ten percent at the end of the day,” Mr Ingraham said of the reinsurance increases seen in The

Bahamas. “It was definitely expected given the year the insurance industry had in 2017. It was one of the worst years for this region.

“Areas that were impacted [by hurricanes] might have seen reinsurance rates increase anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent. For the most part, I think most people in The Bahamas saw a flat premium renewal last year. On the homeowners insurance, dwelling insurance, the government has removed VAT so some people might even have seen a slight decrease.”

Mr Ingraham, though, warned that the VAT exemption on residential property premiums contains a potential sting in the tail for consumers if they are not careful. It is already hitting underwriters such as Summit, through which Insurance Management places much of its general underwriting business, through increased costs.

“Some of the changes with VAT have impacted the way claims are handled,” Mr Ingraham told Tribune Business. “Making homeowners insurance exempt means you cannot claim back VAT so claims costs go up.

“Because it is exempt means our business expenses connected to that line of business will go up as we can’t claim our input VAT back, so there will be an increase in business expenses and increase in claims experience. At the end of the day, there could be some negative impact but we won’t know until we have claims.”

The Summit chief explained that the $400m in claims submitted over Hurricane Matthew in 2016 would now be more expensive

due to the VAT-exempt treatment for residential homeowners insurance premiums.

As a result, he called on Bahamian homeowners to “review your sums insured and account for that 12 percent, as you could be under-insuring if persons are not increasing the value of their homes and personal contents”.

“On the one hand, as far as policymakers are concerned, they don’t have to pay VAT on premiums, but on the other hand if they don’t increase the sums insured they could find themselves underinsured if they don’t factor VAT in,” Mr Ingraham explained, “especially if they bought their home five to ten years ago. Adding in 12 percent VAT could be a major increase in value.”

He echoed other insurance industry executives in expressing hope that the government and insurance sector will soon be able to settle their dispute over whether carriers can recover VAT on all or only some claims that were settled on a cash basis.

“It would just be something that we want to get behind us,” Mr Ingraham told Tribune Business. “For the government it’s the same thing. From Summit’s perspective, until the negotiations are completed, we’re just waiting and seeing what happens.

“It’s the uncertainty of exactly what your tax bill is at the end of the day. That’s the main thing. We want to operate in an environment that’s certain, and the more uncertainty there is, the more concern we have about how business plays out.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 1, 2019, PAGE 5

Swimming pigs come back home THE film based on Exuma’s swimming pigs has arrived back home to screenings in The Bahamas following stops in Fort Lauderdale and at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Pigs of Paradise was shown to a sold-out crowd at the Island House Cinema on Saturday. Its director, Charlie Smith, participated in a question and answer session with the audience alongside Peter Nicholson, its executive producer, and author TR Todd, who wrote the book on which the film is based.

Screenings at Island House will continue today, while a theatrical release is also planned with Galleria Cinemas beginning in July. “It is really important to us that all Bahamians have an opportunity to see this film,” said Mr Smith, owner of Earthbeat Films.

“At its heart, this is a Bahamian story. The swimming pigs have become globally known. They are a point of pride for many people, not just in Exuma but other islands in The Bahamas. So it is a true honour to show the film where it all started.”

The swimming pigs have gained worldwide fame in recent years, appearing in magazines, newspapers, television shows, movies and countless social media posts.

The film tells the story of how these famous animals arrived on Big Major Cay,

have been such a wonderful surprise. When Todd and I began this journey in 2013, we had no idea what it would become today.

Perhaps the most rewarding part has been seeing its positive impact on so many people in The Bahamas, while also broadcasting the beauty of this country to the world.”

Pigs of Paradise has been

ABOVE: From left - Claudette Pagano, publicist for Pigs of Paradise; TR Todd, author of the award-winning book based on the film; Charlie Smith, director of Pigs of Paradise; Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation; Peter Nicholson, president of GIV Bahamas Inc. BELOW: A pig swimming in the waters of The Bahamas. The swimming pigs have become globally known in recent years, providing publicity and an economic boost to The Bahamas.

Photos: Howie Sonnenschein providing a history of the area and speaking to Bahamians in both Exuma and Nassau. It then chronicles their rise to fame and economic impact on the entire Bahamas.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, attended the weekend’s screening. He also appeared in the film

Bimini power crisis ‘like visiting the Third World’ FROM PAGE ONE Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) outages.

Additional power generation units were said to have arrived on Bimini yesterday, and will be hooked up over today and Tuesday in a bid to address an alreadytenuous supply situation that was transformed into a crisis by the Labour Day fire that destroyed nine megawatts (MW) of generation and BPL’s most efficient engines.

However, the stateowned utility’s emergency action has come too late for many tourists - especially boaters and vacation rental guests - who told Tribune Business and through social media postings that they have had enough and left early ahead of the upcoming US Independence Day weekend - a high point in Bimini’s economic and tourism calendar.

Margaret Taylor, a South Carolina native who contacted this newspaper as she and her 27-strong party of family and friends drove him last night, said they would have ended their week-long Bimini stay “a couple of days early” had they been able to obtain fuel for the four boats they travelled over in from Florida.

Having rented five condo units on South Bimini, she said that had they “known what was going on” they would not have come.

Expecting occasional power outages that lasted for around two hours maximum, they were confronted with the “random” loss of electricity that often lasted for six to eight hours at a time.

Unable to keep the food supplies she and her group had brought with them, Ms Taylor told Tribune Business: “There was no air conditioning. If you opened the doors and windows, the mosquitos would eat you alive. It was like peppering your face.

“Rodents were a problem running around the trash

cans, and we had to use five-gallon buckets filled from the ocean to flush the toilets. The entire island is suffering. People are leaving that came after us, and leaving in 24 hours. Even if you took a generator you would not be able to sustain it.

“We had planned this vacation since Christmas.

It’s our big one of the year.

We’d been before. If the outages were a couple of hours we could handle it, but six to eight hours we cannot handle that. It was unbelievable.”

One Bimini homeowner, who rents his property out to visiting tourists, shared with Tribune Business the messages he has been receiving from disgruntled guests who departed early after the power cuts ruined their vacation.

One wrote: “Left the keys under the mat at 9am yesterday. I want my refund request to be communicated with whoever the owner is. We stayed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Three out of seven days, not even half of our vacation.

“I really wish we’d known the extent of the power outages too. We had no power for seven hours one day and five hours another. Now I am really thinking I’ll share a review. I don’t want anyone else to waste their time or money on this.”

Social media postings have been equally bleak. William Gorton wrote on The Real Bimini Facebook page: “We own a condominium at Bimini Sands resort. We arrived Wednesday morning power, went out for six hours.

Thursday power shut off 7.30 at night and did not come back on until 1am.

“We were going to stay over the Fourth of July weekend but left Friday morning. It’s like visiting a Third World country; no power, no water, no way to cook food, no way to get food, not to mention the mosquitos that will carry you away.”

NOTICE

Mr. Esek Lynes

can you please contact The Human Resource Section of the Department of Immigration.

alongside Joy Jibrilu, director-general at the Ministry of Tourism.

“It was our pleasure to host Minister D’Aguilar and receive such rave reviews on this film,” said Mt Nicholson, who is also the president of GIV Bahamas and the largest owner at its Grand Isle Resort in Exuma.

“These swimming pigs

shown to audiences in multiple countries. The book by Mr Todd has also won two awards over the last few months. After Fort Lauderdale, Cannes and Nassau, attention now shifts to where it all began - in Exuma.

“From July 4 to July 8, Grand Isle will play host to the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, on location in Exuma,” said Robert Sands,

Grand Isle Resort’s hotel manager. “We will show Pigs of Paradise, along with others, and we anticipate this will become an annual tradition and another feather in the cap for Exuma.”

A special screening is also being planned for this week, whereby all residents of Great Exuma will have the opportunity to see the film about the swimming pigs.

PAGE 6, Monday, July 1, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

BAHAMAS’ CASE FOR LESSER KYC REGIME STILL ‘NOT SUFFICIENT’ FROM PAGE ONE Customer (KYC) and due diligence rules that have “impaired the competitiveness of The Bahamas” it was unlikely to be accepted as such by the bodies scrutinising this nation.

With the likes of the European Union (EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) following a “protectionist” agenda designed to undermine the competitiveness of low-taxation states such as The Bahamas, Mr Sears reiterated his previous calls

for all global anti-financial crime initiatives to be overseen by the United Nations (UN).

He argued that this was the only way for The Bahamas to be treated as an equal, and establish an even playing field for the application of anti-money laundering/counter terror financing standards, with the Central Bank’s study “not sufficient” by itself to produce a change in EU/ OECD attitudes.

“I think what it does is that it establishes that The Bahamas has really over-reacted in each of the initiatives from 2000

to the present,” Mr Sears told this newspaper of the implications of the Central Bank’s findings.

“It has not really done a proper evaluation and review in terms of the comparative; doing a global comparison to ensure that as we fight money laundering - which we should - that its competitive position is not compromised by a fearful overreaction and approach that this issue is complex.

“There is, tied up with the global anti-money laundering campaign, protectionism for onshore centres,” he continued.

“We have seen the double standards in applying the rules, certainly the case of bearer shares as the most obvious example, and the most egregious cases of money laundering from the evidence we have occurs in places such as New York, London and Paris.

“These are the onshore financial centres where the KYC and customer regime is less robust than it is in The Bahamas.”

The Central Bank’s findings that “there is little if any evidence” of largescale money laundering in the domestic commercial banking industry, and that most Bahamian industries pose a “low risk” of facilitating financial crime, has reinforced many Bahamians’ suspicions that the current KYC regime is too onerous for the concerns it faces.

Bahamians and residents have complained since 2000 that it is now easier to open a bank account in Miami and New York than Nassau, with two businessmen privately telling Tribune Business in the past week that it has taken six months (and counting in one case) to establish such facilities to facilitate their new ventures.

The increased cost and “red tape” associated with customer due diligence has also undermined the “ease of doing business” and The Bahamas’ competitiveness as an international financial centre (IFC), but Mr Sears said a reduced, simpler KYC regime for Bahamians and the domestic economy will not be readily accepted by the likes of the OECD and EU. “It should be if it were a rational process,” he told Tribune Business. “I suspect that in sharing the empirical data, the reduced risk, we will also have to demonstrate and challenge the existing global regime and call for a global forum to put this while regulation of the global financial

system under an international convention.

“The thing is this: I believe that simply sharing the empirical data from the Central Bank is not sufficient. I think it’s convenient for the onshore financial centres to portray offshore, especially low-tax jurisdictions such as The Bahamas, as risky jurisdictions because it’s difficult to compete with low tax jurisdictions..

“This is where protectionism comes in and the unequal application of the standards and rules. We ought to have, as a sovereign nation, an equal opportunity with nations of the EU, OECD, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Financial Stability Board to sit and determine what those rules are,” Mr Sears continued.

“All of these ad-hoc bodies, which are really under the jurisdiction of the EU or OECD, of which The Bahamas is not a member, it’s difficult to distinguish them from the regulatory and protectionist agenda for onshore centres.

“I think The Bahamas has to appreciate there’s an element of real politik and, as a small country, through the mechanism of CARICOM, alliances with other IFCs and sympathetic countries such as Canada, we need to call for the kind of global structure based on the principal of universality and sovereign participation, and which is not limited to members of the EU and OECD.” While acknowledging that proceeds of crime inevitably found their way into the domestic banking system, the Central Bank argued that this was largely confined to “Bahamian petty criminals self-laundering illicit proceeds from their crimes” and was too small to represent a major systemic risk or threat.

“The fact the Central Bank has confirmed there is a negligible risk

in the domestic banking sector is evidence of the over-regulation in this jurisdiction,” Mr Sears said, “which has really impaired the competitiveness of The Bahamas even relative to the overseas territories, which have a certain measure of protection and advocacy by the UK. “We somehow seem to have lost the sophistication that while we fight to maintain the integrity of the risk-based system of KYC and compliance we also have to appreciate this global competition for financial services.

“We can’t be naive in global competition and, especially being a small jurisdiction as Singapore has demonstrated, there has to be a greater degree of sophistication.”

The Central Bank last week concluded: “In the Bahamian domestic banking context, the major AML/CFT risks are likely to reside in real estate, gaming and money transmission, and the risks in the first two of these segments are shared between domestic and international clients. As regards money transmission, the Central Bank is taking steps to lift the intensity of its supervision in this industry.

“With the above exceptions, the Central Bank’s view is that domestic money laundering risks in the banking sector are quantitatively small, and in character (excepting smallticket self-laundering) are qualitatively low risk.

“This leads to the conclusion that the Central Bank, in conjunction with other Bahamian authorities, should focus its AML/CFT efforts on the relatively few areas of the domestic banking system that may present material risk, while concentrating most of our efforts upon the much larger international financial sector.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 1, 2019, PAGE 7

Six-month plant delay hits Pharmachem jobs FROM PAGE ONE While this may be achieved by year-end, a further four to six months will be required to commission the new facility as its production processes will have to undergo testing, verification and certification.

This means Pharmachem will not be in position to start production from the new plant until some point in the 2020 second quarter - a timeline that takes it into the period from April to June. Yet its current plant will cease production by year-end 2019 in accordance with the company’s timetable.

The end result is that Pharmachem faces a potential six-month window in the 2020 first half when it may not be producing or selling any product. With no sales revenue or income coming in, the lay-offs announced last week are an effort by the company to lower its expenses ahead of time and minimise any financial fall-out from the non-production.

While other media houses reported that there have been 40 lay-offs, Tribune Business understands that the actual number was 23 almost half this amount.

The total could rise to 40 via a potential “second tranche” of lay-offs depending on whether construction progress speeds up, with the first wave understood to include both full-time employees and persons on short-to-medium term contracts. The majority of those laid off are Bahamian, with some expatriates also included, and Pharmachem is due to issue a statement on the matter today.

KP Turnquest, deputy prime minister, told Tribune Business the drug manufacturer’s move represented “a significant blow” for Freeport’s still-struggling economy particularly given that it had provided “a consistent and strong base of employment” throughout the 15-year downturn.

“Obviously that’s a significant blow,” he said, “the number of persons that were laid-off. We understand the reasoning, and we hope they’ll be able to resolve their issues and get those people back to work as soon as possible.

“The success of Pharmachem has been a shining light for us. They have withstood all the clouds in the

environment, both natural and man-made, and have been a consistent and steady base of employment and economic activity in Grand Bahama.

“Anything that delays and retards their progress is of concern to us, and we will be doing everything we can to ensure their success. As we understand it, the expansion will facilitate them to diversify their product and continue their growth,” Mr Turnquest added.

“From that perspective, what that translates into in terms of employment and economic activity is significant, and will ultimately be of tremendous benefit to Grand Bahama and the country as a whole. Pharmachem offers different career paths for scientists and researchers, so we hope they get the new plant up and running as soon as possible and continue to grow.”

Mr Turnquest confirmed the 23 lay-offs figure, and denied suggestions that Pharmachem’s actions may have stemmed from a loss of business or any failure by the government and Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) to issue the necessary permits/approvals to allow it to complete its expansion.

He declined to specify the “reasoning” for Pharmachem’s actions, saying he wanted that to come from the company itself. Tribune Business understands that the lay-offs will trim Pharmachem’s workforce to just over 100 persons.

The construction manager for the new plant is understood to be a Pennsylvania-based engineering firm, IPB, given the highlyspecialised nature of the work. The main contractor is thought to be Freeportbased Quality Services Ltd, with multiple sub-contractors - both Bahamian and foreign - working under it.

The opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) on Friday seized on reports of the lay-offs to slam the government’s economic policies, and suggest that no turnaround is imminent for Freeport, but Tribune Business’s research suggests the situation has been driven more by company-specific issues.

Fred Mitchell, the PLP’s chairman, said in a statement: “The PLP is saddened by the news that 40 or more persons have been laid off from Pharmachem

in Freeport. This is yet another gut punch for the city and the island of Grand Bahama.

“We want to know: Was the government aware of this in advance? Does the government know why?

What relief is there for these people now dismissed?

“This action today by Pharmachem seems to give the lie to any of the

propaganda points about a turnaround in this city. We again say that the Government of the FNM, with five MPs for Grand Bahama and three ministers from Grand Bahama, should put money on the ground in Grand Bahama.”

Pharmachem’s expansion project was last year said to have increased in value by $60m, rising

from an initial estimate of a $120m investment to $180m. The company had also initially forecast an injection of some $47m into the Freeport economy, but in March 2018 projected this would increase to more than $100m, with some $18m already spent locally.

PharmaChem, which was founded by Italian entrepreneuer, Pietro Stefanutti,

supplies antiretroviral API drugs (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) for Gilead, which employs them in the worldwide treatment of HIV/ AIDS. The Grand Bahama-based company’s product helps treat one million persons, and the new plant is intended to give it the capability to produce an additional two to three drugs.

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PAGE 8, Monday, July 1, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Cease-fire in US-China trade war doesn’t bridge differences WASHINGTON Associated Press ONCE again, Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have hit the reset button in trade talks between the world’s two biggest economies, at least delaying an escalation in tension between the US and China that had financial markets on edge and cast a cloud over the global economy.

But when US and Chinese negotiators sit down to work out details, the same difficult task remains:

getting China to convince the United States that it will curb its aggressive push to challenge American technological dominance — and then to live up to its promises.

At the Group of 20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, Trump and Xi agreed to a ceasefire in the trade conflict.

Trump said on Saturday he would hold off for the “time being” on plans to impose tariffs on $300bn more in Chinese imports — on top of the $250bn he’s already targeted. This decision will jump-start trade talks that stalled last month.

“We’re going to work with China where we left off,” Trump said on Saturday. He also said China had agreed to buy more American farm products.

Andy Rothman, an investment strategist with Matthews Asia and a former economic official with the US Embassy in Beijing, said the Trump-Xi meeting was more conciliatory than he expected.

He was struck by Trump’s use of the term “strategic partner” to describe US relations with China after other administration officials have played up the

geopolitical rivalry between the two countries.

Addressing another contentious issue, Trump said he will now allow US companies to sell some components to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which last month was put on an American blacklist as a threat to national security. Trump said that Huawei will stay on the blacklist, however, and that its future won’t be decided until the end of the trade talks.

Neil Shearing, Londonbased chief economist at Capital Economics,

predicted that financial markets will rally with relief when they reopen today. “But I don’t think this marks the turning of the tide,” he said. “Talks will ebb and flow, but the direction over the next 12 months will be toward renewed escalation because issues around industrial strategy will prove to be so intractable.”

The Trump administration says China is trying to cheat its way to dominance in the cutting-edge technologies of the future such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

In a report last year, the Office of the United States Trade Representative accused Beijing of resorting to predatory tactics to challenge American technological supremacy.

These include forcing foreign companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market; subsidising its own companies (especially those owned by the state) while burying foreign firms in regulations; providing government money so Chinese firms can buy sensitive foreign technology at above-market prices; and stealing trade secrets outright.

Eleven rounds of talks failed to end the standoff. The United States has imposed 25% import taxes on $250bn in Chinese products and threatened to target $300bn more — a move that would extend the tariffs to virtually everything China ships to the United States.

China has lashed back with tariffs on $110bn in American goods, focusing on agricultural products in a direct and painful shot at Trump supporters in the US farm belt.

The last time Trump and Xi met — in early December at a G-20 gathering in Buenos Aires, Argentina — they also reached a cease-fire that injected new life into the talks. But the momentum didn’t last.

Until May, it appeared that the two countries were slowly closing in on a deal. But then US officials accused their Chinese counterparts of reneging on commitments they’d made earlier, and talks broke down.

Getting them back on track could prove difficult.

Beijing is reluctant to end subsidies to Chinese companies and to write any commitments into Chinese law. The Chinese also want the United States to drop its tariffs as a condition of any deal. But the Trump

administration insists on keeping tariffs to use as leverage to make sure that China keeps its promises.

For now, business groups are relieved that the tariffs aren’t expanding and optimistic the two countries can reach a deal.

“We are encouraged that China and the United States have agreed to continue negotiations without further escalation of the mutually damaging trade war,” said Jason Oxman, president of the Information Technology Industry Council. “We are also relieved that President Trump has reconsidered his threat to impose additional tariffs, which would have accelerated harm to all American consumers, workers, and businesses of all sizes.”

Still, the decision to go easy on Huawei drew immediate fire politically.

“Huawei is one of few potent levers we have to make China play fair on trade,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY. “If President Trump backs off, as it appears he is doing, it will dramatically undercut our ability to change China’s unfair trades practices.”

The Commerce Department put the firm on a blacklist because of the possibility its equipment could be used for cyberespionage. Trump suggested that his administration will review the company’s status on Commerce’s so-called Entity List and cleared the way for US firms to sell it some components.

Both countries have economic and political incentives to reach a deal.

Xi is overseeing a decelerating economy and likely won’t want to be engaged in a destructive trade war when China’s ruling Communist Party meets in October. Trump, too, is confronted with an economy that, though still healthy, has looked a bit wobbly.

And the trade hostilities with China have hurt his supporters in rural America as he campaigns for re-election in 2020.

“This is a truce for now - for Xi, ahead of the Communist Party celebrations in October and for Trump, dependent on how his re-election campaign progresses,” said Diana Choyleva, chief economist at Enodo Economics. “But as we’ve said before, fundamentally, this dispute is about much more than trade - it’s part of a longerterm Great Decoupling that stems from a conflict over technological supremacy and geopolitical power.

This is about redefining the world political and economic order, a process that will see periods of relative calm and also periods of significant turbulence.”

“Both Chinese and US leaders recognise the importance of bringing the relations back to the right track,” said Li Yong of the China Association of International Trade. “President Xi said we hoped to see normal relations. It’s hard to predict what will happen tomorrow, so I cannot say when the relations will return to right track.”

THE TRIBUNE

EU, South American bloc strike long-sought free trade deal BUENOS AIRES Associated Press SOUTH America’s Mercosur bloc and the European Union struck a free-trade deal Friday after two decades of negotiations that concluded amid global trade tensions and rising protectionism.

The agreement announced by both sides came as trade talks between the EU and the United States have stalled with the Trump administration threatening to impose tariffs on all autos, a major European export to the US. “In the midst of international trade tensions, we are sending today a strong signal with our Mercosur partners that we stand for rules-based trade,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said following the clinching of the deal in the Belgian capital of Brussels.

Juncker described the pact with the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as “an historic moment” that came 20 years after talks were launched. It shows the European bloc is determined to remain a flag-bearer of the global trade system at a time when it is being challenged by a Trump administration skeptical of free trade.

Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said the agreement “will mean the integration of a market of some 800 million people, nearly a fourth of the world’s gross domestic product and more than $100bn in bilateral trade of goods and services.”

The ministry said the deal also is aimed at strengthening political and cultural ties with the EU, improving access to goods, services and investments by reducing restrictions and easing access to technology and raw materials.

Juncker said the deal would remove most tariffs on EU exports to Mercosur, saving more than 4 billion euros worth of duties each year, four times as much as Europe’s pact with Japan.

The commission, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of the 28-nation EU, said the agreement is particularly important for industrial sectors like cars and car parts, machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals as well as clothing and footwear. Mercosur hopes to benefit with more exports of agricultural products including beef, poultry and sugar.

The EU’s farm and food sector also stands to gain, particularly products like chocolates, wine and spirits.

“The basics of this deal have been quite clear for some time. It’s cars and machinery and agriculture.

But in the past, politics have stood in the way. Particularly in Brazil, which has had a very protectionist policy focusing on domestic production,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, senior fellow, at the Peterson Institute for international economics.

“And at the same time, the Europeans have been very protective of their agricultural sector.”

The commission said the deal, which still must be ratified by the legislatures of all the countries involved, will also ease border checks and cut red tape.

The agreement brings to 15 the number of pacts the EU has concluded since 2014, most recently with Canada and Japan, and comes as the bloc pushes ahead with international trade deals.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called it one “of the most important trade agreements of all times”.

The Brazilian government said the deal would boost Latin America’s largest economy by slashing tariffs for some agricultural products like orange juice, fruit and instant coffee, and expanding access via quotas for beef, ethanol and sugar.

“Brazilian companies will benefit from the elimination of tariffs on exports of 100 percent of industrial products. That will equalise the conditions of competition with other partners that already have free trade agreements with the EU,” it said.

The deal is “a game changer in Latin America as a whole, which historically has been very protectionist,” Kirkegaard said. “This could herald in a new era for Mercosur.”

Negotiations began on June 28, 1999, but have taken a long, torturous path marked by breaks and frustrations, as the countries’ different sensitivities and priorities were taken into account.

But EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the talks gathered momentum early this year, aided in part by a new Brazilian government that made the deal one of its priorities, and were pushed over the line by intensive negotiations over the last three days in Brussels.

“This is a landmark agreement,” Malmstrom told reporters in Brussels, flanked by negotiators and senior officials.

“With this deal we are showing that we believe that trade is a good thing. It brings people and companies together, and we send a loud and clear message in support of open, sustainable, mutually beneficial, rule-based trade.”

Monday, July 1, 2019, PAGE 9 ARGENTINA’s President Mauricio Macri speaks as the new pro tempore president of Mercosur, flanked by Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Rodolfo Nin, left and Uruguay’s President Tabare Vazquez, right, at the 53rd Mercosur Summit in Montevideo, Uruguay. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that South America’s Mercosur trade bloc has struck a “strategic association” trade deal with the European Union, clinched in the Belgian capital of Brussels following two decades of negotiations. The Mercosur bloc includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

PAGE 10, Monday, July 1, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

STOCKS CLOSE OUT ROCKY QUARTER WITH SOLID GAINS

By ALEX VEIGA Associated Press

WALL Street ended a wobbly week with broad gains on Friday, closing the books on June with its biggest monthly gain since January.

June marked a sharp about-face from May, when traders fled to safer holdings because of increased anxiety over the trade war between the US and China, and signs of slowing global economic growth.

Despite lingering worries over trade, investors pushed

stocks higher for much of this month after the Federal Reserve raised expectations that it is prepared to cut interest rates if needed to keep the economy growing.

That drove the benchmark S&P 500 to an all-time high last week, though it has retreated slightly

from that mark.

Even after the rollercoaster quarter, investors are in good shape so far this year. The S&P 500 is up 17.3% and the technologyheavy Nasdaq has gained 20.7%.

“It hasn’t been maybe as healthy a rally as we saw

in the first (quarter),” said Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at Nuveen.

“When you look back ten years from now it’s not going to look like the sort of volatile period where we had this good April, terrible May, and good June.

It’s just going to look like a quarter where you know you made money in stocks, you made money in bonds.”

On Friday, the S&P 500 index rose 16.84 points, or 0.6%, to 2,941.76. The index ended the month with a 6.9% gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 73.38 points, or 0.3%, to 26,599.96. The Nasdaq composite rose 38.49 points, or 0.5%, to 8,006.24.

Smaller company stocks were big gainers for the second straight day. The Russell 2000 index climbed 20.02 points, or 1.3%, to 1,566.57.

Every major index finished the week with a loss, but ended June with solid gains.

Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the ten-year Treasury note held at 2%.

The market ended the final week of June with a two-day winning streak.

A wave of selling swept over the market earlier in the week as traders shifted money to less risky holdings like US government bonds while remaining cautiously optimistic about this weekend’s meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China.

The meeting, set to take place in Japan, will mark the first time the two leaders meet since the trade war escalated following 11 rounds of negotiations.

Investors are hoping the talks put the world’s two biggest economies on track to resolve their trade dispute, which has led to costly tariffs imposed by both countries on each other’s goods. Wall Street is worried the fallout from the tariffs could hurt global economic growth and corporate profits. The dispute has prompted the Federal Reserve to say it is willing to cut interest rates if the dispute hurts

YOUR

the US economy.

“Investors need to recognise that the trade situation is unlikely to improve,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. “The best we can hope for is an agreement to continue talks.”

Banks led the way higher Friday after the Federal Reserve late Thursday approved plans by the country’s 18 biggest banks to return more money to shareholders. The approvals were part of the Fed’s annual checkup of the banking system. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.7% and Bank of America climbed 2.8%.

Industrial and energy stocks also notched strong gains. Union Pacific rose 1.9% while oil companies including Chevron and Exxon rose.

Constellation Brands climbed 4.6% after the wine and beer company raised its profit forecast for the year following a blowout fiscal first quarter financial report. Constellation recently sold some of its lower-end wines as it focuses more on its premium wine options and its beer sales.

Secondhand-fashion online retailer RealReal jumped on its first day of trading. The company, which offers a marketplace for discounted Gucci and other luxury goods, surged 44.5% after its IPO hit the market at $20 per share.

Major stock indexes in Europe rose, while energy futures closed mostly lower.

Benchmark crude oil fell 96 cents to settle at $58.47 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, held steady at $66.55 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline slid three cents to $1.92 per gallon. Heating oil declined two cents to $1.93 per gallon. Natural gas fell 1 cent to $2.31 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose $1.30 to $1,409.70 per ounce, silver added five cents to $15.25 per ounce and copper was unchanged at $2.71 per pound.

The dollar rose to 107.78 Japanese yen from 107.76 yen on Thursday. The euro strengthened to $1.1378 from $1.1373.

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Monday, July 1, 2019, PAGE 11

Facebook’s digital currency may flourish where banks don’t NEW YORK Associated Press EUROPEANS and Americans have their Visa and Mastercards. For everyone else, here comes ...

Libra?

Facebook’s new Libra digital currency is aimed at a huge potential market for financial services — the entire developing world, with billions of people in areas such as India and Sub-Saharan Africa, where financial services are often less sophisticated and many people don’t use traditional banking accounts.

Whether or not these billions will want to make the switch is anyone’s guess.

The US, Europe and most developed economies already have large, efficient payment systems. These allow people to buy and sell goods in real time and send money person-to-person through services like Zelle, PayPal and Venmo. That’s why the companies that joined Facebook’s Libra association, as well as nonprofits involved with similar projects, say Libra’s potential lies elsewhere.

In developing countries, many tens of millions still live far from a bank or money transfer centre, or currently use a currency prone to inflation or volatility. Libra could address this issue by providing a universal, stable currency that is easily transferrable between persons or businesses without involving setting up an entire payment infrastructure. It also potentially could work at a lower cost.

In the last decade, citizens of developing countries have widely adopted cellphones as a way to store money, sending text message-based payments either to businesses or persons.

It’s been a broadly heralded development among policymakers and nonprofits focused on poverty because bank accounts are hard to come by or are too expensive.

“The entire continent of Africa skipped right over cards and went straight into mobile payments,” said Sanjay Sakhrani, an industry analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, who covers Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union.

But these payment systems are often constrained by the type of cellphone carrier each person is using.

It’s not uncommon in places like Africa to carry multiple cellphones in order to have the necessary access to the right money transfer system.

Libra could solve this problem by creating a universal currency that can be transferred across multiple cellphone networks and across borders. There’s also the issue of cost, which is cited by the World Bank as being the biggest issue with financial systems outside of developed markets. Facebook says Libra would have a near-zero cost attached to it.

THE LOGO of Facebook’s new digital currency, Libra.

The Colombian border city of Cucuta, is one of the places where Libra could make a difference.

Every day, thousands of needy Venezuelans cross into this sweltering town to buy food and medicines that are scarce at home.

For many the first stop is Western Union, where they line up for hours to pick up cash sent by relatives living in abroad. The demand for cash remittances is so big in fact that migrants sometimes line up outside Western Unions the night before the branches open, sleeping on the sidewalk to keep their place in the queue.

Digital currencies could make it easier to transfer funds to these migrants with no bank accounts, and save them hours of their time.

Using them is also safer, says Typson Sanchez, a local software developer, because it prevents robberies.

But despites its obvious benefits, merchants in Cucuta have been slow to adopt digital currencies, and only a handful currently accept it.

“Merchants worry about the volatility” of currencies like bitcoin, says Sanchez, a software developer and cofounder of Panda Exchange, a digital payments start up.

Other merchants find existing digital wallets difficult to use, and worry about its legality.

Sanchez hopes that Facebook’s Libra could help to overcome some of those obstacles. “They already have a very powerful platform with lots of users” Sanchez says. “They will be able to reach everyday people who are not into technology.

And that’s something that many companies haven’t been able to do yet.”

Vodaphone, the Europebased cell carrier, has a large presence in Africa and other developing countries and operates its own mobile wallet system known as M-Pesa. Already a dominant carrier in Africa, Vodaphone sees the potential in Libra to enable customers to send money across borders at a much lower cost.

There’s a lot of room for improvement. The average fee on a cross-border remittance is around 7%, according to the World Bank, with places in SubSaharan Africa charging as much as 10% to send a money transfer.

Companies like Vodaphone and organisations involved with Libra like Mercy Corp and Women’s World Banking said they’ve joined at least in part to make sure they have a “seat at the table” in case Libra

does take off as a payment method. Libra’s real-life use cases are still at least a year off, and much likely longer.

Some would argue that Facebook’s Libra is the wrong solution to the issue of accessing financial services in developing countries. In China, the dominant way to pay are WeChat and AliPay, two mobile apps that use messaging to send money either to a business or another person, at extremely low cost. Both apps are used by more than a billion people.

“That to me is the simplest solution for developing countries,” said Nicholas Economides, a professor of economics at the Stern School of Business, an expert in electronic commerce and payment systems. “You don’t need to create a whole new currency. You just need the right app.”

There’s a “well, why not?” factor into these companies’ involvement.

Facebook asked for a minimum $10m investment in Libra from its for-profit partners. For a company like Visa, which made more than $20bn in revenue last year, the Libra investment is pocket change. In exchange Visa gets insider access to Libra and its potential technologies, as well as a seat at the table.

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PAGE 12, Monday, July 1, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

REBUKED BY MANY, SAUDI CROWN PRINCE FETED AT G20 SUMMIT

SAUDI Prince Mohammed bin Salman, center, attends the G-20 summit event on women’s empowerment in Osaka, Japan on Saturday.

Photo: Susan Walsh/AP OSAKA, JAPAN Associated Press FOR MANY he’s an international pariah, but you wouldn’t know it by the lavish reception Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received at the G-20 summit this week.

He beamed as he stood front and centre, sandwiched between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for a group photo.

He exchanged an impish grin as he sat down next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He posed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a group of flagwaving kids ahead of an earlier signing ceremony for $8bn in deals.

Even as rebukes pile up elsewhere — a UN expert has called for an investigation of his alleged role in the killing of a prominent journalist, and a growing number of Americans are questioning their nation’s support for his kingdom and its role in the war in Yemen — some leaders in Osaka have gone out of their way to make sure the prince feels comfortable.

It’s not clear if he was pressed privately over concerns about the killing last October of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who had criticized the Saudi heir in columns for The Washington Post. But the prince seemed completely at ease in public on Friday and Saturday.

These high-profile gatherings can often have a club-like feel to them, with well-dressed leaders standing around and talking — sometimes intensely, sometimes convivially — before and after the photo-ops and public statements. In the absence of many details about what’s happening behind closed doors, observers are forced to spend a lot of time parsing body language. And, at least when the cameras were rolling, that language has been overwhelmingly positive for the prince.

In addition to standing next to Trump in the center part of the front row for the first group photo, the prince was seated next to the summit’s host, Abe, at the official opening ceremony, possibly a reflection of Saudi Arabia’s role as host of next year’s G-20 gatherings.

As the prince — easily one of the tallest leaders, and striking in his flowing, ankle-length robes — strode from meeting to meeting, or wandered among the other leaders before the summit’s setpiece ceremonies, he often flashed a broad smile. At Saturday’s panel on women’s empowerment, for instance, he sat in the front row, chatting amicably with other leaders.

Trump, who has long been loath to scold authoritarian leaders for human rights abuses, seemed to go out of his way at times to shepherd Prince Mohammed, at one point patting him on the back as they walked together.

As the two sat down over breakfast Saturday, Trump praised his “friend” for taking steps to open up the kingdom and extend freedoms to Saudi women.

Trump initially ignored reporters’ questions about the prince’s alleged role in Khashoggi’s death, but when pressed later at a news conference he called the killing “horrible” while claiming that “nobody so far has pointed directly a

finger at the future king of Saudi Arabia”. A White House statement said the two leaders discussed “Saudi Arabia’s critical role in ensuring stability in the Middle East and global oil markets, the growing threat from Iran, increased trade and investments between the two countries, and the importance of human rights issues.”

The US president sees a close relationship with Saudi Arabia as a lynchpin to Washington’s Middle East strategy to counter Iran. Trump has brushed aside Khashoggi’s killing and said it has already been investigated. A Saudi pledge to spend billions of dollars on US military equipment, Trump said, “means something to me.”

Following a monthslong inquiry, Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, recently said she’d concluded that Khashoggi was a victim of a “deliberate, premeditated execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible”.

Saudi Arabia denies the 33-year-old crown prince had any knowledge of the killing of Khashoggi.

The kingdom has put on trial 11 suspects, some of whom worked directly for the prince. But his closest former adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, who was sanctioned by the United States after the killing, is not among those on trial.

Business concerns may have coloured Prince Mohammed’s warm welcome this week.

Take South Korea, for instance. In Seoul before the summit, Saudi Arabia and South Korea signed ten memorandums of understanding and contracts that would be worth $8.3bn, according to Seoul’s presidential office. Moon, the president, hosted a luncheon at his mansion that was attended by some of South Korea’s most powerful businessmen.

South Korea gets more than 70% of its crude oil from the Middle East.

Seoul is the world’s fifth largest importer of crude oil and Saudi Arabia has been its biggest supplier. Prince Mohammed, during his meetings with Moon, promised to help with possible fuel shortages in case of supply disruptions caused

by Middle East turmoil.

Not everyone was happy about his reception.

Some South Koreans criticised the country’s two major English newspapers — The Korea Herald and The Korea Times — for using their front pages on Wednesday to publish identical full-page ads by S-Oil, a South Korean oil refining company that is a subsidiary of the giant Saudi oil company Aramco. The ads printed the national flags of Saudi Arabia and South Korea side by side and contained the message, “We welcome HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minster, Minister of Defense”.

There was also criticism of a massive photo of the prince unfurled on the Seoul headquarters of S-Oil. The worries about the abuse claims may not resonate in the G-20 meetings. But there’s mounting concern about the ties between the kingdom and the many Western nations that have relied on its natural resources and political position.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 1, 2019, PAGE 13 about financing and the involvement of businesses in innovation and investment in sustainable growth.

But their declaration included a recognition of the US decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on reducing carbon emissions that lead to global warming and noted American progress from 2005 to 2017 in reducing such pollution.

US President Donald Trump, centre left, talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre right, as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, second right, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, second left, look on, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan on Saturday.

Highlights of agreements of G-20 leaders in Osaka OSAKA, JAPAN Associated Press

HIGHLIGHTS of the agreements from the Osaka, Japan, summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 major economies, spanning a slew of issues including global warming, trade and international finance, the environment and sustainable development: TRADE AND THE

GLOBAL ECONOMY: The leaders agreed to address inequality and use smart policies to protect against threats to global growth from tensions over trade and geopolitical issues. They pledged to build up financial “buffers” to ensure government debts are manageable and to ensure monetary policies keep prices stable and economies growing. The leaders also said they would

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that MACKINSY MYRTIL of Wulf Road Nassau, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 24th day of June, 2019 to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

Cedar Circle Holdings Limited Company No. 1817696 (In Voluntary Liquidation) NOTICE is hereby given pursuant to Section 204 (1)(b) of the BVI Business Companies Act, 2004 that Cedar Circle Holdings Limited is in voluntary liquidation. The voluntary liquidation commenced on 19th June, 2019 and Monika Suter of Claridenstrasse 25, 8002 Zürich, Switzerland, has been appointed as the Sole Liquidator.

Dated this 20th day of June, 2019 Sgd. Monika Suter Voluntary Liquidator

work toward a “free, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade and investment environment” and “keep our markets open”.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENVIRONMENT: Leaders discussed urgent problems with pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change, noting the need for a shift in thinking

CYBERSECURITY AND TERRORISM: The G-20 said it was committed to doing more to prevent use of the internet to fund and facilitate terrorism and extremism. While the internet must be open, free and secure, it also cannot serve as a “safe haven for terrorists”, the leaders said in a separate statement. The leaders also agreed that such efforts must respect

human rights and “fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression and access to information”.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The leaders said they would work to ensure “no one is left behind” by alleviating poverty, investing in good quality infrastructure, promoting gender equality and providing access to health, education and training.

PAGE 14, Monday, July 1, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

International forum: Don’t expect cheap money to do it all

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394 COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

2018/CLE/qui/00434

IN THE SUPREME COURT Common Law & Equity Division IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF ROSALEE CARROLL ROBERTS AND LESTER CARROLL AND IN THE MATTER OF THE QUIETING TITLES ACT, 1959 AND IN THE MATTER OF ALL THOSE TWO (2) PARCELS OF LAND COMPRISING 3.3999 ACRES OF LAND SITUATE IN THE SETTLEMENT OF GRAY’S LONG ISLAND WHICH IS A PORTION OF A PARCEL OF LAND GRANTED TO CASSANDRA WELLS CARROLL _______________________________________________ NOTICE _______________________________________________ The Petition of ROSALEE CARROLL ROBERTS and LESTER CARROLL both of the settlement of Grays, Long Island one of the Islands of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas in respect of:ALL THOSE two (2) parcels of land comprising 3.3999 acres of land situate in the settlement of Gray’s Long Island which is a portion of a parcel of land granted to Cassandra Wells Carroll and being bounded northwardly by land said to be the property of Laurence Carroll and running 410.24 feet thereon and bounded eastwardly by land owned by Mavis and Joseph Treco and running 175.10 feet thereon and bounded southwardly by land owned by Mavis and Joseph Treco and running 175.00 feet thereon and bounded southwardly by a road reservation running 440.62 feet thereon and southwestwardly by land said to be the property of Laurence Cartwright and running 907.14 feet thereon

THE EUROPEAN Central Bank during sunset in Frankfurt, Germany. The European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve are signalling that more stimulus could be on the way which has sent stocks higher, but an international forum for central bankers is warning, yesterday, that the global economic recovery will need further support to get past its current shaky stretch.

FRANKFURT Associated Press

ROSALEE CARROLL ROBERTS and LESTER CARROLL claim to be the owners in fee simple in possession of the above captioned pieces parcels or lots of land hereinbefore described and such ownership arises by 1 virtue of possession of the said land.

STOCKS have risen on expectation of more help from central banks, but an international financial forum warned yesterday that the global recovery can’t just rely on support from the likes of the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to get past its current shaky stretch.

The admonition from the Bank for International Settlements comes as the Fed and the ECB are signaling that more stimulus could be on the way. That message from Fed chair Jay Powell and ECB head Mario Draghi has helped send stock higher in Europe and the S&P 500 in the US to a record high.

The BIS is cautioning that governments need to bring other policies into the game — and that there are risks in relying too much on central bank stimulus such as cuts in interest rates and bond purchases that lower market borrowing costs. Those other policies include government

Copies of the filed plan may be inspected during normal office hours at:1. The Civil Registry of the Supreme Court, Marlborough House, Marlborough Street, Nassau, The Bahamas 2. The Chambers of Cash Fountain, 11 Armstrong Street, Nassau, The Bahamas 3. The Office of the Administrator, Clarence Town, Long Island, The Bahamas NOTICE is given that any person having dower or right of dower or any adverse claim or a claim not recognized in the Petition must on or before the 8th day of August A.D., 2019 file in the Supreme Court and serve on the Petitioners and the undersigned a Statement of their claim in the prescribed form, verified by an Affidavit to be filed therewith together with a plan of the area claimed and an Abstract of Title to the said area claimed by them.

Failure of any such person to file and serve a Statement of their claim on or before the 8th day of August A.D., 2019 shall operate as a bar to such claim.

CASH FOUNTAIN Chambers 11 Armstrong Street Nassau, The Bahamas Attorneys for the Petitioners

MARKET REPORT www.bisxbahamas.com

(242) 323-2330

FRIDAY, 28 JUNE 2019

(242) 323-2320

2 ALL SHARE INDEX: CLOSE: 2,160.46 | CHG: 2.65 | %CHG: 0.12 | YTD: 51.01 | YTD%: 2.42 BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.50 20.91 7.00 5.50 2.60 2.00 3.10 11.05 6.17 4.64 12.50 2.74 2.00 9.51 7.01 15.60 7.98 3.75 14.00

52WK LOW 3.50 19.17 4.90 4.02 1.00 0.19 2.00 8.98 6.13 3.54 9.00 2.35 1.70 7.50 6.10 11.00 6.20 3.01 12.51

PREFERENCE SHARES 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1.00 103.00 100.00 100.00 105.00 103.00 100.00 10.00 1.01

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 10.00 1.00

SECURITY AML Foods Limited APD Limited Bahamas Property Fund Bahamas Waste Bank of Bahamas Benchmark Cable Bahamas CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank Colina Holdings Commonwealth Bank Commonwealth Brewery Consolidated Water BDRs Doctor's Hospital Emera Incorporated Famguard Fidelity Bank Finco Focol J. S. Johnson Cable Bahamas Series 6 Cable Bahamas Series 8 Cable Bahamas Series 9 Cable Bahamas Series 10 Colina Holdings Class A Commonwealth Bank Class Commonwealth Bank Class Commonwealth Bank Class Commonwealth Bank Class Commonwealth Bank Class Commonwealth Bank Class Fidelity Bank Class A Focol Class B

SYMBOL AML APD BPF BWL BOB BBL CAB CIB CHL CBL CBB CWCB DHS EMAB FAM FBB FIN FCL JSJ

E J K L M N

CORPORATE DEBT - (percentage pricing) 52WK HI 100.00

52WK LOW 100.00

115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

104.79 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

CAB6 CAB8 CAB9 CAB10 CHLA CBLE CBLJ CBLK CBLL CBLM CBLN FBBA FCLB

SECURITY Fidelity Bank Note 22 (Series B) +

SYMBOL FBB22

Bahamas Note 6.95 (2029) BGS: 2015-1-3Y BGS: 2014-12-5Y BGS: 2015-1-5Y BGS: 2014-12-7Y BGS: 2015-1-7Y BGS: 2014-12-30Y BGS: 2015-1-30Y BGS: 2015-6-3Y BGS: 2015-6-5Y BGS: 2015-6-7Y BGS: 2015-6-30Y BGS: 2015-10-3Y BGS: 2015-10-5Y BGS: 2015-10-7Y

BAH29 BG0203 BG0105 BG0205 BG0107 BG0207 BG0130 BG0230 BG0303 BG0305 BG0307 BG0330 BG0403 BG0405 BG0407

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT STOCK - (percentage pricing)

LAST CLOSE 4.24 17.43 6.00 5.40 2.51 1.95 2.13 11.05 6.16 4.50 9.02 2.80 2.00 9.98 7.00 14.45 7.65 3.41 14.00

CLOSE 4.24 17.43 6.00 5.40 2.51 1.95 2.13 11.05 6.16 4.49 9.02 2.85 2.00 10.00 7.00 14.45 7.98 3.41 14.00

CHANGE 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.01 0.00 0.05 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.33 0.00 0.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 10.00 1.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 10.00 1.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

CLOSE 100.00

CHANGE 0.00

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

LAST SALE 100.00 107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

VOLUME 1,269

952

15,000 500

1,000

VOLUME

EPS$ 0.167 0.932 1.760 0.323 0.098 0.000 -0.438 0.708 0.480 0.184 0.627 0.102 0.209 0.000 0.611 0.743 0.939 0.205 0.631

DIV$ 0.160 1.260 0.000 0.250 0.000 0.020 0.000 0.720 0.220 0.120 0.000 0.068 0.060 0.328 0.240 0.540 0.200 0.120 0.600

P/E 25.4 18.7 N/M 16.7 N/M N/M -4.9 15.6 12.8 24.4 14.4 27.9 9.6 N/M 11.5 19.4 8.5 16.6 22.2

YIELD 3.77% 7.23% 0.00% 4.63% 0.00% 1.03% 0.00% 6.52% 3.57% 2.67% 0.00% 2.39% 3.00% 3.28% 3.43% 3.74% 2.51% 3.52% 4.29%

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 7.00% 6.50%

INTEREST Prime + 1.75%

MATURITY 19-Oct-2022

6.95% 4.00% 4.25% 4.25% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.00% 4.25% 4.50% 6.25% 3.50% 3.88% 4.25%

20-Nov-2029 30-Jul-2018 16-Dec-2019 30-Jul-2020 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2018 26-Jun-2020 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2018 15-Oct-2020 15-Oct-2022

YTD%12 MTH% 1.22% 3.96% 0.74% 3.42% 0.97% 2.67% 2.06% 4.97% 4.52% 0.96% 1.57% 4.58% 0.99% 4.25% 1.32% 4.12% 3.22% 5.64% -1.08% 1.77% -5.96% -3.05% 1.90% 4.59% 7.24% 11.96% 2.77% 3.88% 3.94% 4.69% -0.71% 0.16% 7.40% 2.70% 10.20% 1.30%

NAV Date 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 26-Apr-2019 31-Mar-2019 31-Mar-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Apr-2019 30-Mar-2019 30-Mar-2019 30-Mar-2019

MUTUAL FUNDS 52WK HI 2.23 4.27 2.05 188.32 158.55 1.62 1.76 1.70 1.15 6.99 8.54 6.15 10.52 11.46 10.46 10.00 8.69 11.79

52WK LOW 1.67 3.04 1.68 164.74 116.70 1.56 1.68 1.64 1.08 6.41 7.62 5.66 8.65 10.54 9.57 9.88 8.45 11.20

FUND CFAL Bond Fund CFAL Balanced Fund CFAL Money Market Fund CFAL Global Bond Fund CFAL Global Equity Fund FG Financial Preferred Income Fund FG Financial Growth Fund FG Financial Diversified Fund FG Financial Global USD Bond Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Secured Balanced Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Targeted Equity Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Prime Income Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Equities Sub Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - High Yield Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Alternative Strategies Fund Colonial Bahamas Fund Class D Colonial Bahamas Fund Class E Colonial Bahamas Fund Class F

NAV 2.23 4.27 2.05 188.32 154.49 1.62 1.76 1.70 1.15 7.66 8.94 6.71 11.25 11.94 10.59 9.92 8.68 11.38

MARKET TERMS BISX ALL SHARE INDEX - 19 Dec 02 = 1,000.00 52wk-Hi - Highest closing price in last 52 weeks 52wk-Low - Lowest closing price in last 52 weeks Previous Close - Previous day's weighted price for daily volume Today's Close - Current day's weighted price for daily volume Change - Change in closing price from day to day Daily Vol. - Number of total shares traded today DIV $ - Dividends per share paid in the last 12 months P/E - Closing price divided by the last 12 month earnings

YIELD - last 12 month dividends divided by closing price Bid $ - Buying price of Colina and Fidelity Ask $ - Selling price of Colina and fidelity Last Price - Last traded over-the-counter price Weekly Vol. - Trading volume of the prior week EPS $ - A company's reported earnings per share for the last 12 mths NAV - Net Asset Value N/M - Not Meaningful

TO TRADE CALL: CFAL 242-502-7010 | ROYALFIDELITY 242-356-7764 | FG CAPITAL MARKETS 242-396-4000 | COLONIAL 242-502-7525 | LENO 242-396-3225 | BENCHMARK 242-326-7333

spending where possible on growth-friendly infrastructure as well as pro-growth reforms such as slashing red tape for business.

“Monetary policy can no longer be the main engine of economic growth, and other policy drivers need to kick in to ensure the global economy achieves sustainable momentum,” the BIS said in its annual economic report.

BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens warned that while stimulus can help in the short run, it can have side effects further out such as over-inflating asset prices such as stocks and bonds, and feeding less productive zombie firms that wouldn’t survive without cheap borrowing.

Policymakers, he said, need “to be mindful of all those tradeoffs.”

The BIS, a forum for central banks based in Basel, Switzerland, said the service industries and falling unemployment can shore up the ailing global recover in coming months. Rising wages and less unemployment are offsetting a slowdown in manufacturing and global trade.

Still, it said significant risks remain, notably related to trade tensions between the

US and China. US President Donald Trump is seeking to reduce China’s trade surplus and has imposed new tariffs, or import taxes, while negotiating for a trade deal. Despite some apparent progress at a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit of leaders from the Group of 20 countries in Osaka, Japan, there’s uncertainty about the outcome, and whether more tariffs might be coming.

“The trade tensions bring up questions about the viability of existing supply chain structures and the very future of the global trading system,” Carstens said in a speech to the BIS annual meeting yesterday. “It bears repeating: trade wars have no winners, only losers.

Another risk he identified is high levels of corporate debt.

Carstens pointing to “clear signs of overheating in the corporate sector in a number of advanced countries.” He called attention to the $3tn market in so-called leveraged loans — those that are made to already indebted companies and then often sliced up and sold on to investors.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that FRITZNEL CYRIL JR, of Johnson Road Fox Hill, Bahamas. is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 1st day of July, 2019 to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that THEOFILOS VASILE MAVROS of Twynam Heights, P.O. Box N-8856, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 24th day of April, 2019 to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that HUGH ERIC WILLIAMS of #15 Adley Terrace, Faith Avenue, P.O. Box SP60164, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 24th day of April, 2019 to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, July 1, 2019, PAGE 15

EU leaders struggle to agree on candidates for top jobs

EUROPEAN Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, centre, sits alone prior to a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels yesterday. European Union leaders have started another marathon session of talks desperately seeking a breakthrough in a diplomatic fight over who should be picked for a half dozen of jobs at the top of EU institutions.

BRUSSELS Associated Press EUROPEAN Union leaders struggled deep into last night to narrow down a list of candidates for key posts at the helm of the 28-nation bloc amid deep divisions over how to best balance political, geographic and gender considerations.

Leaders huddled in small groups after the formal summit adjourned late yesterday, seeking to hammer out a deal they could all agree on. It was unclear when they might resume the formal meeting.

With the selection process bogged down again, the leaders were still considering Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the EU’s powerful executive arm, the European Commission.

Another key appointment was to replace Donald Tusk as head of the agendasetting European Council.

The task was never going to be easy. The appointments must take into account political affiliation, geography — balancing east and west, north and south — population size and gender. The leaders of EU institutions are supposed to impartially represent the interests of all member nations on the global stage and in Brussels.

Some leaders discussed the roster of upcoming vacancies, which also include the EU’s top diplomat, the president of the European Parliament and the chief of the European Central Bank, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan that concluded on Saturday.

Tusk and Juncker’s mandates expire at the end of October. Asked about likely candidates for Juncker’s job at the European Commission, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said yesterday, “That’s a moving picture.”

“You think that one candidate or another possibly has the best chance and it keeps shifting,” he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “spirit of compromise and above all ambition” as the leaders look to name what he described as “the new Team Europe”.

“There should be two men and two women” candidates for four of the five posts up for grabs in coming weeks, he said.

Macron, like Rutte, declined to say who he was backing.

The discussions about who should take over at the EU’s helm for the next five years and beyond could go well into the night, if not through it, Tusk warned.

He wants nominations to be wrapped up soon, seeking to prevent further erosion of public confidence in the EU amid Brexit uncertainty and intra-bloc divisions over

managing migration.

There was hope at the previous summit on June 20-21 that more time would bring clarity on who should replace Juncker as commission president. German Chancellor Angela Merkel backs German conservative Manfred Weber, whose center-right European People’s Party is the largest political group in the European Parliament but lost seats in the EU elections in May. Macron has suggested Weber lacks the political and government experience for such a high-profile role. Weber could still be considered for the head of the European Parliament which is the EU’s only elected institution.

Merkel said there was still a good possibility for Weber and the center-left top candidate, Dutch politician Frans Timmermans of the European Socialist and Democrats group, to be among the winners of the top positions, but other leaders from the same political family disagreed.

The European People’s Party, which is made up of Christian Democrats, and the S&D are the two biggest political groups in the EU, but both lost seats in May’s polls, where far-right and populist parties, probusiness liberals and the Greens made gains.

EU leaders want to fill the positions soon because the European Parliament is set to pick a new president next Wednesday.

Under EU rules, member countries choose who will run the Commission, replacing Juncker. The parliament must endorse that choice. But the assembly has insisted that only the lead candidates from parties that ran in last month’s elections should be eligible for the post.

The commission proposes and enforces EU laws on policies ranging from ranging from the massive single market to agriculture spending, from competition issues to immigration.

The job responsibilities are huge: Tusk and Juncker negotiate with the likes of US President Donald Trump or Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while the head of the ECB can set monetary policy for the 19 nations that use the shared euro currency.

The outgoing group of EU officials was lopsidedly Italian, with Antonio Tajani holding the parliament top post, Mario Draghi head of the ECB and Federica Mogherini the EU foreign policy chief.

Top candidates include current prime ministers Stefan Lofven of Sweden and Andrej Plenkovic of Croatia. Others mentioned include Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier of France, Greens leader Ska Keller of Germany, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief since 2014.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

PAGE 16, Monday, July 1, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Facebook to make jobs, credit ads searchable BOSTON Associated Press FACEBOOK says it will make advertisements for US jobs and for loans, financing

and credit card offers searchable for all users under a legal settlement designed to eliminate discrimination blamed on its highly customised ad-targeting.

The plan disclosed in an internal report Sunday voluntarily expands on a commitment the social medial giant made in March when it agreed to make its

US housing ads searchable by location and advertiser.

Ads were only delivered selectively to Facebook users based on such data as what they earn, their education level and where they shop.

The audit’s leader, former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy, was hired by Facebook in May 2018 to assess its performance on vital social issues.

Murphy has consulted with dozens of civil rights groups on the subject as part of her year-long audit, assisted by lawyers from the firm Relman, Dane & Colfax. Yesterday’s 26-page report, which also deals with content moderation and enforcement and efforts to prevent meddling in the 2020 US elections and census, was her second update.

The searchable housing ads database will roll out by the end of 2019, Facebook says, and Murphy said she expects the employment and financial product offerings databases to be available within the next year.

Murphy said she believes the move will positively impact the social mobility of millions in the United States “so I’m very excited about that”.

Targeted ads tailored to individuals are Facebook’s bread and butter — accounting for all but a sliver of its more than $50bn in annual revenues last year. It’s unlikely that making the ads searchable would have a significant effect on Facebook’s business. Analysts have cautioned, however, that any

restrictions on Facebook’s ability to target ads could scare off advertisers.

The move is likely part of Facebook’s strategy to show regulators that is doing a good job policing its own service — putting it in compliance with existing anti-discrimination law — and doesn’t need a heavyhanded approach from lawmakers. It comes as the company is facing increasing regulatory pressures.

As part of the settlement with plaintiffs including the ACLU and the National Fair Housing Alliance, Facebook agreed in March to stop targeting people based on age, gender and zip code and to also eliminate such categories as national origin and sexual orientation.

The groups had sued claiming Facebook violated anti-discrimination laws by preventing audiences including single mothers and the disabled from seeing many housing ads — while some job ads were not reaching women and older workers.

Galen Sherwin, senior staff attorney at the ACLU and the group’s lead attorney in the case, said making the three Facebook databases searchable by anyone “definitely creates greater access to information about economic opportunities”.

Civil rights groups are concerned that the secretive, proprietary algorithms that govern how the company steers ads— even when not consciously targeting specific groups — could still be discriminatory.

“I wish we could see into the black box,” said Sherwin.

Facebook still faces a US Department of Housing and Urban Development complaint over housing ad-targeting and delivery.

Murphy, the auditor, said she thinks the company understands it’s “going to have to look at the algorithms” behind them.

The company also faces privacy and anti-trust investigations in the US and Europe over its invasive data collection practices and struggles to police hate speech globally with sometimes lethal repercussions.

Facebook is currently in talks to create an external oversight board to monitor such issues and its level of independence is one subject of debate.

Yesterday’s audit update also addresses Facebook’s efforts to shed “harmful content”, including a new US pilot programme where dedicated monitors will focus on hate speech alone.

A few dozen are involved so far, the company said. All come from the more than 20,000 outsourced content moderators who screen the 2.3 billion-user platform, the company said.

Audit team recommendations include ending a carve-out for humor as an exception in hate speech and devising better mechanisms for blocking harassment, which can be especially overwhelming when automated.

Simply defining actionable hate speech — which can vary by nation, region, language and cultural context — is a tall order.