The Dominica Association of Industry & Commerce (DAIC) and the Dominica Manufacturers Association (DMA) are saddened by the decision of Colgate-Palmolive to cease its Dominica operation, Dominica Coconut Products Ltd. (DCP).
Dominica Coconut Products Ltd. has been a household name and a vital part of the national economy for decades, providing employment, and playing a key role in the manufacturing sector. With significant levels of exports, DCP has contributed to the country’s foreign exchange and overall, contributed significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
The DAIC and the DMA empathize with the 94 employees who have lost their jobs as a result of the closure of the Plant and support the Government’s call to Colgate-Palmolive to go beyond the legal mandate and consider providing additional financial and other benefits to those employees who have lost their jobs.
When members of the DAIC Executive visited the Dominica Coconut Products in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Erika and witnessed first-hand the magnitude of the impact caused by the flooding at the Plant, unfortunately, the potential risk to this investment was evident.
Understanding the significant role DCP plays, as a manufacturer and exporter, to Dominica’s economy the DAIC saw the urgency of giving DCP’s predicament national visibility, engaging the Government to ensure that due consideration be given to facilitate any support that DCP needed to remain part of the Dominican economic landscape.
Unfortunately, the company has decided to cease its operations in Dominica and with this comes another blow to our currently fledgling economy, through loss of revenues to key areas such as the Dominica Air & Seaport Authority (DASPA).
The DAIC and DMA call for both public and private sectors to challenge themselves to encourage more foreign direct investment into Dominica. Both Associations see the urgent need to confront longstanding issues such as inadequate supply of raw materials, absence of adequate financing solutions, and human resource challenges which continue to plague our economy and by extension our development.
Both Associations stand ready and willing to be part of the decision making process undertaken to address the economic challenges Dominica faces now and in the future.
The Real Facts Dominica is the only country where a prime Minister tell its people It is not of their Damn Business where they get their money GO HELL……
“EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY.” Change must come. I’ve seen many pompous and vain leaders come to naught. So, the reality is, they all live out their time; good or bad. King Solomon said, “There is a time for everything under the Sun.” I must add, the heart of a man, and what’s inside his heart is clearly visible on his visage. Only if we all could discern that.
Dominica is not the only country of business-closure. What makes it bad is that D/ca is a small country and cannot afford business-closure and the people, loss of jobs.
Just think, when employees in so-called progressive countries lose their jobs, they do not call the government lazy and other derogatory words. If they are entitled to pension and compensation, they will receive same.
They are aware they must apply for employment benefits which they contributed. Their application will be processed and they will be informed of their unemployment entitlement.
In the meantime, they are expected to job-hunt. Most, if not all of them will immediately commence job-hunting for the benefit they will receive will be insufficient for their livelihood unless they saved some money. If they did, E. I. will take this into consideration including whatever amount they received from their employer. This will decrease E.I. entitlement. There is more. . . .
Just think, when employees in so-called progressive countries lose their jobs, they do not call the government lazy and other derogatory words. If they are entitled to pension and compensation, they will receive same.(The Facts).
Here you are again talking nonsense, if I level you with the truth you will accuse me of disrespecting you , and your shadow Elizabeth will come calling me parasite, and reptile and rodent!
You see you are again passing the blame unto the people while Skerrit and his government are the cause of business closer in Dominica. If you lived in America, in the last days of George W. Bush, when America was loosing more than a million jobs per month; you might have heard the names people called Bush, and the Republicans!
Americans including me , did not take the crap with a smile as you expect Dominicans to do. We went to the poles and sent the Republicans home to sit on they behind. Before the elections the housing industry under bush collapsed, the…
Before the elections the housing industry under bush collapsed, the total economy was in shambles, at the brink of collapsing, which rippled all over North and South America, and all of Europe, where countries such as Grease are still struggling to make a comeback.
We elected Obama who brought the country back from the edge; I can tell you I had a property valued at almost two million dollars of which the value plummeted from one million two hundred thousand dollars in one day to less than two hundred thousand dollars. Since we elected Obama in less than eight years, the economy of he country has recovered, all of my properties which lost their values are right bake to where they were, and cost more today. Latest static\’s show the country to date is producing almost a million jobs per month.
You all want Skerrit, stick with Skerrit, but he will sink the country, because Skerrit doesn\’t what he is doing! Everything the man puts his hands on turns to ashes! One example is…
One example is the Melville Hall Airport, and the most recent is the Moroccan Guest House! Rise up against Skerrit; set the people and country free, installing new leaders, and let\’s see the difference, nobody can do worst than Skerrit!
you forgot the vast amount of job opportunities that is in those countries, u lose one now and get one tomorrow…. in dominica, KWAPO SMOKE YOUR PIPE.
Telemaque, you are in the US and I am in Canada. Our employment laws of all are different. I did not refer to the US because I do not reside in the US.
I am experienced in the Laws of the country I reside in.
I have no wish to refer to the PM. Everything for you and some others is to blame him. It is ignorance and wickedness to consistently blame him.
Know that I am not passing the blame on anyone. I stated, because an employer shuts his doors on employees, it is no reason to blame the PM. I am also not blaming the employees.
Your problem is, you do not read properly and digest what is stated. Know that, what I stated is a fact which some could learn from. Some people are too naive.
You expect the PM to open some businesses and employ nationals? Tell that to the public sector, those who own businesses and entrepreneurs.
Stop blaming the PM for everything. It is not fair to him.
Place yourself in his position. Would you or other critics do any better?
I visualize that they will get much more financial assistance from the PM than if they were in the US or Canada and could get from their employer and the government, namely the Canadian Employment Insurance. They want to know how much money you have in the bank, any personal assets and other pension. Someone informed me about that. They are told to use their money and are given a certain time to report to E.I. and to renew their application, if they are unemployed. What they receive is not much.
According to E.I., they give what they conclude the applicant is entitled to and nothing more. Therefore I know what I stated.
Those who reside in a country should know the goings-on in the country.
The D/cans who lost their jobs may benefit much more from the help the PM will give them than if they were in Canada or the US.
We must tell it like it is. Really, Dominican nationals do not know how fortunate they are.
You see; here is the problem with Dominicans; and their baloney crap talk: everybody will come out crying about how sad they are! We can be as sad as we all wish, our sadness will not prevent the company from leaving Skerrit and his mess behind?
There has to be a reason why Colgate-Palmolive is leaving, I suggest if they require concessions, the government should bend backwards, and give them whatsoever they want, as long as it is going to save the 94 jobs! The people who are loosing their jobs should take precedence over anything that will benefit Skerrit, and the rest of his cabalists!
The people pays income tax we hope!
Anybody, government, or private Dominican who may takeover, are going to fail. Reason, the word marketing is foreign to our people, when they are talking about marketing in Dominica, the talk is exclusively pertaining to Dominica.
The company already have a market for the products they produce, rather than talk crap about sadness, talk with the company,…
Talk with the company, and find a way to keep them in the country. If Skerrit is incapable of negotiating and getting and cause them to remain, he Skerrit should resign!
The only thing I suspect might be pushing them out of the country might be a lack of an International Airport. If they prefer to ship by air, LIAT cannot accommodate that, everyone who wish to do business in the country, may not wish to tolerate, our primitive, and backwards way of doing business; after all, the rest of the world is in the twenty-first century!
Dominica is an island which represents the sixteenth-century, hence we are the nature island of the world!
he is a good negotiator, remember the 19 hours in china? lol
There is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s sad that the employees will lose their jobs and the economy in the short term, will lose foreign exchange and tax revenue.However one of the bright lights at the end of the tunnel, is the fact that the coconut and its byproducts are finding renewed interest,especially as health supplements. As such the oil lobby in the USA has failed to label coconut as bad.
Given the repositioning of coconut and its numerous byproducts, the private sector in Dominica, working with the public sector has an opportunity to redesign the coconut industry in Dominica and give it It’s pride of place once again.We don’t need to only focus on the product mix that Colgate Palmolive had.Health supplements are high priced items so developing a wide range of these products will help the coconut industry to bounce back bigger and better than it ever was.Go for it Dominica and make lemonade out of lemons.
bring back the banana! Find a US market – It’s 49 US cents per pound when the market is flooded. Oh, the PM only have his babies their, and he knows jolly well that the US won’t go bananas over his banana.
Carcon, Dominica have no bandwagon. Not even a train for the labour representative from the St. Thomas. You are lucky to join a pipiwi that uses no gas.
Are their any genuine manufacturers left in Dominica or should the DMA be wound up by default?
A man who goes to poor countries with (one or two billionaires there thtbhecwants to catch) selling passports to bring money to his pockets is a damn shame on Dominica. That place was already 2015AD, just add another 2015 years.mby my math, Dominica is living in 4030AD.MTHE MAN IS KILLING THEM UNDER HIS WATCH. Pretty soon, they will e taking peep wee out, just like the Syrian refugees. I am in the US, very saddened by the situation at home.i bleed for my country
Nou fini bat.
This closure was long coming. Ever since Palmolive bought DCP they had the intention of closing. They bought it because it was one of their biggest competitor on the international market. This is not politics but an American company doing what they do best, deprived poorer nations of economic development.
were you on the board to this privilege information.
shut all you mouth DAIC and DMA. When people were talking about growing the economy and the negative effects of corruption you all never said a word. now all you sadden? Shut all you mouth boy
So, what is the business community going to do about this? Raising capital from your membership? Buyout proposal in the works? Issuing shares to the public for sale (sign me up)?
These are the kind of closure and for closures we have come to expect under this spineless Dumb Lazy Party (DLP). It is time for Skeritt (Mr. Pharaoh) to leave the P.M. position which was not rendered to him by the people of Dominica but by travelling assailants that were paid to come and vote. Skeritt has outlived his shelf life. His mentality is a disease for the country. His thinking is old fashion, outdated, expired, unwarranted, and too cave man like. This is 2015, not 2015 B.C. That guy mentality so backward is like he thinking in black and white. No color, no creativity, no innovation, and a serious lack of ideas. We are Dominicans, we are not the Flintstones. We are not Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Pebbles living in a cave in Bedrock. Time for the caveman business to stop. I am half Trinidadian and I truthfully tell you that every time I travel from T&T to Dominica it feels like I went from civilization to Stone Age.
You are so right on point!!!
I have said it already brother/sister. was never Prime Minister material, and even today he in not! SkerritSkerrit never even managed his own Sole Trader shop., I doubt he had the ability to do any business subject at college.Absolutely nobody who went to school with him remembers him as a bright person.Without any struggle, the incompetent man was placed on a throne. DOMINICA IS PAYING FOR THAT IN AN EXPENSIVE WAY. The worst is yet to come, for those who are calling him God!!! HOW LONG? NOT LONG!!!!
A lot of stupid comments from biased, lazy minds.
Another sad story, people losing jobs. When will Dominicans wake up , our country is slowly losing ground. We are no longer attractive to business people. We need to catch up on the band wagon.
Major companies will continue to pull out because it is not profitable for them to operate in DA. DA is actually a money drain. Until the attitudes of the people change as well as the governmental practices, it will attract no outside business.
Doesn’t sound good, thought things were nice and dandy. We have hope