The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas must “disabuse itself” of the mindset that it can meet all the financial services industry’s labour needs internally, a top QC suggesting that “hundreds, if not thousands” of jobs would be created if the sector’s GDP contribution increased just 3-4 per cent.

Brian Moree, senior partner at McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes, told Tribune Business he did not know why the Bahamas thought it was “any different” from developed nations such as the US, UK and Canada, which all used specialist, high-level expatriate executives to attract financial services business and supplement local workforces.

Calling for a “smart and modern” Immigration policy to support the Bahamian financial services industry, Mr Moree backed Ryan Pinder, minister of financial services, for recently identifying this as an issue that had to be addressed if the sector was to grow.

Mr Pinder recently told the Eugene Dupuch Law School that a lack of specialist financial services attorneys had held the industry back, and he backed allowing specialist foreign attorneys to practice from the Bahamas.

But, while agreeing with this, Mr Moree also reiterated the Minister’s position that this had to be accompanied by knowledge transfer to Bahamian attorneys.

And, emphasising that it would not be “an Open Sesame” that undermined Bahamian job opportunities and career enhancement, Mr Moree said allowing foreign specialists into the Bahamas would create “a win-win situation” - covering short-term skills gaps that were filled, long-term, with local labour.

“I don’t think there’s any real doubt that in a small country like the Bahamas we cannot provide all the necessary expertise and specialisation that is required to serve a highly complex and sophisticated international marketplace,” Mr Moree told Tribune Business.

“We need to disabuse ourselves of the view that we can do it all without any help. That is simply not a credible position.

“Clearly, we need to supplement particular areas of expertise and specialisation within the financial services industry where there is no such expertise available locally, or there is an insufficient amount of expertise and specialisation available.”

Noting that the global financial services industry was divided into numerous products and services, all requiring complex business and legal processes, Mr Moree added: “While we have a large number of competent and qualified lawyers in the Bahamas, in my view the Minister was right to note the point that in certain specialist areas, for a defined period of time, there is a need to supplement local talent on condition there is a transfer of knowledge and, over a period of time, develop expertise in areas where we don’t currently have it.

“That should not be alarming to the local marketplace or Bahamian lawyers, and it is not an Open Sesame that is being advocated.”

Mr Moree said Immigration policy had never previously accounted for the relationship between a “modern Bahamian workforce, and the need to judiciously and selectively use foreign talent” in specific areas.

“If we’re not willing to do that, we will not be able to compete in the global marketplace,” he warned. “If done properly, it’s a win-win.

“In the short-term we meet market needs with local expertise supplemented by expatriate expertise, and in areas considered weak, long-term we are able to develop expertise locally through knowledge transfer using these expatriates.”

Urging that Immigration policy be used “as a tool of development”, Mr Moree said Canada, the UK and US adopted such a approach with regard to their financial services industries.

“I don’t know why we think the Bahamas is any different,” Mr Moree told Tribune Business, adding that such an Immigration policy posed “no contradiction” to developing Bahamian talent.

And the QC added: “I think the Minister correctly identified the development of our Immigration policy as one of the factors that is going to have to be addressed if we are going to significantly increase the role of financial services in the Bahamas and grow its contribution to GDP.”

Arguing that the sector “underpins the middle class” and provides high quality, better paying jobs for Bahamians, Mr Moree told Tribune Business: “If we can grow this industry by 3-4 per cent, that translates into hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs.”

Noting that the financial services industry’s GDP contribution had been stuck at 15-18 per cent for the past 25 years, he added: “If we could grow that to between 20-25 per cent, or 20-22 per cent, we are talking about a substantial injection of money into our economy that flows through to the middle class, providing quality jobs and a higher standard of living for our people. That is why financial services is so important to our development.”