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Friday, November 24, 2017

Local NewsRegional/InternationalNews

The Grenadian VoiceEIB and CDB commit US$24 million to postdisaster reconstruction in the Caribbean

CARICOM chairman and Grenada’s Prime
Minister Dr Keith
Mitchell on Monday
November 13, welcomed the establishment of an emergency
post-disaster reconstruction financing
initiative to help theregion recover fromrecent hurricane
events.
Dr Mitchell, alsochairman of theCaribbean
Development Bank(CDB), was speaking
in Germany on thenew initiative between
the European
Investment Bank(EIB) and the CDB.
The arrangement
will support investments for infrastructure reconstruction
projects in theCaribbean in the wakeof the recent hurricanes.

“We welcome thesupport from ourpartners in the international community,and today we particularly want to thank theEuropean Investment

Bank for the support
it has provided over
the years to theCaribbean
Development Bank toassist its borrowing
member countries inaddressing the challenges of climatechange,” Prime
Minister Mitchell saidin the EIB/CDB eventon the margins of
COP23 in Bonn.

“We welcome thissupport and theopportunity it provides to promote sustainable development
and the use of lowcarbon technologies inthe pursuit of the goalof climate adaptationand to improve energy
efficiency and toexpand the use ofrenewable energy.”
The new US$24 million financing package
is an addition to theUS$120 million
Climate Action
Framework Loan II
signed in May thisyear, and which
remains the EIB’s biggest loan to theCaribbean.
“We see the need toCDB President Dr
Warren Smith and EIB
Vice President responsible for Climate
Action, Jonathan
Taylor, signed the newagreement during theUN Climate Change
Conference (COP 23)
in Bonn, Germany.

“In response to thedevastation caused byhurricanes in theregion in recent weeks,
the EIB and CDB rapidly agreed to commit
additional resources
to support reconstruction investment projects in the Caribbean,”said Taylor.

EIB Vice President responsible for Climate Action, Jonathan Taylor (left)
and CDB President, Dr. Warren Smith (right) sign the agreement in Bonn, “We stand committed to developing ourGermany on November 13, 2017
fruitful 40-year partre-examine our soveraccess to innovative
Borrowing Member
nership with CDB, toeign debt regime insources of finance”
Countries’ vulnerabili- support climate-resillight of these natural
ty to future natural
ient projects in the
Eligible investments disasters and worsendisasters, which create
Caribbean
and to help
under the new loan
additional debt buring climate change
toadequately
tacklewill include infradens and more fiscal
impacts.
thechallenges
relatedand economic trauma,” structure reconstructo
climatechange.
”tion, with a focus on
As well as, infraDr Mitchell said.
“building back better”
structure financing toCDB President“We also see theand integrating clicommunities for lowWarren Smith said:
need to re-examine
mate risk and vulnera- carbon and climate“The 2017 hurricane
our regional resilience bility assessments into resilience measuresseason was one of theinfrastructure like our the projects.
such as, improved
most devastating theinsurance facilities;
water resource manCaribbean has everThis will help
risk management
agement are also fore- experienced, andreduce the Bank’s
mechanisms; andseen.
underscored theurgent need for investment in climate-resilient infrastructure in
our region. The signing of this agreement
is another milestone
in our longstanding
partnership with EIB,
and will facilitate
CDB’s increased support for resilient
reconstruction in theCaribbean.”To date, CDB hascommitted all of theresources under the
first Climate Action
Line of Credit - USD
65.6 million - forseven projects. This
co-financing is associated with total project
financing of USD 191
million.
Since CDB’s Climate
Resilience Strategy
was approved in 2012,
58% of projects
financed have included climate change
adaptation and/ormitigation elements inthe climate-sensitive
sectors of Water,Education,Agriculture, andPhysical Infrastructuresuch as, sea defences,drainage, and roads.

Japan seeks to address issue of declining population
By Anisha SamuelTOKYO, Japan -Soon, there may be anincrease in the numberof highly skilled foreign professionals
accepted to work andeventually gain permanent residence inJapan, as the country
seeks to address theissue of a declining
workforce and an
aging population.
Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe's policy
team and lawmakers
are currently looking
into the options toaddress this problem.
According to aJanuary 2017 article in
The Japan Times, “A
total of 6,298 foreign
nationals were certified as highly skilled
professionals as of theend of October lastyear. Of them, about
one-third are expected
to be able to gain the[permanent] status ina year under the new[Japanese immigrationcontrol] system,
according to theJustice ministry.”

In an interview withforeign journalists apart of the 2017 APICFPCJ PacificCaribbean Journalists’Programme in October,President of theForeign Press Centre
Japan (FPCJ), Kiyotaka
Akasaka, pointed out
that, chief among
Japan’s challenges is anaging society andreduction in the production of children.
Japan’s current population is about 127
million, and Mr
Akasaka said that
number is declining,at work. There is also
the need for educationof young people
regarding the importance of getting married and having children, he said.

Mr Akasaka said
years ago whenarranged marriages
were the order of theday, it accounted for
80% of marriages but
today marriage is left
up to individuals, who
are working and busy
otherwise.

L-R: Shoji Sato and Kiyotaka Akasaka. Photo by Waka Photos.

noting that in “20-30years’ time we expectthat number will bebelow 100 million.”“Japan is shrinking,”he added.

Mr Akasaka said
Japan’s birth rate
stands at 1.41% whereas it needs to be at
2.1% to maintain its
population size.
Nonetheless, he said

government is trying
to increase this via
social programmessuch as having more
daycare centres so thatbabies can be cared forwhile the mothers are

Other challenges asmentioned byAssociation for
Promotion ofInternational
Corporation (APIC)
Executive Director,
Ambassador Shoji Sato
include human rights,
recent threats of North
Korea, industrial
developments, particu-larly regarding technology, and natural
disasters – namely
earthquakes and tsunamis.

Despite the challenges, Mr Akasaka pointed to a number ofimprovements thecountry has made overthe past 30 years.
These include advances in the water and air
quality in major cities,
a high quality of life, adramatic reduction intraffic accidents andmeasures to reduce
sexual harassment ofwomen such as the useof ‘female only’ train
and subway cars during rush hours.
In addition, Mr
Akasaka said Japan is asafe place to live. To
date, Japan records lessthan 5000 fatalities peryear, he noted.