The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE Government has not only recovered more than 50 per cent of Mayaguana real estate initially made available to the Boston-based I-Group project, but also clawed back a number of investment incentives, state minister of finance, Zhivargo Laing, said yesterday. During his contribution in the House of Assembly on a Bill to approve the restated Heads of Agreement with the I-Group, Mr Laing said a number of concessions under the original Heads of Agreement had been clawed back. Mr Laing said: "Under the new modified agreement, a number of concessions that the I-Group had have been clawed back so that the I-Group, under the new and modified agreement, now has concessions traditionally given under the Hotels Encouragement Act so that they do not have concessions for consumables, and they do not have outright concessions on fuel other than fuel brought in during the course of the development of the airport in Mayaguana. "We have also clawed back that provision that made the I-Group development in Mayaguana a mini-Freeport, in which they would have had the right to license businesses, so we would have had a Mayaguana-type of Port Authority under the agreement." The original deal signed back in 2006 was a joint venture between the Government, via the Hotel Corporation, and the I-Group, for 9,999 acres. Under the revised Heads of Agreement for the project, 5,825 acres of land, which had initially been included in the scope of the development, is being returned to the Government. The developers will now be starting with 2,912 acres. Mr Laing said: "Under the new agreement the force majeure clause, which enabled the I-Group in February 2008 to invoke that clause as a consequence of the global economic crisis, in particular the recession in the US, has been amended to be stated as a traditional force majeure clause, one that has to do with a natural disasters, acts of war, civil unrest and those kinds of things." He added: "It would have been easy for us to simply take the agreement with the I-Group that we met in place that was signed by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in 2006, and simply passed legislation to give effect to it. No government, seized of what had been done in this field, could in good conscience let it stand. We could not allow the sale and/or acquisition over time of such a significant and strategic portion of land on one of the largest islands in the Bahamas without an effort to renegotiate its return. Development is a careful dance between the resources of the state and the people for whom the resources exist." The investment by the I-Group will represent the single largest Bahamas real estate development to take place in the southern Bahamas. The first phase of the I-Group's Mayaguana development will see the construction of an airstrip to accommodate Dash 8 traffic, an airport terminal, a marina and a 25-room boutique hotel.