Black Immigrant Daily News

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The Caribbean can benefit twofold from an extreme labour shortage plaguing the United Kingdom, says the CEO of a regional online recruitment service.

“We’ve already seen a noticeable uptick in foreign employers, especially from the UK, recruiting local Caribbean talent,” says Joseph Boll, Caribbean Employment Services Inc. CEO, “but there are opportunities from the other way around as well.

“Just as UK employers want to hire Caribbean workers, thousands of British workers are looking to leave home to live and work abroad. This is where remote work programmes in the Caribbean can come to the forefront and use that desire to their advantage.”

Boll notes the already-high pent-up demand for travel as COVID-related restrictions have eased around the world.

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“The Caribbean is already a highly desirable destination for visitors,” says the CEO, “but why stop there? There is a growing digital nomad market, where remote workers travel the world to live in different locations while still working for their employers back home. The Caribbean can benefit by making this easy and welcoming them.”

One such example is the Work From Bermuda programme, which that nation’s government said contributed some $28 million to the local economy.

Since its launch in August 2020, the Work From Bermuda programme garnered 1,315 applicants, of which 1,127 were approved and 234 remain in the country as of August 2022.

The Bermudian government says it intends to continue the widely successful initiative, hailing the programme as “a win-win for both visitors and Bermuda”.

Last year, Bermuda Tourism Authority CEO Charles Jeffers II told Remote Worker UK, an affiliate of Caribbean Employment Services Inc., of the programme’s tremendous success. He highlighted the economic boost to tourism as well as local businesses and the local rental accommodation market.

Up to now, those benefits show no sign of slowing down as the government of Bermuda says it “continues to be encouraged by the number of new applications submitted weekly and the number of individuals who are choosing to renew their stay for an additional year”.

Boll notes that several other Caribbean nations had launched similar remote work programmes, though their levels of success are not widely known.

“Other countries should take note of the UK’s labour climate and Bermuda’s success and put the two together,” says Boll, a staunch advocate for remote work.

“There are benefits to be gained from Caribbean residents working remotely; from them taking advantage of work abroad opportunities in the UK; and from Caribbean nations letting foreigners live and work in their locales for short periods of time. The conditions are right; we just have to reach out and seize that opportunity.”

SOURCE: Caribbean Employment Services Inc./ SLT. Headline photo: Internet stock image.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The House of Assembly is currently debating a bill that would create a new statutory body for water and sewerage, and most legislators expressed overwhelming support for the plan before going into a closed-door committee session on Tuesday afternoon.

The Water and Sewerage Department is currently spending about $22 million a year to subsidise water operations, with residents only paying about $5 million of the overall $27 million cost.

Government hopes to help remedy the situation by creating a new statutory body, but details of that move still need to be hashed out, leaders said Tuesday. The Water and Sewerage Authority Act, 2021, which was introduced by Deputy Premier Kye Rymer, came for a seconand third reading during Tues- day’s HOA sitting.

Mr. Rymer, who is also the minister of communications and works, said the proposed legislation is “transformative” and would be the “impetus for some major changes that will dramatically improve the management for the delivery of potable water to residents.”

The minister described the plan to make the Water and Sewerage Department into a statutory board as a move that residents “need and deserve.”

Questions

But Opposition Leader Julian Fraser warned that the proposed legislation would result in increased water prices for consumers, and Health and Social Development Minister Marlon Penn said the authority would cost the territory $40 million per year or more. Both members found issues with a lack of a “plan” in the bill itself and urged their colleagues to consider the importance of a clear policy position.

“I don’t want to see this board formed and everyone expects a miracle from this board,” Mr. Fraser (R-D3) said. “I don’t want to see the board formed and they walk into the Water and Sewerage Department and get buried in the culture.”

He argued that the bill does- n’t provide a “map” for how the board will proceed with its tasks, and added that more details are needed.

“I am convinced that with proper leadership and using the existing model that we have, there is hope that an authority for water and sewerage can turn things around,” he said. “All we need is a minister who is committed and understands what the problems are.”

Mr. Penn, however, said that it’s important to “fix the problems that we face” by trying something different.

“We need to give this shift an opportunity,” he added.

The minister also noted that many concerns surrounding the water system in the territory already had been voiced in the House.

“We have to ensure that there’s a clear policy position on the way forward for this authority, and I think the committee stages of this bill are going to be critical for us,” he said. “There are some very specific and deliberate things that we need to do as a House to ensure this authority functions the way it’s supposed to function.”

High costs

Mr. Penn (R-D8) added that the territory has a distribution problem and needs to commit to infrastructural in- vestments. He also stressed the importance of accountability, transparency and value for money in establishing the board, and called for a strategic plan with a phased approach to fixing distribution issues.

“If we’re going to move, let’s move properly,” he said. “There’s too much money at stake. And not just the money: [Water] is a human right.”

Government backbencher Mark Vanterpool (R-D4) said the bill may not be “perfect” but with “more experience” the government will be able to make amendments in the future.

Junior Minister for Trade and Economic Development Shereen Flax-Charles said she supports the bill, noting that the system needs improvements.

During the sitting, she shared messages that she’s received from residents who are “sick and tired” of the problems that have plagued the territory for decades.

“We have to fix this problem,” Ms. Flax-Charles said. “We have to try something different. We can’t continue to say that we’re one of the top destinations for tourism in the Caribbean and the locals, the residents, can’t get water and the tourists can’t get water.”

‘A significant step’

Government backbencher Vincent Wheatley (R-D9) also expressed his support for the bill, stating that water problems should have been fixed a “long time ago” and that making WSD a statutory body is a “significant step toward addressing” the issue.

Similarly, opposition member Carvin Malone (R-at large) said he supports the “brilliant initiative” by Mr. Rymer, who has also worked on efforts like adjusting the traffic flow in Road Town.

“This is a minister that gets things done,” Mr. Malone said of Mr. Rymer.

Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley agreed with Mr. Malone’s statement and said that establishing the authority is “another opportunity for [Mr. Rymer] to drive progress forward.”

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Following August Emancipation Festival events held for the first time in three years, Virgin Islands Festivals and Fairs Committee Chairman Dirk Walters said that the organisation is already drafting a financial report that will be ready “within the next couple of weeks.”

“Once we receive the various reports from all the different subcommittees and we put all the financials together, then that will be made public, of course,” Mr. Walters said during an interview with JTV.

The last festival report — covering 2019 events — was laid on the table of the House of Assembly in June 2020 by then- Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley.

Prior to that, government had failed to provide legally mandated annual reports on festival spending for three years.

Still, the 72-page document presented by Dr. Wheatley didn’t detail who received money or how they were chosen.

According to the 2005 VI Festivals and Fairs Committee Act, the committee is required to record its financial transactions and to submit a report to the leading minister within three months of the end of each financial year.

The minister is then required to lay the report before the legislature, thereby making the report public.

$500k from gov’t

During his interview on Saturday with JTV, Mr. Walters affirmed that the committee received $500,000 from the government to execute events for this year, as well as donations, contributions, and sponsorships from “stakeholders” and “other companies,” including the BVI Tourist Board.

“A lot of things are done without money. Relationships are the biggest currency on earth,” he said. “We were able to get a lot of things done based on relationships, even without speaking money. Everyone for the most part, understood or understands where we are.”

Fundraising committee

An official fundraising committee is being formed to help offset costs that fell onto the shoulders of the public, including entry fees that were up to $40 per person for village events, he said. This year is Mr. Walters’s first chairing the committee. Prior to that, Carnel Clyne resigned from the position in 2019, and Co-Chair Khalid Frett served as acting chair.

But events in 2020 and 2021 were dramatically scaled back because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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On Thursday, 18th August 2022, Prime Minister Gaston Browne , on behalf of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, signed the official Booby Alley Social Housing Project agreement with the People’s Republic of China.

Through the housing project agreement, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and the Chinese Government agree to construct 150 turnkey modality units.

According to Prime Minister Browne, “Today is a very historic day and a very important one as we sign the exchange of notes between the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and The People’s Republic of China to signify an agreement between both countries for the development of 150, two-bedroom properties at the Booby Alley area in Point. It is the first phase of a housing project which will span to other areas.”

PM Browne noted that this project is taking the ongoing housing revolution to the Next Level.

Joining Prime Minister Browne at today’s signing ceremony were Attorney General Hon. Steadroy Benjamin, Her Excellency Zhang Yanling, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Antigua and Barbuda, and Ambassador Clarence Pilgrim, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works.

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