SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - U.S. casino operator Harrah's Entertainment
Inc. has announced that it has pulled out of a six-hotel resort proposal in the
Bahamas worth more than $2 billion because it has taken too long to organize.
Harrah's had agreed to team up with developer Baha Mar Resorts Ltd. and
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide to create the mega-resort along Nassau's
famed Cable Beach. But the U.S. casino company says that plans for the ambitious
complex have stalled.
"Unfortunately, it has taken Baha Mar Development Company longer to organize
the project than anticipated and circumstances have changed such that it is
simply not prudent to move forward," Harrah's said in an e-mailed statement. It
did not disclose specifics.
The mixed-use resort, planned for a 1,000-acre beachfront site that included
an investment of more than $2 billion in its initial phase, was expected to have
a work force of 10,000 people upon its completion in 2011.
Baha Mar Resorts asserted that Harrah's withdrawal from the deal was a
breach of faith. The development company said it was committed to moving forward
with the resort project and challenged Harrah's ability to "unilaterally
terminate the arrangements."
"We hope they will reconsider their action before they cause harm to both
Baha Mar and the Bahamas," Baha Mar Resorts said in a recent statement.
Baha Mar last year formed a joint venture with Harrah's, and the companies
signed a deal with Starwood to manage the complex. Plans called for the resort
to feature the Caesar's Resort Hotel, the St. Regis, the Westin Hotel, W, the
Sheraton Hotel and a renovated Windham Nassau Resort.
GRENADA: Southern Caribbean island to resume negotiations with offshore
investors
ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) -- Grenada is looking to relaunch its shuttered
offshore financial sector after a six-year hiatus that was prompted by a
multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.
A consultant is expected to meet soon with government officials to recommend
what type of offshore entities would best suit the eastern Caribbean island,
said Timothy Antoine, secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
Grenada in February created a new regulatory body to oversee financial
institutions, including credit unions and offshore brokerages, to avoid
fraudulent activity, Antoine said. A similar agency existed before the fraud
scheme, but only monitored offshore banks.
The First International Bank of Grenada collapsed in 2000 after its owner
promised investors huge returns from the bank, which he said was backed by a $20
million ruby carved into a statue of a boy on a water buffalo.
The bank's 4,000 investors were cheated out of $170 million through a Ponzi
scheme that used their cash to lure other investors without paying them back.
Most were U.S. citizens hoping to boost their retirement income.
Part of the money was returned to investors as phony interest payments.
In 2002, Grenada suspended its financial sector's operations and later
revoked the licenses of all offshore banks.
CUBA: Island acknowledges vast informal economy with numbers on prices,
inflation
HAVANA (AP) -- Communist Cuba has issued what appears to be the first public
report on prices and inflation in the private sector, in an unusually realistic
acknowledgment of the key role the informal economy plays in island life.
In its "Survey of Prices in the Informal Sector," the National Office of
Statistics estimated that the cost of goods and services purchased from private
sources rose 4 percent from February 2007 to the same month in 2008.
The report was posted on the office's Web site, about a month after Raul
Castro assumed the presidency from his ailing 81-year-old brother Fidel. Raul is
largely seen as a more pragmatic leader, and Cubans generally believe he is more
likely to allow limited openings in the state-controlled economy -- although he
has not undertaken any major measures yet.
Fifteen years after the Soviet Union's collapse forced Cuba to allow a
limited amount of private enterprise, the government still subsidizes or
provides outright many goods and services such as education, health care,
housing public transportation, utilities and a basic food basket that makes up
about a third of islanders' dietary needs.
But Havana is unable to supply everything that Cubans need at affordable
prices, and people here regularly turn to private sources, both legal and
illegal, to get the rest of their food -- plus a range of "extras," from laundry
detergent and toilet paper to haircuts and plumbing services.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Canada's Barrick Gold to reopen mine in Caribbean
country
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Canadian mining company Barrick
Gold Corp. will reopen a formerly state-owned mine in the central Dominican
Republic, the company and the Caribbean country's president has said.
Barrick plans to spend about $2.6 billion on the Pueblo Viejo mine in what
will be the largest private investment in Dominican history, President Leonel
Fernandez said.
A Barrick spokesman said construction will cost about $2.7 billion over
three and a half years and operations would begin in 2011.
The company and government have agreed in principle to share the cost of
cleaning up acid-filled rivers and fields of mineral waste left behind by a
Dominican state-run company's previous activity at the site, Barrick spokesman
Vince Borg told The Associated Press.
Details about paying for the cleanup, which Barrick estimates will cost at
least $100 million, are still to be worked out, Borg said.
Barrick estimates that the mine will yield 20.4 million ounces of gold,
along with more than 400 million pounds of copper and more than 100 million
ounces of silver.
The mine, located in pine-filled mountains north of the Dominican capital,
Santo Domingo, will be built with a 40 percent stake by Vancouver-based Goldcorp
Inc.
Fernandez announced the project during his annual Independence Day address
to Congress, his last before facing re-election in May.
"This will be the largest investment ever realized in the history of the
Dominican Republic," Fernandez said to applause.
JAMAICA: Island to launch $500 million upgrade of its lone oil refinery
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- Jamaica's top energy official has announced plans
for a major upgrade of the country's lone oil refinery, an expansion that would
boost production for a refining market clamoring for supplies.
Energy Minister Clive Mullings said the planned expansion at the Petrojam
refinery in the capital of Kingston would cost $500 million and would increase
daily oil production by 20,000 barrels.
The refinery, built in 1963, provides all the petroleum for the Caribbean
nation of less than 3 million inhabitants. It has a nominal capacity to refine
36,000 barrels of crude oil a day, but has grown inefficient because of its
technology and age.
Mullings said that international accounting firm Ernst & Young is putting
together a financial package as the Caribbean island's government seeks funding
for the expansion. It hopes the improvements would be completed by 2013.
The majority of the Petrojam refinery is owned by the Jamaican government.
Last year, the Caribbean subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company secured
a 49 percent stake in the facility, which processes Venezuelan and Mexican crude
into transportation and industrial products, including asphalt for road
construction.
Mullings said petcoke, the waste product from oil refineries, could also be
burned to generate electricity in Jamaica once the expansion is completed.
The expansion "would bring down the cost of energy considerably," Mulling
said.
SURINAME: Nation tries to ease worries of rice shortage amid sharp global
rise in price
PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) -- Suriname reassured citizens there will be
plenty of rice to feed this tiny South American country despite widespread
worries that rising global prices could lead to domestic shortages.
Agriculture Minister Stanley Raghoebarsingh has vowed that the government
will not increase exports of the grain to cash in on soaring rice prices on
world markets.
"Rice exporters in Suriname know their responsibility and they will not do
anything to endanger the supply of rice on the local market," Raghoebarsingh
said, adding that roughly half the nation's 55,000 tons in annual rice
production will continue to be allocated for domestic use.
"Prices on the world market are strong," said George Pahlad, the head of an
exporters association, "but we will not suddenly go and change the way things
have been going because of that."
Part of a global surge in food costs, rice prices have jumped 50 percent in
the past two months and at least doubled since 2004. Experts blame rising fuel
and fertilizer expenses, as well as disease, pests and climate change.
Many Surinamese are already struggling to keep pace with soaring domestic
prices for the country's No. 1 staple, which have roughly doubled since 2006.
US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Federal agency seeks public comment about leaks at
refinery
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) -- Federal authorities are
seeking comment from U.S. Virgin Islands residents about groundwater cleanup and
modifications to waste treatment operations at the Western Hemisphere's
second-largest oil refinery.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials joined representatives from
Hovensa's refinery to pursue feedback on efforts to recover about a million
gallons of oil spilled on the 1,500-acre refinery property in the 1980s.
The comment period ends April 26 regarding the ongoing cleanup and possible
EPA permit changes at the giant Hovensa refinery on the south coast of St.
Croix, where smokestacks stand adjacent to coral reefs and wildlife refuges.
Since recovery and treatment wells began operating in 1987, roughly 42
million gallons of petroleum waste has been reclaimed from the onsite
groundwater at the refinery site, the EPA said in a statement.
While leaky sewer lines and tanks responsible for the property's pollution
were repaired long ago, the federal agency says an estimated 1.2 million gallons
of spilled oil still remains.
Hovensa, owned by New York-based Hess Corp. and Petroleos de Venezuela SA,
the national oil company of Venezuela, is the largest private employer in the
U.S. Virgin Islands. A spokesman for the company could not immediately be
reached for comment.
GRENADA: Utility plans to erect wind turbines to reduce reliance on fossil
fuels
ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) -- This southern Caribbean island's power company
plans to erect wind turbines to reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels, a
top utility official has said.
Grenada Electricity Services Limited, the sole power provider for the island
and its tiny outlying districts of Carriacou and Petit Martinique, has leased
300 acres of land in St. Patrick's parish to establish a wind farm, said company
manager Vernon Lawrence.
The utility, commonly known as Grenlec, is awaiting government permission.
The hurricane-prone Caribbean country of 90,000 inhabitants currently draws
the large majority of its power from oil-powered facilities.
Grenlec and government officials are in the early stages of discussing
financing and the amount of wind turbines to be used.
The project's first phase would make it a 6 megawatt wind farm, Lawrence
said. Grenlec facilities currently have the capacity to provide 49 megawatts of
electricity.
The Grenadian government pledged last year to have all police precincts,
public schools and health clinics operate by solar power by 2010.
The push for renewable energy sources comes as Grenada receives preferential
terms to buy fuel under the Petrocaribe accord, a 2005 agreement with
Venezuela's state oil company which promises the island 340,000 barrels of
gasoline, fuel oil and diesel a year.
It received its first shipment of 20,000 barrels of subsidized Venezuelan
fuel last October.
PUERTO RICO: Donald Trump extends empire to US island with new golf complex
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Real estate mogul Donald Trump is extending
his empire to Puerto Rico, announcing a partnership to build a $600 million golf
complex on the island's northern coast.
The Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico, to be developed with local
construction firm Empresas Diaz Inc., will include 500 residences on a
1,000-acre (400-hectare) site between the Atlantic coast and the U.S.
territory's tropical rain forest.
"We're building something that's going to be known all over the world,"
Trump said at a news conference before clinking champagne glasses with Gov.
Anibal Acevedo Vila.
The first 56 villas, to be sold at prices starting at $1.4 million, include
access to a private jet, a yacht and limousine service.
Developers plan to improve a golf course, previously known as the Coco Beach
Golf & Country Club, and open a new clubhouse before March 17, when the 36-hole
course hosts the Puerto Rico Open, a PGA Tour event.
The U.S. territory is seeking to boost its economy with more hotels and
golf-related tourism, Acevedo said.
Trump told reporters he would consider additional investments in the future,
including a possible return of the Miss Universe pageant that he co-owns with
NBC.
"We had tremendous success here" with the pageant in 2002, he said.
TRINIDAD: Gov't to create large farms to boost food production and offset
food price hikes
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) -- To offset food price hikes of more than 25
percent since 2005, this Caribbean nation plans to convert up to 20,000 acres of
state-owned land into large farms, and they're looking to Cuba for expertise in
ramping up agricultural production.
The farms will be created in Tucker Valley, a fertile region where a U.S.
naval base operated World War II, and sold to qualified buyers. Experts from
Cuba are expected to arrive next month to teach farmers how to mass-produce
fruits and vegetables for local consumption, Trinidad Agriculture Minister
Arnold Piggott said.
Small-scale farmers are concerned that once the large farms are created,
their parcels -- which they traditionally lease from the government for 30 years
-- will be seized for construction of homes and businesses. Some such cases have
been reported recently, said Dhano Sookoo, president of the island's
agricultural society, which represents 17,000 farmers.
Piggott denied that land seizures are being contemplated, but acknowledged
that the government needs to keep building 10,000 houses a year to meet the
population's needs. "It may very well be that some traditional agricultural
lands, which may now be lying waste, may be allocated for housing," Piggott
said.
CARIBBEAN: Caricom to begin trade talks with Canada by midyear
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) -- The 15-nation Caribbean Community will begin
negotiating a new trade and aid pact with Canada by the middle of the year, the
trade bloc has announced.
Known as Caricom, the group has been under pressure from Canada to begin
discussing updates to the CaribCan agreement, which is more than a decade old.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proposed an aid package worth $600
million over 10 years.
Caricom should be ready to begin talks in June after it completes a trade
and aid pact with the European Union, the bloc's Guyana-based secretariat said
in a statement.
Caribbean negotiators have been holding informal talks with a Canadian
parliamentary team in Barbados and Trinidad, it added.
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: British territory to adopt new accounting method to
track wealth
ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands (AP) -- This British Caribbean dependency
is adopting an accounting policy preferred by the private sector to better
reflect its wealth and obligations, the territory's top financial official has
announced.
Financial Secretary Neil Smith said the switch from cash accounting to
accrual accounting -- a system that determines revenues and expenses when a debt
is incurred rather than after a payment is made -- will take two years to fully
adopt.
"The government is the largest business in the territory and it needs high
quality financial information with which to manage itself," Smith said in a
statement. "Cash accounting is simply too poor a system to deliver that quality
of information."
The world's governments are increasingly adopting accrual accounting, which
international accounting experts recommend to best ensure reliability, he added.
Located just west of the U.S. Virgin Islands, this sun-soaked chain is a
thriving offshore financial center and enjoys one of the world's highest
per-capita gross domestic products.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Dominican officials approve sale of ethanol-blended
gasoline
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Dominican officials have
authorized the sale of ethanol-blended gasoline at gas stations across the
country, the secretary of industry and commerce has announced.
The decision to allow blends of 7.5 percent ethanol and 92.5 percent
gasoline is aimed at fighting rising fuel costs, with unleaded gasoline selling
for around $5 a gallon in the Caribbean nation.
Several companies have told the government they plan to import the fuel,
Secretary Melanio Paredes told the Dominican television program Hoy Mismo. He
also proposed to distribute low-energy light bulbs and convert vehicles to run
on compressed natural gas to reduce fuel consumption.
The country has been developing its own ethanol sector, building ethanol
plants with help from Belgium-based Alcogroup and other partners to reinvigorate
a declining sugar industry. Last year, Brazil's Infinity Bio-Energy Ltd. and
Dominican Bioetanol Boca Chica SA agreed to invest more than $200 million to
produce ethanol by 2009.
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