Daily Brief - Friday 25th August, 2017

TTMA IN THE NEWS

TTMA trade mission to Dominican Republic

The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) will be hosting a trade mission to the Dominican Republic (DR) next month, in collaboration with the Embassy of the Dominican Republic (DR) in Trinidad and Tobago (TT). The September 12 to 16 trade mission will be led by senior officials of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and by the TTMA’s CEO, Dr Mahindra Ramdeen.  Fourteen member companies from varying sectors including, chemicals and non-metallic, food and beverage, distribution, transportation and shipping, automotive and manufacturers of household products, will make up the rest of the delegation. Read more here

 

NEWS

TTT to be revived

The Government has decided to shut down State-owned Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG) and revive the Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) station. Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie, in a telephone interview with the Express yesterday, said the 112 employees at the station will be sent home. But they can apply for employment under the new TTT entity. The Cabinet decision taken yesterday follows Cuffie's announcement in May to shut down operations of Government Information Services Ltd (GISL) by September 30. Read more here

3 found dead in burnt out shack

A four-year-old child managed to escape death on Wednesday night and later sought refuge at a neighbour’s house after seeing his mother and other occupants killed and then set on fire in their house. But mystery surrounds the death of the three people discovered by fire-fighters in the house in a squatting community at Tantique Road in Carlsen Field, Freeport, with police still uncertain whether the child’s story is accurate. Read more here

Brigeman’s VP ready for JSC

Vice President of Bridgeman’s Services Group Andrew Purdey is willing to appear before the parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Land and Physical Infrastructure’s inquire into the Trinidad and Tobago inter-island ferry service with specific focus on the procurement of the ferries. The JSC will hold two meetings on the ferry fiasco next week. One will be held on Monday in Trinidad and the other on Wednesday in Tobago.  Among those expected to appear before the JSC are a number of Government ministers and suspended PATT employee Leon Grant. Read more here

 

POLITICS

PM given wrong info

Vice-president of Bridgemans Services Group LP, Andrew Purdey, displays a document during yesterday’s interview with Guardian Media Ltd at Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain.  Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has been given misinformation on the tendering process and deal involving the Ocean Flower 2. Bridgemans Services Group vice president Andrew Purdey made the comment yesterday as he sought to clear the company’s name in the ongoing ferry fiasco in an exclusive interview given to Guardian Media. Read more here

Charles alleges schools in disrepair

Naparima MP Rodney Charles has named specific cases of school disrepair in his constituency and elsewhere to challenge Education Minister Anthony Garcia’s recent assertion that repairs are proceeding apace for all schools to reopen in the new school term. In a statement yesterday Charles urged Garcia and minister in the ministry Dr Lovell Francis to “come clean” on school repairs. Read more here

 

BUSINESS

Dom Rep seeks trade links with English speaking Caribbean

The Dominican Republic is looking at ways to revitalize exports and investments with Jamaica and other countries in the English speaking Caribbean. According to the president of the Roundtable of Commonwealth in Dominican Republic, Fernando Gonzalez Nicolás, the English speaking Caribbean consumes around US$30 billion dollars in imported products and services yearly. Read more here

‘Unlimited’ phone plans launched

Telecoms provider Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) has unveiled its “Unlimited” plans for pre-paid, post-paid and landline customers. The plans offer post-paid and pre-paid Bmobile customers unlimited local calls to any network, unlimited data, and unlimited local and international texts. Landline consumers get unlimited calls to any local network, to another landline or a mobile phone. Read more here

 

REGIONAL

New OECD report rates Cayman Islands as 'largely compliant' on tax information exchange

 A new peer review report by the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has rated the Cayman Islands as “largely compliant” with the international standard – the same rating as Canada, Germany and Australia. “By rating the Cayman Islands as ‘largely compliant,’ the new OECD report again confirms that we meet or exceed globally-accepted standards for transparency and cross border cooperation on exchange of tax information. Achieving the same rating as top rated G20 member countries Canada, Germany and Australia further establishes Cayman’s place among the G20 Plus – jurisdictions including G20 countries and top international financial centres that adhere to the highest global transparency standards,” said Jude Scott, CEO of Cayman Finance. Read more here

Stop the corruption, says former St Kitts-Nevis minister

Former Cabinet minister, Dwyer Astaphan, has called for an end to corrupt practices in St Kitts and Nevis. “We have a lot of instances of corruption in this little county of ours. Not a today thing, an ongoing thing and it needs to be met face to face, full frontal and it needs to be stopped. Public sector, private sector, social organizations, it needs to be stopped,” he said. Read more here

 

INTERNATIONAL

Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra has 'fled country' ahead of trial verdict

Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled the country as a court was about to deliver a verdict in a two-year trial over agricultural subsidies, a source close to her family says. The source declined to say where she had gone, but Thailand's top immigration official said there were no records of Yingluck having left through proper channels. Read more here

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong jailed for corruption

A court in South Korea has sentenced Samsung's billionaire heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison for corruption. Lee was convicted of bribery in a scandal that also saw the impeachment of South Korea's former president. The case has gripped the public amid growing anger against South Korea's biggest companies, known as chaebols. Read more here

25th August 2017

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