Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 14, 2021 (SKNIS): Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, has hailed the citizenship by investment (CBI) programme as being successful in attracting businesses to the Federation.
During his Monthly Press Conference on January 14, 2021, at the National Emergency Management Agency’s (NEMA) conference room, he said that “When we look in our local domain we see a number of businesses coming on stream by Chinese, the principals behind them are all citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis, and they have come through that particular route,” said the Honourable Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Harris noted that an example of this success is the principal of the Galaxy Hotel gaining his citizenship through the CBI programme.
He said, “Just last week we had the grand opening of the Lans Kitchen Restaurant in Frigate Bay, a new upscale cuisine being added to the menu of services offerings here in St. Kitts and Nevis and the lady behind that again is a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis.”
“So, we have a wide range of interest in our CBI programme, that is why it has become the platinum brand because persons from everywhere have come and have participated with respect to the CBI programme,” said Prime Minister Harris.
He stated that the persons who come to the programme are from all walks of life and hail from a variety of different countries including the United States of America, Canada, Russia, China, and “almost every area of the globe, the programme has found attraction.”
He explained however that the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis does not discriminate from countries making applications to the programme except for three countries.
“For example, Iran is one such country, North Korea is one such country, these internationally have been described as or prescribed as countries that have an international black mark,” said the Prime Minister.
“Because we do not wish to incur any reputational damage, we have taken the decision as a new Government to not entertain applicants from persons resident in North Korea and Iran,” he said.
“Iran for a long time has been described as a state sponsor of terrorism and we would not want our CBI programme to get involved or be intermingled in any such accusations which regard to the applicants,” said Prime Minister Harris.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 02, 2020 (SKNIS): The Embassy of the Republic of China (ROC) (Taiwan) held its annual Monetary Taiwanese Scholarship Ceremony on December 02, where 174 students were awarded scholarships, 130 from St. Kitts and 44 from Nevis, from primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions.
His Excellency, Tom Chih-Chiang Lee, Resident Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to St. Kitts and Nevis, said that education is wealth and encouraged the students to continue doing well in their studies.
“If you look at the mirror, you are the one responsible for your studies,” he said to the students. “There is no doubt that education is wealth because education is your passport to the future and also your key to your success. Don’t forget you are also the ones responsible for your studies. Your parents cannot do it for you. Your teachers cannot do it for you. They can only help you. So I want to encourage you to continue doing your good jobs and don’t forget our Government also provides scholarships for you to pursue higher education. So, I would like to encourage you to apply for a scholarship in the future.”
Ambassador Lee said that ROC (Taiwan) is always willing to help St. Kitts and Nevis develop its human resources.
“Our Embassy will continue to work with the Ministry of Education to further deepen our cooperation in education for the benefit of our two great peoples,” he said.
Minister of Education, the Honourable Jonel Powell, said that the Government and people of the Republic of China (Taiwan) have established and maintained a relationship with the people of St. Kitts and Nevis spanning more than 30 years.
“Given the global financial climate, it is no small feat that the Government of Taiwan has honoured its commitment to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis by ensuring that the 2020 scholarships are granted,” said Minister Powell. “Remarkably 174 recipients will benefit from a significant sum of money to aid in their academic advancement.”
The Minister said that in addition to the scholarships, during the month of September, 13 nationals were awarded Taiwanese Scholarships to pursue Undergraduate, Masters, and Doctoral Studies in Taiwan.
“The munificence of the Taiwanese people must be commended,” he said. “The Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis are internally grateful for the generosity and courtesies extended to us by them.”
The Education Minister noted that through collaborations such as these, the Government is able to fulfill its mandate to provide avenues to which its people may empower themselves.
]]>WENCHANG, China (Reuters) – China successfully launched an unmanned probe to Mars on Thursday in its first independent mission to another planet, a bid for global leadership in space and a display of its technological prowess and ambition.
China’s largest carrier rocket, the Long March 5 Y-4, blasted off with the probe at 12:41 p.m. (0441 GMT) from Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan.
The probe is expected to reach Mars in February where it will attempt to deploy a rover to explore the planet for 90 days.
If successful, the Tianwen-1, or “Questions to Heaven”, which is the name of a poem written two millennia ago, will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover in its inaugural mission.
There will be challenges ahead as the craft nears Mars, Liu Tongjie, spokesman for the mission, told reporters ahead of the launch.
“When arriving in the vicinity of Mars, it is very critical to decelerate,” he said.
“If the deceleration process is not right, or if flight precision is not sufficient, the probe would not be captured by Mars,” he said, referring to gravity on Mars taking the craft down to the surface
Liu said the probe would orbit Mars for about two and a half months and look for an opportunity to enter its atmosphere and make a soft landing.
“Entering, deceleration and landing (EDL) is a very difficult (process). We believe China’s EDL process can still be successful, and the spacecraft can land safely,” Liu said.
Eight spacecraft – American, European and Indian – are either orbiting Mars or on its surface with other missions underway or planned.
The United Arab Emirates launched a mission to Mars on Monday, an orbiter that will study the planet’s atmosphere.
The United States has plans to send a probe in coming months that will deploy a rover called Perseverance, the biggest, heaviest, most advanced vehicle sent to the Red Planet by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
China’s probe will carry several scientific instruments to observe the planet’s atmosphere and surface, searching for signs of water and ice.
China previously made a Mars bid in 2011 with Russia, but the Russian spacecraft carrying the probe failed to exit the Earth’s orbit and disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean.
A fourth planned launch for Mars, the EU-Russian ExoMars, was postponed for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic and technical issues.
]]>London, July 6th, 2020 (BBC): Authorities in China have stepped up precautions after a city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region confirmed one case of bubonic plague.
According to state reports, the Bayannur patient – a herdsman – is in quarantine and in a stable condition.
Officials said they were also investigating a second suspected case, according to China’s Global Times.
The bubonic plague was once the world’s most feared disease, but can now be easily treated.
The first case was reported as suspected bubonic plague on Saturday at a hospital in Urad Middle Banner, in Bayannur city. It is not yet clear how or why the patient might have become infected.
The second suspected case involves a 15-year-old, who had apparently been in contact with a marmot hunted by a dog, a tweet from Global Times said.
A level 3 alert, which forbids the hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague and calls on the public to report suspected cases, has been put in place until the end of the year.
Bubonic plague, caused by bacterial infection, was responsible for one of the deadliest epidemics in human history – the Black Death – which killed about 50 million people across Africa, Asia and Europe in the 14th Century.
There have been a handful of large outbreaks since. It killed about a fifth of London’s population during the Great Plague of 1665, while more than 12 million died in outbreaks during the 19th Century in China and India.
But nowadays it can be treated by antibiotics. Left untreated, the disease – which is typically transmitted from animals to humans by fleas – has a 30-60% fatality rate.
Symptoms of the plague include high fever, chills, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit or groin.
Bubonic cases are rare, but there are still a few flare-ups of the disease from time to time.
Madagascar saw more than 300 cases during an outbreak in 2017. However, a study in medical journal The Lancet found less than 30 people died.
In May last year, two people in the country of Mongolia died from the plague, which they contracted after eating the raw meat of a marmot – the same type of rodent the second suspected case came into contact with.
However, it’s unlikely any cases will lead to an epidemic.
“Unlike in the 14th Century, we now have an understanding of how this disease is transmitted,” Dr Shanti Kappagoda, an infectious diseases doctor at Stanford Health Care, told news site Heathline.
“We know how to prevent it. We are also able to treat patients who are infected with effective antibiotics.”
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