The Tribune

The Prime Minister yesterday said Atlantis’s ‘most favoured investor’ status made it impossible for him to grant the type of incentives the Chinese were said to be demanding over Baha Mar.

Perry Christie, responding to taunting from Fort Charlotte MP, Dr Andre Rollins, during the Budget debate, said “no government of sense” would negotiate a deal with a rival resort developer without taking into account the impact on Atlantis.

The Prime Minister thus hit back at claims that the Government was negotiating a deal with Baha Mar’s secured creditor, the China Export-Import Bank, and contractor, China Construction America (CCA), that many had blasted as ‘selling out the Bahamas’ sovereignty’.

In return for mobilising and completing Baha Mar’s construction, the Chinese were said to have demanded that the Government grant them 500 citizenships; a ‘tax-free holiday’ for 30 years; and a 25 per cent ($300 million) increase in the value of the investment incentives granted to original developer, Sarkis Izmirlian.

Mr Christie, while not refuting any of these claims yesterday, other than to reiterate the Government would never sell Bahamian citizenship, implied that no government would agree to such terms as they would have to be granted to Atlantis as well.

That would mean, if the Chinese demands were correct, and ultimately granted, that the Bahamas’ two largest resorts and private employers would gain a 30-year ‘tax holiday’ at the expense of the taxpayer.

Explaining why such suggestions made no sense, Mr Christie said: “Young members of Parliament might not be aware, and not even some of the older ones, that the Government of the Bahamas and the PLP committed themselves to a Most Favoured Nation strategy with Atlantis.

“Any [new concession] given to a developer has to be given to Atlantis. Any government of sense will not negotiate anything... without taking into consideration what happens to Atlantis, and citizenship is not for sale.”

Mr Christie was speaking after unveiling a so-called “framework” agreement between the Government, and Baha Mar’s two former Chinese partners, that he touted as providing “a pathway” for the $3.5 billion project’s construction completion.

Yet a careful reading of the three-way ‘joint statement’ between the Government, the China Export-Import Bank and China State Construction Engineering Company (CSCEC), CCA’s parent, suggests it is less than what the Government and Mr Christie were promoting it as yesterday.

The statement contained no details on the timelines for mobilisation, and when construction work on the $3.5 billion project will resume, nor any specifics on costs and construction budgets.

Instead, it appears to be an agreement to continue talking and working together towards a final agreement, with the Deloitte & Touche receivership team and CCA now required to negotiate the terms of a construction contract.

The statement appears designed to give the Prime Minister what he wanted, something positive to announce in the Budget debate that shows progress on Baha Mar, but falls short of a ‘concrete agreement.

And it hardly amounts to a cast-iron, binding commitment to make ‘whole’ all the Bahamian contractors, vendors and former employees owed multi-million dollar sums over Baha Mar.

Nevertheless, Mr Christie said yesterday: “I am satisfied, based on the statement and the assurances given in Beijing, that every effort is being made to enable an earliest possible remobilisation, and that adequate funding is in place to provide for the completion of the project and the satisfaction of legitimate claims of Bahamian contractors and suppliers.”

Still, many observers will question why attorney general Allyson Maynard-Gibson, and Sir Baltron Bethel, the Prime Minister’s senior policy adviser, were dispatched half-way around the world to obtain such a two-page statement.

“The arrangement provides for a framework putting in place the financing required for completion of the project, and for China State Construction Engineering Company’s indirect subsidiary, CCA (Bahamas),to remobilise and re-start construction as expeditiously as possible,” the statement says.

“Negotiations between CCA (Bahamas) and the receivers appointed by China Export-Import Bank are underway to agree appropriate terms for construction to recommence, and to prepare a construction agreement, which will provide the scheduled timeline for completion of the project.”

That last paragraph indicates that no binding deal to complete Baha Mar’s construction has been reached, and the statement is merely an ‘agreement to negotiate and reach an agreement’.

“It is expected that many contractors who have participated in the construction of the project will be re-engaged in the process,” the statement continued, in very vague language. “The requirements of the unsecured creditors will also be considered during the remobilisation.”

The Prime Minister used the joint statement to slam the Opposition, saying: “It is always shocking when we see people elected to Parliament to represent the Bahamian people wishing and hoping something did not happen, but it has happened. Shocking.”

Mr Christie, meanwhile, indicated that he still took Mr Izmirlian’s decision to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last June personally, and almost as a personal betrayal, reiterating the move was made “without notice to the Government of the Bahamas”.

And, hitting out at critics of the Government’s Baha Mar stance, he said the situation was “no laughing matter”, and could not be subjected to “ridicule” or the “desecration of the flag” and “national anthem” - all of which he insisted had occurred.