The Trinidad government bailed out CLICO last year

The Trinidad and Tobago government has been outlining new measures to address the financial problems plaguing the regional conglomerate, Clico.

The government in Port of Spain was forced to bail out the investment company following its collapse last year.

In his budget address on Wednesday, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration will separate the insurance business from the short term investment and mutual funds to protect insurance policy holders.

Mr Dookeran said the government will also make an initial payment of TT $75,000 (US $12,500) to depositors in the short term investment and mutual funds.

Focus on food security

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is seeking alternative sources of wheat and wheat products amid concerns of a shortage on the world market, following Russia's decision to halt exports.

This year's drought in Moscow sparked thousands of fires and also cost the country a third of its wheat crop, prompting a state ban on exports till the end of the year.

St Vincent's Chief Agriculture Officer, Reuben Robertson, said his department is also taking steps to ensure food security locally.

Mr Robertson added he is aware that adverse weather conditions are affecting food production worldwide, and that in turn could result in higher food prices.

Pancap meets

Member countries of the Pan Caribbean Partnership on HIV and Aids (Pancap) are meeting in Jamaica over the next two days to, among other things, review progress of their anti-HIV and Aids programmes.

Grenada's Health Minister Ann Peters will chair the meeting, which will also seek to finalise the PANCAP Global Fund Agreement.

The agreement is to be signed at the end of this month.

In November last year the Global Fund approved over $31 million in funding for a proposed Pancap programme.

UNDP cites inequality

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says Latin America and the Caribbean has the world's highest rate of socio-economic inequalities.

A new report from the UNDP says the region has 65% more inequalities than wealthy countries, and up to 35% more than developing countries.

The UN agency says inequality in the region depends greatly on ethnic origins, sex, place of residence and access to services and basic infrastructure.

The report comes a decade after world leaders adopted the UN's Millennium Development Goals, including reducing by half, the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015.

The UN says some targets have not been met and in some cases are unlikely to be met.

The areas of concern are education, maternal health and mortality, the threat of HIV/Aids and gender equality, particularly in politics.