The Government of Antigua and Barbuda, the University of the West Indies and the Association of the Commonwealth Universities will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the Centre of Excellence for Oceanography and the Blue Economy.
The virtual ceremony will be held at the University of the West Indies Five Islands campus on Tuesday 19th January.
Present at the signing will be Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne who will be signing on behalf of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Professor Sir Edward Byrne signing on behalf of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Sir Hilary Beckles Vice Chancellor on behalf of the University of the West Indies.
Minister with responsibility for the Blue Economy, the Hon. Dean Jonas will also be present.
In October of 2020, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda gave its support to the establishment of a Centre of Excellence for Oceanography and the Blue Economy at the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus.
The centre aims to advance intellectual progress and strengthen institutional capacity in the areas of marine science and the blue economy while capitalising on the economic opportunities for the Caribbean within this emerging sector.
According to the Honourable Dean Jonas, Minister of the Blue Economy, “Antigua and Barbuda is advantageously positioned to expand the offering of the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus in this area”. Antigua and Barbuda is one the largest economies in the Eastern Caribbean, has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the subregion and its geographical location makes it ideally suited to serve as the home and hub of the region’s blue economy efforts.
Antigua and Barbuda, as well as the Caribbean region, stand to benefit from an emerging industry worth USD$2.5 trillion through the diversification of the economy into areas such as aquaculture, marine renewable energy, biotechnology and sea vegetable farming.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Blue Economy Minister the Hon. Dean Jonas has been holding meetings with several organisations including the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme (CMEP), Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on developing a blue economy action plan for Antigua and Barbuda.
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There you go, Dean. You are getting your little piece. Good for you. Focusing on things that don’t have a damn thing to do with our immediate needs from you right now.
Beat up your chest, take your photo ops and hurry up and get out we face
Damn waste of matter.
Hope this group will look at environment devastation at Crabbs peninsula as a study of how not to conduct business or blue economy
Not a bad idea. I hope serious work will be done on our greatest available resource (the ocean) that will bring much economic benefits to us and the sub-region. When I lived in Nova Scotia I was very impressed with the research that was being done at Dalhousie University and their Department of Oceanography. The Center for Resource Management and Environmental Studies at Cave Hill focused to some extent on the ocean, however, with the direct focus on oceanography and the blue economy I expect to see more benefits.
I mentioned in a post sometime ago that Stanford had sign up the University of Texas A&M and University of Florida to build a Lab her in Antigua. I believe he paid them $60million and $40million respectively. I don’t recall that these two universities were ever ask to pay back the monies and they have not delivered the service. Therfore I think they should team up with UWI and continue the work they were paid for.
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