Caribbean Times 34th Issue - Friday 11th November 2016
Caribbean Times 34th Issue - Friday 11th November 2016
Caribbean Times 34th Issue - Friday 11th November 2016
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4 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g<br />
<strong>Friday</strong> <strong>11th</strong> <strong>November</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />
ECCB takes up de-risking issue<br />
By Everton Barnes<br />
The issue of de-risking that has<br />
occupied the attention of <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />
governments and banking institutions<br />
over the past year, is a focal point at<br />
this week’s 27 th annual conference of<br />
the Eastern <strong>Caribbean</strong> Central Bank<br />
(ECCB) now underway in St Kitts.<br />
Head of the ECCB Unit in Antigua,<br />
Albert Lockhart, as well as the<br />
President of the Antigua and Barbuda<br />
Bankers Association, Michael Spencer,<br />
are in St. Kitts attending the meeting<br />
which concludes today.<br />
They are among managers and<br />
other senior officers from commercial<br />
banks and non-bank financial institutions<br />
which operate in the Eastern <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />
Central Union and the wider<br />
<strong>Caribbean</strong> attending the conference.<br />
A release from the bank said this<br />
year the conference is being held under<br />
the theme: The Way Forward:<br />
By Joanna Paris<br />
As Antigua and Barbuda prepares<br />
to commemorate World Diabetes<br />
Day on Monday, the Antigua<br />
and Barbuda Diabetes Association,<br />
will be hosting a walk on Saturday.<br />
Public Relations Officer of the<br />
Association, Theolinda Charles,<br />
has indicated that the activity is designed<br />
to encourage persons to practice<br />
living a healthy lifestyle, which<br />
begins with exercising regularly and<br />
eating well. The walk is scheduled<br />
to begin at 5:30 am and Charles invites<br />
everyone to attend.<br />
The logo for World Diabetes Day<br />
is a blue circle, the global symbol<br />
Commercial Banks in a New Environment.<br />
The sessions will focus on three<br />
of the major issues which affect the<br />
banking sector currently:<br />
The Impact and Solution for<br />
De-Risking;<br />
The Progress on Basel II and the<br />
International Financial Reporting<br />
Standard (IFRS9) and Credit and the<br />
Macro-environment.<br />
According to the release the ECCB<br />
began hosting the annual conference<br />
with commercial banks in 1990. The<br />
conference serves as a forum for discussing<br />
issues which are critical to the<br />
development of the region’s financial<br />
and banking sector.<br />
Recently, Prime Minister Gaston<br />
Browne hosted a major regional conference<br />
on the issue of de-risking and<br />
correspondent bank relations which<br />
are under threat from mainly major<br />
US Banks.<br />
Residents encouraged to<br />
support World Diabetes<br />
Day Walk on Saturday<br />
for diabetes.<br />
World Diabetes Day was<br />
launched in 1991 in response to the<br />
rapid rise of diabetes around the<br />
world.<br />
This year, World Diabetes Day is<br />
being celebrated by over 230 associations<br />
in more than 160 countries<br />
and territories, as well as by other<br />
organizations, companies, healthcare<br />
professionals, politicians, celebrities,<br />
and people living with diabetes<br />
and their families.<br />
Activities will include diabetes<br />
screening programmes, radio and<br />
television campaigns and sports<br />
events.<br />
Equivalence<br />
assessment<br />
By ABNAB<br />
The expression ‘the world is now a<br />
global village’ is often used by persons<br />
who marvel at how lives, cultures and economic<br />
and political systems of the nations<br />
of the world have become so closely connected,<br />
even intertwined in fact.<br />
People in our region have embraced<br />
the opportunity afforded by jet travel to<br />
visit and all parts of the world. Differences<br />
in language are now no longer considered<br />
to be barriers. Places which some time ago<br />
were considered ‘far flung’ or ‘on the other<br />
side of the world’ and therefore inaccessible<br />
to us, are now just hours away.<br />
We in Antigua and Barbuda have nationals<br />
attending universities in non-English<br />
speaking countries and in unfamiliar<br />
educational systems.<br />
This results in graduates returning to<br />
their home territories with qualifications<br />
that may not be readily understood and so<br />
they may encounter difficulties when they<br />
seek employment or a promotion at work<br />
or when they try to gain admission to other<br />
educational institutions if they want to<br />
pursue further study.<br />
Often, the literal translation of non-English<br />
documents does not provide the<br />
clarity needed. It may even be that documents<br />
from education institutions in some<br />
English-speaking countries need to be<br />
assessed. These qualifications have to be<br />
evaluated and explained in terms that local<br />
persons can relate to.<br />
Equivalence assessment is one of the<br />
services offered by ABNAB. We are able<br />
to provide an interpretation of what the<br />
foreign or unfamiliar qualifications mean<br />
when measured against the familiar standards.<br />
At ABNAB we also assist clients<br />
who have successfully completed a number<br />
of short courses and want an assessment<br />
of their currency, as well as others<br />
with a variety of equivalency concerns.