The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader yesterday challenged the Official Opposition to pursue the latest ‘Chinese deal’ on Andros, given that one of its principals is an FNM MP’s son.

Branville McCartney told Tribune Business that the Free National Movement (FNM) was unlikely to dig deeply into the proposed Andros timber harvesting venture, as one of its principals is Henry Key, son of South Abaco MP, Edison Key.

He suggested the Official Opposition would take the same stance as that adopted over the Renward Wells’ Letter of Intent (LOI) controversy, where the party has failed to divulge what it knows since the Bamboo Town MP left the governing PLP.

“It would be interesting for Minnis to answer that question, as to whether Edison Key’s son has anything to do with the timber deal,” Mr McCartney told Tribune Business.

“I doubt he will answer it, just as he failed to answer the [tabled parliamentary] question on the LOI when Renward Wells became leader of Opposition business in the House.

“I don’t think we’ll get an answer from Minnis and the FNM on this one. They are two sides of the same coin, the FNM and the PLP; two sides of the same coin.”

The Government, meanwhile, moved swiftly yesterday in a bid to stamp out suggestions it had agreed another deal to ‘sell’ control of the Bahamas’ natural resources, and significant Crown Land holdings, to Chinese investors.

The latest Andros investment ‘controversy’ involves an approval in principle given on August 28, 2015, by the Christie Cabinet (in the guise of the National Economic Council) to an entity called Caribbean Global Timber Ltd.

The company was to be given a five-year renewable license to harvest timber and pine tree resin from a 4,500-acre area of Crown Land in the San Andros area, provided it fulfilled the terms established by the Government.

Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment and housing, yesterday said no such license had been issued to Caribbean Global Timber Ltd some 15 months later because the company had yet to meet the conditions set by the Christie administration.

Seeking to refute any suggestion that the Government was again ‘selling out’ the Bahamas to China, especially in the wake of the public furore surrounding the $2.1 billion agriculture/fisheries investment controversy, Mr Dorsett said Caribbean Global Timber Ltd’s principals included Bahamian and American citizens.

He added that they had “sought additional assistance” from a Chinese industrial and commercial investment company, and argued that it was therefore “misleading” to say the Government had agreed a ‘deal’ with investors from that country.

Mr Dorsett thus sought to downplay and minimise any Chinese connection, portraying their involvement with Caribbean Global Timber Ltd as more a partnership arrangement.

However, apart from Edison Key’s son, four of the five directors for Caribbean Global Timber Ltd on file with the Companies Registry all have Chinese sounding names, suggesting they likely have more control and influence than the Government may be letting on.

Mr McCartney yesterday pointed to Mr Key’s previous enthusiasm for major Chinese agricultural investment in his home island of Abaco, when he was chairman of the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) under the former Ingraham administration.

Government officials in 2009-2010 had trumpeted a Chinese fruit, vegetable and livestock investment on 5,000 acres of former Owens-Illinois land that had reverted back to BAIC. However, the resulting public backlash saw the Ingraham administration go quiet, and nothing ever materialised.

“Edison Key saw nothing wrong with transferring thousands of acres of land to the Chinese at the time,” Mr McCartney recalled. “His comment then was that environmentalists don’t create jobs.”

Back to the present, the ‘approval in principle’, which was tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, gives “license rights” to Caribbean Global Timber Ltd to “selectively and systematically thin out the Crown pine forest resources of North Andros”.

The license issuance, though, is dependent on the company complying with several conditions. These include the completion of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP), which have to be approved by both the director of forestry and the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission.

Other requirements that must be fulfilled before the license kicks in are the production by Caribbean Global Timber Ltd of a five-year working plan, and operational plans every two years.

A Fire Management Plan and employment contract for a suitably-qualified operations manager are also demanded from Caribbean Global Timber Ltd.

The ‘approval in principle’ letter also stipulates that the company must employ 90 Bahamians within 90 days of becoming operational, and eventually increase staffing levels to 250 locals.

Technical training and close collaboration with the Bahamas Agriculture, Marine and Science Institute (BAMSI) are also required, with Caribbean Global Timber Ltd to construct a pine forest production plant on Andros within one year of approval.

The production plant is to be built by Bahamian contractor, and generate at least some of its power requirements from renewable energy sources.