PetroCaribe is an integration initiative created in June 2005 for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is expressed in concrete achievements through energy cooperation and founded on an equal exchange programme between member countries. PetroCaribe promotes the socioeconomic development of the region affording participating countries the opportunity to purchase fuel from Venezuela under highly concessionary financing terms and to utilize the “savings” to fund social programmes designed to improve the quality of life with particular emphasis on the vulnerable. PetroCaribe has its guiding principles union, solidarity, cooperation, complementarity and view towards the south. Even though at times ALBA and PetroCaribe are used interchangeable, ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America, is a separate grouping. It was started in 2004, one year before PetroCaribe, by Venezuela and Cuba as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It seeks to accomplish regional economic integration based on a vision of social welfare and mutual economic aid.
There is also a Debt Compensation component of the PetroCaribe Agreement that offers member countries the option of paying for fuel with goods and services. This allows for the stimulation of local agricultural production and/or the exposure of the island’s tourism and educational products through the offering of tourism and educational packages as payment on fuel invoices.
Since its incorporation in 2005, PDV CAB has launched a number of social programmes. It contributed to the completion of the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds in 2007 in preparation for the Cricket World Cup and funded relief efforts after Hurricane Omar in 2008. Also in 2008 the Small Scale Enterprise Development Project at the GARD Centre received funding for the construction of solar fruit and vegetable dryers and an entrepreneurial training programme in the production of solar dried fruits and vegetables.
In addition, PDV CAB funded the upgrade of the Codrington Airport in Barbuda working along with the Antigua and Barbuda Airport Authority to see the overlaying, widening, lengthening, remarking and lighting of the runway. Also for Barbuda, PDV CAB funds an LPG Subsidy that covers the full cost of transporting both the 20lb and 100lb cylinders from Antigua to Barbuda preventing this cost from being passed on to Barbudan consumers.
The two flag ship projects with which persons may be more familiar are The Senior Citizens Utility Subsidy Programme and People's Benefit Programme. The SCUSP was started in 2008 and is open to all pensioners with the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Scheme. It consists of a monthly subsidy of $100 applied to utility bills. There are currently over 4,600 beneficiaries on this programme. Registration for this programme is done twice per year in May and November. The PBP started in 2009; utilizes a debit card to provide a food subsidy to the economically disadvantaged and persons with disabilities. Persons desirous of receiving the benefit must first submit applications at the office on Long St. which are then reviewed for approval. Beneficiaries receive a sum of $215 each month which is used to purchase food and selected personal items from CMC, Antigua Fisheries, Spencer’s Supermarket in Liberta and Aunt Mem’s Supermarket in Bolans. In Barbuda the card can be used at Nedd’s and Fancy Way Supermarkets. Currently there are just over 1,660 beneficiaries of the PBP and since its inception over 2,000 Antiguans and Barbudans have benefitted.
The two flag ship projects with which persons may be more familiar are The Senior Citizens Utility Subsidy Programme and People's Benefit Programme. The SCUSP was started in 2008 and is open to all pensioners with the Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Scheme. It consists of a monthly subsidy of $100 applied to utility bills. There are currently over 4,600 beneficiaries on this programme. Registration for this programme is done twice per year in May and November. The PBP started in 2009; utilizes a debit card to provide a food subsidy to the economically disadvantaged and persons with disabilities. Persons desirous of receiving the benefit must first submit applications at the office on Long St. which are then reviewed for approval. Beneficiaries receive a sum of $215 each month which is used to purchase food and selected personal items from CMC, Antigua Fisheries, Spencer’s Supermarket in Liberta and Aunt Mem’s Supermarket in Bolans. In Barbuda the card can be used at Nedd’s and Fancy Way Supermarkets. Currently there are just over 1,660 beneficiaries of the PBP and since its inception over 2,000 Antiguans and Barbudans have benefitted.
The Antigua and Barbuda Water Infrastructural Development Project is financed by the ALBA Caribe Fund and coordinated by PDV CAB. This Project has as its main objectives the replacing of over 97,000 feet of deteriorating galvanized steel and cast iron mainlines on the island of Antigua with PVC pipes and the extension of the water distribution system by 17,000 feet into previously un-serviced areas. The other
deliverables include increasing the water storage capacity of Antigua by 4.0 million imperial gallons and the installation of a seawater reverse osmosis plant at Ffryes Beach to increase the island’s water production capacity by 600,000 imperial gallons per day. This plant was commissioned in November of 2011 and has the capability of improving the water supply to approximately 20,000 residents. On the island of Barbuda, the project will increase the water storage capacity by 150,000 imperial gallons and the water production capacity by 100,000 gallons per day. The reverse osmosis plant currently under construction in Barbuda is on schedule to be completed shortly and will greatly improve the quality and supply of potable water on the Sister Island where presently there is a 12-hour-per-day supply.
