By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Staff Reporter
aturnquest@ tribunemedia.net
FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday announced that he will spend a substantial amount of time in the Middle East and Asia hunting down new funding sources for the “capital-starved” country this fiscal year.
Mr Mitchell said his ministry had been given a mandate to find new capital for the country as traditional sources are winding down on lending.
“The Prime Minister did not commit this country to any specific borrowing,” he said, “but if there is to be development and there is cheap money available why not? Particularly when our traditional friends are telling us that they are not supporting lending us money anymore.
He added: “To find and search for new sources of funding for this country, new sources of investment, it is critical that we do so as the traditional markets and sources appear to be challenged. This does not mean abandoning our traditional friends but at a time when our country is capital starved and there is excess capital in areas of the world outside our normal sphere of influence it would be foolhardy not for us to search.”
According to Mr Mitchell, the Canadian government abstained from supporting the country’s national programme at a Caribbean Development Bank meeting. Concessionary lending to The Bahamas has also been prohibited by the World Bank due to the country’s high GDP per capita, Mr Mitchell said.
Mr Mitchell said GDP per capita was an inaccurate measure of a country’s wealth.
“It’s called the Robinson Crusoe syndrome,” he said. “If you have two men on an island, one worth a billion, and the other worth a dollar, what is the GDP per capita on that island? Half a billion. So they say the GDP per capita on that island of two people where there is $1 billion of income, the GDP is half a billion, except one only makes a dollar and the other makes $1 billion.
“So that’s the problem with that measure, it’s not a true measure of the wealth of the island and the people in it.”
Mr Mitchell added that the American government did not oppose the country’s debt relationship with China.
Notwithstanding his new charge, Mr Mitchell maintained that his ministry was committed to upholding its primary function of ensuring the “seamless passage of Bahamians around the world.”
“It is critical to whether we win this next election and I will be depending on the mechanisms I put in place to support my work while engaged in the foreign affairs work that I have been assigned to do. It is not without considerable risk for me politically, but I believe it is for the better good.”
Comments
B_I_D___ 11 years, 5 months ago
Don't be promising no oil shares or profits or licenses!!
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 5 months ago
I hope he tells them the government will be heavily involved in who they hire locally to manage their invested funds. We must set expectations.
JohnDoe 11 years, 5 months ago
No wonder we are in the state that we are in. We have Cabinet Ministers talking nonsense about GDP without, apparently having an understanding of what GDP represents. Mr. Mitchell GDP is not a measure of net worth or wealth, therefore, your example above makes absolutely no sense. On top of that, Mr. Mitchell appears to be trying his best to make the business environment in the Bahamas even more unfriendly with his confrontational approach to immigration issues, yet he is claiming we need new sources of funding and investments from the same business community he is demonizing. Go figure!
hj 11 years, 5 months ago
Investors will be glad to come here so they can deal with a xenophobic government that will dictate to them who they can hire or not and how to run their businesses. Is it any wonder that "our traditional friends don't want to lend us anymore?"
John 11 years, 5 months ago
Some glad morning i';ll fly away..jus like-a-way FRED!!
PWGenesis 11 years, 5 months ago
Mr Speaker I submit the following to curb down and jostle the increasing plaque of crime in the islands in the sun. Initiate a "Gun buy back" program or start an amnesty for a period to last not longer than "90 days" and take guns of the streets, using various churches as a backdrop. Also start neighborhood curfews and put "A visible Foot policemen on every street and investigation as to set up a databank as to where these "weapons" i.e guns are coming from and by whom. Also offer a Reward for all murders and put a moving truck in the communities that broadcast the information and keep confidentiality of all who give up information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thugs. Mr Speaker whats your view?
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 5 months ago
Wait a minute, I read this article earlier this week and I didn't pick up on it...but why is the Minister of Foreign Affairs tracking down new sources of funding for the country?? Someone who is more familiar with the ministry's portfolio can clarify for me, but isn't that what Ryan Pinder's tasked with? He says he was given the mandate which is even more strange.
Further still, for each of us individual citizens, if a bank tells us that we are stretched to the limit and cannot afford additional loans (because they fear we will be unable to repay)....is it wise for us to then start talks with a PayDay Lender? Or should we first try to cut out the unnecessary spending (trips to the Far East, how many people travelling, for how long, at what cost)
John 11 years, 5 months ago
Hello My name is FRED cum fly with me! (around the world), on the taxpayers money
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