The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce chairman Gregory Laroda welcomed the move by government to make $10m available to help businesses after Hurricane Dorian - but doubted that it would be matched by the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).

He spoke to Tribune Business after the announcement of a business relief programme being organised by the authority earlier this month, and said: “I seriously doubt they would match the $10m being put up by the government through the Small Business Development Centre for small and medium enterprises. I would need to look at what their entire relief programme would involve, but we didn’t go into the details of what exactly they would do.”

When the relief programme was announced, GBPA chief financial officer Deann Seymour said: “We have already begun the strategic process of connecting with business owners and we intend to make every reasonable effort to connect with our 2,800 licensees. This will be achieved through online surveys, door to door visits, telephone calls and business sector meetings.”

Mr Laroda said progress was being made in terms of discussions. He said: “What we are doing with (authority acting chairman) Sarah St George, I told of her some of the expectations some of the businesses told the chamber in our survey, in terms of relief on licence fees. She was open to that. But I guess they will give relief on a business by business basis. Obviously, they would not give large firms relief or licence fee relaxation, but for smaller firms they would look at it.”

Mr Laroda also confirmed that the chamber’s business survey results of the needs of Grand Bahama’s businesses after Hurricane Dorian were provided to GBPA executives.

Mr Laroda also highlighted the importance of reopening the Grand Bahama airport for international travel. He said: “Obviously the airport is critical to our recovery. I saw what Sarah St George said in her press release about the reopening of the airport for international travel. She said some similar things to me when we met in terms of the temporary facilities being in place and the need of getting the airport back and running by November 15.”

Last week, the GBPA said that “thankfully the runway received no damage” and went on to say the airport is being prepared for a November 15 opening for international travel.

The Bahamasair and Western Air terminals were totally destroyed by Hurricane Dorian and the companies have been operating out of temporary facilities for domestic travel only.

Mr Laroda said: “You would like to see it done a lot sooner than November 15. But it is important to meet the security requirements. The temporary facilities they are bringing in is for those at the GBPA to meet the international security requirements in order to get us to get flights by the middle of November.

“I’m ok with the middle of November. But what I am not sure of is how are we going to have pre-clearance? I need to confirm if pre-clearance would be involved with the reopening on the 15 of November.”

Mr Laroda also revealed the Port Lucaya marketplace opened on Friday. “Mainly the store owners were just trying to get up and running. But on Saturday it was the most crowd I have seen in Port Lucaya in quite some time.

“I’d say I saw more than half of the stores open in the marketplace. Some had their doors open but they were just preparing for business and not open for customers.”