Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne is looking forward to a productive and successful meeting as he leads an Antigua and Barbuda delegation to the First Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 16th November with an Investment Forum on the 17th November.
Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne, Works and Housing Minister the Hon. Maria Browne and Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Senator the Hon. Dwayne George along with Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell of Grenada, Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Prime Minister Philip Pierre of Saint Lucia departed the V.C. Bird International Airport Tuesday afternoon for Riyadh where they will join other CARICOM Heads who will actively engage with His Majesty Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince and Prime Minister His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and other government officials on issues of mutual importance at the bilateral, inter-regional and global levels.
Some of the issues down for discussion area deepening CARICOM-Saudi Arabia relations designed to support the sustainability of the Community’s development objectives through the coordinated use of financial, technical and human resources, to promote economic and social development among Member States; World Expo 2030, the strengthening of relations between CARICOM and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC); Agriculture and Food Security, Transportation, Renewable Energy and Climate Change and Finance. Tourism, Investment, Education and Health will also form part of the discussions.
The Opening Ceremony to be held on Thursday will hear addresses from His Majesty Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and King of Saudi Arabia; His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;The Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica and Chair of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM; and Dr. Carla Barnett, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community.
Prime Minister Browne before departing the V. C. Bird International Airport, said that while investment is of paramount importance for CARICOM and Antigua and Barbuda in fostering economic growth, job creation and building a robust and resilient economy, he plans to establish levels of cooperation with Saudi Arabia in a wide range of areas.
He said that for Antigua and Barbuda, public health infrastructure development, improving health delivery systems and improving quality basic education, lifelong learning and technical and vocational education and training are of equal importance, and therefore he will also aim at collaborating with Saudi Arabia in these areas.
He noted that his team will put forward a request for a scholarship programme for Antigua and Barbuda students to pursue degree studies in Saudi Arabia which will facilitate knowledge exchange and cultural understanding. “We also believe that we can develop academic collaboration and research initiatives through teacher exchanges and educational infrastructure development,” he pointed out.
“In the area of health, we believe we can collaborate on healthcare infrastructure development including the construction and upgrading of clinics, laboratories and medical treatment facilities along with advancing medical training opportunities, education and advancing electronic health records management,” noted Prime Minister Browne.
Prime Minister Browne is also expected to pursue collaboration in the areas of technologies for screening, early detection and treatment of NCDs including diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Other CARICOM countries are expected to pursue similar areas of cooperation.
The Antigua and Barbuda delegation to the two-day event also includes Ambassadors Colin Murdoch, Gilbert Boustany, Sami Al Mufleh, Jeffrey Hadeed and Boris Latour.
The trip to Saudi Arabia is fully sponsored by the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Prime Minister Browne and the other members of the Antigua and Barbuda return to the country on Saturday. The Hon. Attorney General, Sir Steadroy Cutie Benjamin is the Acting Prime Minister.
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Wow! The big looser Dwayne George is on his way to Dubai. Ain’t that a bitch?
An opposition with not enough digits in Parliament is powerless and will remain so until the next election, you may continue to gum, picket and call for resignation, but that’s it.
let’s see now how much of his promises the winner MP Simon will get accomplished.
The Big man Asot another huge winner still struggling as an independent.
@ Carvaa
Ms Carvaa again you continue to harbour bitterness against the MP for St Marys South. Please do not blame him for your party spending in excess of $5,000,000 to garner just 29 extra votes. This equates to circa $175,000.00 per vote. R U NA HAB NO SHAME?
Since you have gone there how much of Dwayne George promises will be kept, especially that he controls the resources of state. We can start with just the $500 per month he promised small businesses in the constituency. Also has he provided evidence the advance of his salary to the said community?
You guys are just a bunch of hypocrites.
“{Since you have gone there how much of Dwayne George promises will be kept, especially that he controls the resources of state. We can start with just the $500 per month he promised small businesses in the constituency. Also has he provided evidence the advance of his salary to the said community?”
The condition of these promises were, “if he wins the election”. And since he didn’t win, then all promises are null and void.
On the other hand Shuggy made promisses that if he wins he has investors that are willing to put in $15million into his constitutency. We will await to see that happening.
And by the way where did you get the figure of $5,000,000.00 from that ABLP spend on the electecion? I guess you nust be their accountant.
I am not their accountant, but I live in St Marys South and witnessed first hand all the patronage and monies being given out by Gaston Brown himself even on the day of the election. It does not take an accountant to work out the value of all the appliances and raw cash that was being dished out. Just like they did during January 18th 2023 and still y’all got a beating that y’all cannot catch yourself from.
Gaston cried that night till he had to flee. He literally disappeared, maybe to retrieve his Risperdal.
ABLP has never won an election fairly in Antigua -NEVER. You guys come up with all sort of schemes to retain power. The government is ILLEGITIMATE.
Out of Gaston’s own mouth, he admitted to stealing the election by transferring voters from one constituency to the next to enable his fellow candidates to win their seats. Fraud of the highest level.
Kelvin Simon controls the resources of government so he will be able to deliver on his $2,000 monthly constituency allowance.
Perhaps I should list all the broken promises that Gaston and your party have implemented, including the water problem being fixed in 14 days. No new taxes because what’s on the books is enough and now an additional 2% ABST will be added on the already high cost of living that Antiguans and Barbudans have to endure, with no policies advanced by the government to curb this unconscienable state of affairs, but yet still you guys have the unmitigated gall to increase taxes on the backs of poor people, only because of all the rampant corruption carried out over the last 9 years by this unaccountable government.
Where all the CIP funds gone?
Congratulations on get it started. Much success
@From The Sideline
@From The Sideline,
As an Executive with a major financial firm you sure have a lot of time to be trolling for Gaston.
So Gaston says:
“Investment is of paramount importance for CARICOM and Antigua and Barbuda in fostering economic growth, job creation and building a robust and resilient economy, he plans to establish levels of cooperation with Saudi Arabia in a wide range of areas”
What a crock of shit… we were sold FDI by Lester Bird and Ron Saunders. Together with corruption, FDI has kept the CARICOM States in perputual debt and poverty.
These are the same guys who jumped on the band wagon supporting Is-not-real; and then turned around making statements on behalf of the Palestinians.
Sure youall will get something from the Saudis. We the public will never know the terms and conditions of the loans or the so called FDI
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