A prominent Puerto Rican banker is urging private sector leaders to join an alliance to help boost the United States island's ailing economy by providing training and assistance to local businesses.
Luis Beauchamp, chief of First Bancorp, said on Wednesday that his alliance, dubbed the "Business Movement," could help spur private sector development and create jobs in Puerto Rico, where July jobless claims pushed the unemployment rate to a soaring 16.5 per cent.
"We've had our heads buried in the sand like an ostrich. We have stayed in the Lamento Borincano,"' he said, referring to an old song about the hardships of a Puerto Rican peasant. "The only way to solve this crisis is by joining hands to get the wheels running."
The veteran banker, who joined First Bancorp in 1990 and was appointed as president and CEO in 2005, said helping the private sector grow could allow island businesses to absorb public employees laid off by the administration of Gov Luis Fortuno.
Fortuno, who accuses the administration of previous Gov Anibal Acevedo Vila of mismanaging finances and helping create a US$3.2 billion budget deficit, has announced cuts of 30,000 public sector jobs as he tries to close a budget deficit and right the economy.
Puerto Rico reaches 16.5% unemployment
Labour officials say Puerto Rico's July jobless claims reached 19,000 and pushed the unemployment rate to 16.5 per cent.
Puerto Rico's Department of Labour says total unemployment benefit rolls stand at 219,000 for the tropical island of nearly four million residents.
Labour secretary Miguel Romero says in a Sunday statement that "this rate of unemployment is a reflection of the economic situation that is being experienced at a worldwide level."
Authorities say the United States territory is in its third consecutive year of recession.
Puerto Rico's economy contracted 5.5 per cent in the fiscal year ending June 30.
Governor Luis Fortuno has announced cuts of 30,000 public sector jobs as he tries to close a budget deficit and right the economy.
Caribbean seeks unified position on climate change
Caribbean nations plan to develop strategies to bring more attention to the vulnerability of low-lying countries to rising sea levels.
The 15-nation Caricom announced it will hold a regional meeting September in St Lucia to seek a unified position ahead of a United Nations climate change summit in Denmark in December.
Trade bloc spokesman Garfield Barnwell said Tuesday that the threat of rising sea levels is the grouping's key point.
More than half the Caribbean's population lives within a mile of the coast.
A recent World Bank report listed six countries in the region as among the most vulnerable to rising seas: Suriname, Guyana, Jamaica, Belize, The Bahamas and Haiti.
Richardson visits Cuba
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said Wednesday that he's just a governor on a trade mission and carries no message from the United States government as he visits Cuba this week.
But he does plan to report his impressions to President Barack Obama. Richardson spoke outside Havana while visiting Ernest Hemingway's former home, where he donated a replica of a telephone used by Hemingway to curators on behalf of his state.
He said all US citizens should be able to visit such cultural gems.
"I think enhancing cultural and artistic and educational ties is a prelude to diplomatic and commercial ties. It always happens that way," Richardson told The Associated Press.
"I'm for enhanced tourism travel for Americans." Richardson said that travel should go beyond the so-called people-to-people educational and cultural contacts promoted by the Bill Clinton administration.
Richardson insisted he is not in Cuba on Washington's behalf and is not bringing any message from the US government.
But he is meeting with senior Cuban officials, including a scheduled encounter Thursday with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and a Monday meeting with Ricardo Alarcon, president of parliament.
- AP reports