The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis said yesterday Grand Bahama is worse off now since the Free National Movement took office almost one year ago, blaming the Minnis administration for disrupting the island’s economic revival by revoking the Freeport Incentive Act.

Mr Davis stated the law passed by the former PLP administration provided the stimulus to spur investments that would have resulted in the injection of hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy of Grand Bahama.

“Now nothing is happening,” he said, the same day a tech company held a press conference on the island announcing it was moving operations to Grand Bahama with plans to have an annual economic impact of $50m by 2020.

Greg Wood, CEO of GIBC Digital, said the company was attracted to Grand Bahama because of the Minnis administration’s vision to create a technology hub on the island.

Meanwhile, Mr Davis said: “They (the FNM) announced almost immediately that they were going to revoke the FIA...and once they did that those who were going to spur the economy by spending money stopped.

“So, we have lost one year of investments – the GB Shipyard was going to spend money, and a number of entities in GB had committed to spending hundreds of millions of money on the context of what was provided for them in the Freeport Incentive Act.”

Mr Davis, leader of the Progressive Liberal Party, arrived in Freeport on Thursday and will be in Grand Bahama for the next two days. He, along with Senators Fred Mitchell and Michael Darville, plan to meet with residents in Freeport, and East and West Grand Bahama.

They went to the Port Lucaya Marketplace on Thursday afternoon where Mr Davis met and spoke with straw vendors.

Mr Davis stressed that the PLP had a number of projects and initiatives that flowed from the Freeport Incentive Act that would have helped the economy of the island.

He also noted that they had an arrangement for the sale and revitalisation of the Grand Lucayan resort.

“All that was required was to flip the switch. What has happened to that, God only knows,” he said,

The PLP leader noted that there is so much uncertainty surrounding the sale of the property under the present government, which has yet to close a deal on the sale of the hotel.

“One of the best parameters to know how any economy is doing in the Bahamas is to visit the straw markets. If it is doing dismally then you can take from that what is happening in the economy as a whole,” Mr Davis said.

One straw vendor told Mr Davis that things are terrible at Port Lucaya.

“The ship is in, and no one is out here,” she said.

With the hotel closed, Mr Davis believes that reopening the casino would help to attract more tourists to Port Lucaya.

“The casino has been closed and we have been hearing from time to time it is going to open. That could be an attraction in the daytime to help bring tourists here,” he said.

“There is no doubt that GB is in a worse state. They need to fix GB. The only thing that interrupted the upward trajectory for the economic revival of Grand Bahama was Hurricane Matthew,” he explained.

When the PLP left office, Mr Davis said there was an apprenticeship programme in place at the Grand Bahama Shipyard to train more than 300 Bahamians to replace the expatriate workforce.

He said the performance of the five FNM MPs on Grand Bahama is unsatisfactory.

Mr Davis also indicated that many of the contractors the PLP left in place for the construction of various capital works projects, including the new fire station, Fishing Hole causeway, Smith’s Point seawall, and renovations for schools and clinic, are not being paid.

“What are the MPs doing to ensure that happens, recognising that the Minister of Finance (Peter Turnquest) is one of those members. Why starve the contractors? He is paying some huge bills to a single vendor of the Bahamas of funds over $40m or $60m,” Mr Davis claimed.

“I ask FNMs to call on the government to make them accountable. You have five MPs and three senators, call on them to account,” he said.

Mr Davis noted that the PLP also had a plan in place for East End with Carnival set to sign an agreement for a cruise port.

He said the Christie administration had negotiated a heads of agreement that would have been benefited many Bahamians.

“When we left, Carnival was ready to put a shovel in the ground. Why after eight months a shovel is not in the ground? Every day that goes by it gets worse,” he said.