The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE first ever Regional Conference of Caribbean Contractors could provide significant exposure and networking opportunities for locals, the Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president yesterday urging his counterparts to pursue projects within the Caribbean.

The BCA will be hosting the inaugural Regional Conference of Caribbean Contractors from October 18-20, which aims to address challenges in the industry across the region. Speaking on the significance of the forum, Godfrey Forbes said: “For the Bahamas, this is pretty big. This will provide contractors with the kind of exposure that is necessary for them to be successful in their respective businesses.

“We think that this conference, if our contractors go ahead and take advantage of it, will open them up not only to the information that will be disseminated but also give them the opportunity of meeting other contractors from throughout the region, who they can look at and even network with as far as future projects coming on stream - even looking at going outside the country to do work.”

The BCA president added: “I think for us we have a tendency to be too laid back when it comes to the opportunities that are available.

“There have been a number of projects that have been funded by the development banks of the Caribbean and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and we see where we have contractors from outside the country coming in and taking them on, but I don’t know if we ever had any of our contractors from the Bahamas who would have gone after opportunities outside of the country.

“We as Bahamian contractors have never seen it fit to go and venture into that area for whatever reason. We see today where we have so many of the Canadian and American contractors coming in and doing joint ventures with some of the local contractors, and I think that as region on the whole we can do a lot more, and make sure we have that kind of relationship with contractors in our region who share some of the situations we may have locally. We would be able to identify with one another what it is we have to deal with when it comes to the industry.”

Mr Forbes said bonding and financing will be among some of the topics addressed at the conference.

“We are going to be discussing topics like security in the work place, funding, how you go about securing bonding for different projects, and also managing your projects when you do get them. That’s one of the key areas many contractors seem to have a problem with,” said Mr Forbes.

He added that 20-25 regional delegates are expected to be in attendance from countries such as Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadine, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.