The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas must take “some bold and revolutionary steps” to avoid losing its position as the Caribbean’s regional leader, a top private sector executive yesterday pointing out that this nation had not developed a new industry for 50 years.

Unveiling what he described as a ‘seven point blueprint’ for Family Island development, Chester Cooper, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chairman, said this nation needed to become “more ambitious” in developing its entire economy.

Addressing the Exuma Business Outlook conference, Mr Cooper pushed for the island to become the airlift/transportation “hub” for the central and southern Bahamas.

Suggesting that the Bahamas take a leaf from the books of its regional counterparts when it came to attracting new businesses and industries, he pointed to the likes of Haiti’s Caracoal Industrial Park and the Cayman Islands’ Enterprise City, together with the incentives they offered.

And he also called for the Bahamas to “launch a vigorous campaign” to demonstrate to foreign and local investors that the country was ‘open for business’.

Noting that many still described the Family Islands as the Bahamas’ “greatest natural resource”, Mr Cooper said: “We have, however, not been very aggressive about the development of the Bahamas.

“It seems clear to me that unless we are more ambitious and more aspirational about the development of our Family Islands and our economy generally, we stand the risk of losing our leadership position in the region over the next 10-20 years.”

Basing this on his business travel around the Caribbean and wider world, the BCCEC chairman reiterated: “I am painfully convinced..... that unless the Bahamas takes some bold and revolutionary steps we are at risk of losing our place as a leader in the region.

“I am also painfully aware that in order to get anything done in the Bahamas, you have to be forceful.”

Instead of “reinventing the wheel”, Mr Cooper said this nation needed to look at what was working in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the world, and execute on these ideas to create a “blueprint” for Family Island development.

Suggesting how this might occur, Mr Cooper said passenger and cargo transportation were critical to Family Island development.

“There seems not to be the will to establish Exuma as a hub for the central and southern zone of the Bahamas,” he added.

While this was not a new idea, Mr Cooper said getting Bahamasair to fly to Exuma from key US hubs, such as New York and Dallas, would open up the southern and central Bahamas to more tourists, and create more business for Bahamian-owned airlines such as Sky Bahamas.

“Imagine the impact of the new 500 employees of the airline industry who move to Exuma with another 1,500 family members who shop at grocery stores, rent apartments, eat in restaurants on the island,” Mr Cooper said.

“You would have immediately crossed off the development needs of Exuma whilst boosting the economies of our neighbours to the south.”

Pointing to the Caracoal Industrial Park, which is projected to employ 150,000 workers in Haiti, and the incentives and streamlined business set-up for Cayman’s Enterprise Park, Mr Cooper said the Bahamas could look to establish similar facilities on particular islands.

“Why can’t we create Bimini or the Berry Islands or Exuma, for example, with its fairly small land mass and close proximity to the US as a mecca for development of intellectual capital, technological and medical research?” Mr Cooper asked.

“Since we like finding reasons why things can’t work, let’s build it around the word ‘no’ and simply say: ‘No work permits, no taxes, no hassles’.”

Acknowledging that the Bahamas was not an easy place for the private sector to ‘get things done’, Mr Cooper said his own company, BAF Financial, operated in three countries including the Bahamas, and got “red carpet treatment in two of them”.

Calling on the Government to provide swift approvals for Bahamian and foreign investors, the BCCEC chairman urged that there be a “sensible Immigration policy”.

As a country with 300,000 people spread across 100,000 square miles, Mr Cooper said the Bahamas inevitably needed foreign capital, expertise and labour to help develop the country.

“I am not talking about a free for all here. I am a believer in Bahamians first, but not at any costs,” Mr Cooper said.

“The typical xenophobic mindset that foreigners should bring their money, leave it here, then leave the country as fast as they can, will not be a successful model for Family Island development or attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).”

The BCCEC chairman also called on the two main political parties, FNM and PLP, to both buy-in to general economic development principals.

“Politics is killing our country because of the mindset that the Opposition is supposed to oppose - at any cost,” Mr Cooper added.

He also called for the business approvals process to be decentralised to the Family Islands and local government, as a means of reducing the bureaucracy in Nassau.

And the BCCEC chairman also urged reform of key public sector processes, adding: “The bureaucratic maze is woefully inefficient, detrimental to business and, quite frankly, breeds corruption.

“I shouldn’t have to buy a lunch for a civil servant or tip $50 to get a building permit or to start a business which hires people and pays taxes.”

Mr Cooper said it was vital for all stakeholders, including second homeowners, to be integrated into an development strategy.

Identifying the One Eleuthera Foundation as a model, he said the Bahamas could draw on the expertise of foreign residents, such as Johnny Depp and David Copperfield.