MONTEGO BAY, St James

CITING a lack of financial support from Government and the private sector, businessman Lachu Ramchandani, the franchise holder of the Miss Global World International Beauty Pageant, has decided to take this year’s staging of the event to the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

“I have not been getting any financial support from Jamaica, not even from the Jamaica Tourist Board [JTB]. I have had several meetings with the Tourism Minister Dr Wykeham McNeill, JTB officials… and all I am getting is that I am behind you, the show is excellent, it has helped Jamaica a lot, but we have no money,” a disappointed Ramchandani told the Jamaica Observer West.

According to Ramchandani, the pageant will be held this year at the Chamber of Commerce Convention Centre in Couva, Trinidad, on October 3. A media briefing to launch the event, he said, will take place at the same venue on May 31.

He added that at least 50 countries are expected to be represented at the pageant.

The Montego Bay businessman has long complained about the lack of sponsorship for the pageant and has on numerous occasions threatened to stage the event outside of Jamaica, consistently arguing that he has been getting offers from countries such as Nigeria, The Bahamas, Costa Rica, Portugal, Panama, Zimbabwe and more recently, Trinidad and Tobago, to stage the show.

Last week, Ramchandani expressed confidence that the staging of the pageant in Trinidad will be successful.

“I am very excited about the show there [Trinidad], I know it will be successfu. The people there love beauty pageants and they haven’t had an international pageant for a very long time,” said Ramchandani, who founded the pageant in 2006.

“The support I am getting in Trinidad, I don’t get that kind of support in Jamaica, so why should I be doing it here and not getting the support from the Government?”

“Those people in Trinidad have welcomed me, and are giving me the treatment like I am a native.”

Interestingly, when the contest was first staged, it was under the name the Miss Commonwealth Pageant. However, at the request of non-Commonwealth countries like the United States, which wanted to participate but could not do so under the Commonwealth banner, the name was changed.