The Jamaican government has imposed a levy on incoming international calls, from which it expects to earn one billion Jamaican dollars to facilitate the creation of a Universal Service Fund to finance the implementation of the national e-learning project. The levy, which becomes effective on June 1, will have all telecommunications carriers pay $0.03 per minute on all incoming international calls terminating on the fixed wired networks, and US$0.02 on all incoming international calls terminating on the cellular networks.

The dollar fell back as profit taking set in after the US currency hit a seven-month high against the euro. The single European currency bought 1.2583 dollars earlier this week from 1.2558 late last week in New York. "People have been buying dollars so much recently that we´ve just had a bit of a technical correction," said Gary Noone at Informa Global Markets, in an effort to explain the euro´s rise.

The eighth session of the Cuba-Grenada Joint Commission came to a close Wednesday as it achieved reactivation and strengthening of cooperation in health, education, culture, construction and civil defense. Among the standout agreements, the Cuban commitment to contribute to the creation of a civil defense system in the Caribbean island nation for the early detection of natural phenomena, training and recovery of people is worth noticing.

Dominica will not survive in the global economy if the Caribbean island´s annual growth rate does not double, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday. From 2001 to 2003, Dominica´s negative annual growth rate averaged about 5 percent. Last year, the economy grew 3.49 percent and is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year.

Sol Meliá SA said net profit rose to 14.6 million euros in the first quarter to March 31 from 6.9 million euros a year earlier, driven by a positive performance from its overseas hotels. In a statement, Sol Meliá said sales rose 10 percent to 262 million euros in the first quarter from 238 million euros a year earlier, as EBITDA climbed 16 percent to 71 million euros from 61 million euros.

The international hotel chain Hyatt plans to invest $50 million in Costa Rica in the next two years, mainly in a 200-room hotel, according to firm sources. Hyatt´s vice-president for development Michael Schindler visited the country in order to analyze possible locations for the hotel. Rodrigo Trujillo, Hyatt´s business director, said that the site has not been decided yet, but that the firm wants to be present in Costa Rica at any rate.