The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ slump to 121st spot in the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ rankings stems from the country being run by “career politicians who know nothing about business”, the Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader charged yesterday.

Branville McCartney accused successive administrations of running the Bahamas as “a Mickey Mouse retail shop”, rather than treating it as a business that needed to deliver efficient public services and balance the Budget.

He added that most politicians, as attorneys, did not understand “the everyday struggle” many Bahamian businesses were enduring to “keep our doors open” in the face of ever-increasing taxation and bureaucratic hurdles.

Mr McCartney said that as a businessman himself, with his law firm, family’s pharmaceutical business and other interests, he “feels” what the World Bank report is finding in terms of the Bahamas’ steady ‘ease of doing business’ decline.

“We’ve moved from 106th in just a few months to 121st,” Mr McCartney said of the 2017 ‘Doing Business’ survey results, disclosed by Tribune Business on Wednesday.

“It’s not surprising, as a local businessperson, that we continue to fall in the rankings. Something as simple as getting a Business Licence is a problem; something as simple as opening a bank account in this country is a problem.”

He added: “Those who feel it, know it. Small businesses are the backbone of any economy, and whenever you have these agencies saying we’re falling, and going backwards, that puts extra strain on local businesses in terms of doing business.

“We are struggling every single day to keep our doors open, and the Government keeps on talking about how they are going to make doing business better.”

Based on the latest assessment, the Bahamas appears to be moving further away from, rather than closer to, the ‘top 50’ ease of doing business target set by Prime Minister Perry Christie in June.

Addressing a conference hosted jointly by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and National Development Plan Secretariat, Mr Christie blasted that the Bahamas’ then 106th ranking was “not acceptable”.

“It doesn’t not reflect our potential and capabilities. It doesn’t reflect our years of experience as a world class financial centre, nor our first mover status in the areas of tourism and port development,” Mr Christie said then.

“In five years, let us try to move to the top 50 countries; that is the target. This means our reforms will be bold, our resolve must be strong and our internal evaluation of ourselves brutally honest.”

Hope Strachan, minister of financial services, has also emphasised the need to improve the ‘ease of doing business’, suggesting in several public addresses that it was vital to ensuring the financial industry’s sustainability.

Mr McCartney, though, yesterday suggested that the latest fall in the World Bank rankings suggested the Christie administration was ‘all talk and no action.

He argued that the long lines at the Road Traffic Department, and ongoing problems with the implementation of its new information technology (IT) system, epitomised the ‘business ease’ and bureaucratic obstacles placed in the way of businesses and ordinary Bahamians.

“This tells us about the PLP government in terms of business,” Mr McCartney added of the Road Traffic queues. “We feel it. They have not done anything to advance doing business in this country to any extent.

“We have career politicians leading our country; leading our country for all these years. These guys only know about politics; they know nothing about business. They don’t know about having to pay wages and salaries at the end of the month; they don’t know about staffing. They only know about winning elections.

“They don’t know anything about business, and a country should be run like a business with efficiencies and, in certain areas, making a profit. These guys run it as a Mickey Mouse retail shop.”

Mr McCartney pledged that the DNA, if elected to office, would make the Bahamas “open for business for the world”, including companies that were Bahamian and foreign owned.

While not providing any details, he added that his party would “make doing business in this country easy”.

“We must get rid of the red tape,” he told Tribune Business. “Government intervention is costing a lot. Part of us dropping in the ‘ease of doing business’ has a lot to do with the inefficiency of government agencies, has a lot to do with corruption, has a lot to do with the lack of transparency and accountability in government.”

Turning his fire back on the Christie administration, Mr McCartney added: “I don’t want the Bahamian people to believe this government is going to fix it.

“This government is as lost as the day is long. They can’t get anything right. Nothing they’ve tried over the last five years has proven successful.”

Mr McCartney said the Bahamas’ constant slippage in the World Bank’s rankings had reached the point “where it’s worrisome” as a businessman.

“Most businesspersons in this country are feeling the pinch,” he told Tribune Business. “We have some successful businesses, but it is rough out there. It is rough.

“This government has failed miserably to do anything to enhance the business environment, and we see that reflected in that ranking. They’ve gone into reverse. Their words are just words. This is a tell-tale sign for businesspersons in this country as to what the Government really thinks about the backbone of the economy.”