The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Commercial Enterprises Act is already showing "early signs" of success with the Government giving "favourable consideration" to two applications, it was revealed yesterday.

K Peter Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister, speaking at the 20th Grand Bahama Business Outlook conference, said: "The increase in investor and consumer confidence in the United States augers well for growth in tourist-related travel and investment interest in the Bahamas.

"The Commercial Enterprises Act, I can tell you, is already showing early signs of success. There have been already at least two projects that I know of which have applied under the Act and are receiving favourable attention from the Government." The Act "seeks to liberalise the granting of work permits to an enterprise that wishes to establish itself in the Bahamas, and requires work permits for its management team and key personnel". The company's investment, however, must be a minimum of $250,000.

The legislation enables a "specified commercial enterprise" to obtain an Investments Board certificate granting it a specific number of work permits for certain positions.The certificate, which will initially be issued for one year and can be renewed, would allow key personnel to set up the company's physical operations in the Bahamas before they obtained a work permit.

Such a permit must be applied for within 30 days of their entry, and the bill mandates the Director of Immigration to make a decision on approval within 14 days of receiving the application. If the director does not respond within that timeframe, the work permit will be "automatically deemed to have been granted". Work permits issued under the Bill's provisions will be for a three-year period, and are renewable for the same duration.

Mr Turnquest, meanwhile, said nothing should be read into the Wynn Group chief executive's absence from the conference speaker line-up, emphasising it was not a sign that the Grand Lucayan purchase is in trouble.

Suggesting that the sale was still on track, Mr Turnquest said: "I know there was some rumour that because Mr [Paul] Wynn is not here to speak today, there is some trouble with the deal.

"I just got off the phone with Mr Wynn before I came into the room. There was some miscommunication. He is in the Dominican Republic opening a project there."

Mr Turnquest added: "This deal is very much on track. We expect to have this wrapped up very soon. The brands associated with the proposal are very well-known brands to us, and will give Grand Bahama the kind of variety of offering it has been missing.

"We continue to attract interest in Grand Bahama with respect to the tourism industry, with 2018 poised to be a very significant watershed year. Every other week it seems a group wants to take a look at the Grand Lucayan property and we're trying to steer them to other businesses."