The Tribune

By Ian Ferguson

The Bahamas is largely an import, services-based economy. Unlike many of our sister nations in the region, the Bahamas has few domestic resources and relies heavily on the pillars of tourism and banking (both tertiary and services-based industries). The Bahamas imports nearly all its food and manufactured goods from the United States, and has done so for many years. American goods and services tend to be favoured by Bahamians for many reasons, including the cultural similarities, our close proximity to this market, heavy exposure to US advertising and our tied historic past.

I have often heard economists making attempts to frighten Bahamians into producing more for both local and foreign consumption. One of the famous tag lines was: “If the world (America in particular) were to experience some cataclysmic disaster regarding food reserves, and all importation of food across international borders ceased, Bahamians would have roughly two weeks to a month to survive before we resorted to cannibalism.” Whether or not this absurd-sounding statement has even a token of validity to it, I could not determine, but we all agree that we have become far too reliant on what we consume from others.

Perhaps what should be even more troubling for guardians of the Bahamian economy is the fact that so few among us are actively engaged in producing goods and services at international standard (specifically in regarding to packaging and labelling), and driving up the export statistics, thus making for a more favourable Balance of Trade position.

Once again, we shout the message that strong partnership between the private sector and the Government must exist, with a greater degree of collaboration if, as a nation, we are going to experience increased export activity. This, as we all know, is important to maintaining the nation’s exchange rate, sustaining and improving our standard of living and in creating jobs for Bahamians.

We have used our proximity to the world’s largest market to our advantage as it relates to importing goods and services, but have not truly maximised this primary location for the production of goods and services for export. Certainly there are many goods and services that we will always import, and should never as a small nation economy even attempt to produce, but securing our absolute and competitive advantage in the production of more goods and services, resulting in greater export items with improved standards through training and other capacity expanding initiatives, should certainly be our goal. Some of the low lying fruit that everyone recognizes lies in the production, manufacturing and processing of agro-products, fisheries, rum and beer production, pharmaceuticals, oil and fuels, craft items and high fashion.

A stronger and more deliberate push (with government support and backing) must be placed, then, on entrepreneurs and local businesses in the small, medium and large-scale sectors to:

• Establish manufacturing facilities in the Bahamas for export products

• Provide technology that improves the production of goods already manufactured in the Bahamas

• Supply products that are more competitively priced than existing foreign suppliers.

NB: Ian R. Ferguson was educated locally, regionally and internationally, having earned a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Miami. During the course of his nearly 20 years in education, talent management and human resources, he has served both the public and private sector in senior management roles. He currently serves as manager of the Chamber Institute, and as a local consultant in the field, having assisted hundreds of local and regional businesses in improving business and service excellence through their human capital.