The Tribune

THERE will be a Royal visit to The Bahamas next month, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge due to arrive in the country.

It comes at an interesting moment for The Bahamas, in the wake of Barbados becoming a republic last year.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis was in attendance for the ceremony that marked Barbados cutting its remaining links from the Royal family – but there seems little appetite for The Bahamas to follow suit.

It will be interesting to see Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell’s interactions with Prince William and his wife, Kate, as Mr Mitchell is one of the few to speak up about the prospect of a republic for The Bahamas.

After Barbados’ move, he said he thought there would be “a cascading effect since Barbados”, though he conceded that “try as I might over my lifetime I have been unable to fire up the succeeding generations” on the issue of making a similar transition. He said of those succeeding generations: “Perhaps they have more important things to do.”

In 2012, when Prince William’s brother, Prince Harry, visited The Bahamas as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour, there was great enthusiasm for the visit.

Prince Harry was greeted with rousing speeches, performances by the Bahamas National Boys Choir, the Bahamas All Stars, the Royal Bahamas Police Youth Band and more. He gave it his resounding endorsement at the time, telling performers and those at the event at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium: “You are a magnificent spectacle. You’re doing your country proud and looking damn smart.”

While Mr Mitchell’s republican thoughts might have been dismissed by the Prime Minister’s press secretary, Clint Watson, saying such a prospect was “not on our agenda right now”, the visit will remain a litmus test for the enthusiasm The Bahamas may or may not still have for its Royal connections.

The greeting for Prince Harry was warm and genuine, if we perhaps lumbered him with too many visits to church services and meetings rather than the music and youth events he seemed more comfortable with.

It is also a good opportunity to show the world what The Bahamas is all about. When the Duke and Duchess arrive, the eyes of the world – and the camera lenses of the world’s media – will be on us. What will we have to show them? Will we see the same enthusiasm as in 2012, or have our links to the monarchy faded since then?

As we say, an interesting moment indeed.

Grand Bahama

Prime Minister Davis may have recently questioned investor confidence in Grand Bahama – but what do we see here? The Port Lucaya Marina is to be bought up by a Florida-based investor in a deal that will see the construction of a new 200-unit condo hotel.

Mr Davis raised the doubts after his visit to Dubai, saying of investors: “They are willing to invest in The Bahamas, and when asked if they wish to come to Grand Bahama, there is always some reluctance on their part.”

He added: “I had a conversation in Dubai with a person who came to Grand Bahama and looked at the projects, and their desire to invest just waned because… something that did not connect for them.”

Well, if Dubai investors aren’t interested, let’s reach out more to investors from the United States instead. It’s great news that a Florida investor is interested – so let’s build on that, and pitch to investors at events in the US. We already have the geographical advantage there, in that we’re only a short plane or boat ride away for many.

Sometimes in the push to find new investor markets, we overlook the ones that have served us well in the past, so let’s make the most of all our connections, both old and new.