The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Attorney General yesterday said he believes the Commercial Enterprises Act has brought minimal economic benefits to The Bahamas as the Government now works to refocus the law on "empowerment zones".

Ryan Pinder KC said that despite the Act being “much heralded" when it was brought into effect by the former Minnis administration some of its provisions - especially those relating to the approval of work permits - were impossible to implement on a practical basis as the Immigration Department is simply not set-up to make decisions within 14 days on whether to approve applications.

“When you look at the provisions related to the automatic grants of work permits, the Department of Immigration was never in a position to actually be able to put that into effect," he added. “The practicality of that process never really worked."

Under the present law, key management and skilled personnel in industries targeted by the Act can enter The Bahamas without first possessing a work permit. While that may create border control issues, these persons and their employers must then apply for the necessary work permits within 30 days of arrival. The Immigration Department then has 14 days to decide whether to approve or reject the application failing which it is granted automatically.

This is now due to be changed or stripped from the Act by the Davis administration, which holds the view that work permits should not be granted on an ad-hoc, un-vetted basis. It also concerned that an individual's mere presence in The Bahamas would be tantamount to having granted a work permit, which in turn invalidates the Department of Immigration's mandate and responsibility for performing the necessary due diligence on all work permit applications.

Mr Pinder, though, reiterated that the Government plans to retain parts of the Commercial Enterprises Act that will enable it to designate and create so-called commercial enterprise zones in specific parts of The Bahamas to aid economic growth and job creation in those areas.

“The economic development component was never really implemented because no economic zones were really created under the legislation," the Attorney General added. "We think a better approach is to create economic empowerment zones, and have legislation dedicated and focused to that, and take out the applications and the effectiveness of these automatic rapid work permit provisions and enhance the efficiencies."

Clarifying his belief that the existing Act has had little economic impact, Mr Pinder said this does not mean it completely failed to attract viable investments. Mr Pinder said: “I can’t say nobody benefited. You asked me what the economic impact was and I said from my view the economic impact was low.”

The Commercial Enterprises Act currently is largely focused on industries not present in The Bahamas, but which have the potential to create high-earning jobs and be major foreign currency earners.

Financial services leads the way with reinsurance; captive insurance; investment fund administration; arbitration; wealth management; international trade and international arbitrage included in the ‘fast track’ work permit sectors. Also covered by the Commercial Enterprises Act are technology-related industries such as computer programming; software design and writing; bioninformatics and analytics; nano technology; and biomedical health facilities.

“Boutique health facilities”; data storage and warehousing; aviation registration and ‘approved’ aviation maintenance operations; ‘call centres’; and manufacturing and assembly/logistics businesses round out the sectors targeted by the former administration.

Meanwhile, Mr Pinder said the Government cannot issue fines over the Onego Traveller cargo ship that sank off southern Abaco until an assessment of the environmental impact is performed. “So that can't be done until the actual completion of the removal of the ship," he added.

"It has created some difficulty on timing in that they now have to chop up the ship into very small pieces and bring it up on a barge and transport the pieces to shore. Unfortunately that's created somewhat of a delay. I think in the first instance we were hoping that the process would be completed by July. They are about two-thirds complete.

“So all of the cargo is off the boat and they're about two-thirds complete on chopping up and removing the vessel. It appears that the pace is increasing in the last few weeks, and so we hope very soon that that will be complete so we can do our assessment. Needless to say, the environmental damage, if any has occurred, there will be appropriate action.”

Mr Pinder said fines have also been levied over the oil spill that occurred last July during the transfer of fuel to Bahamas Power & Light's (BPL) Exuma plant. However, he did not reveal any details or the sum involved due to what he described as a confidential settlement with the parties involved.