THE Bahamian economy is suffering from "double dependency syndrome" according to DNA leader Branville McCartney.
Mr McCartney told a economic summit in Grand Bahama over the weekend that all the country's economic woes can be traced back to this condition.
He said: "Most persons depend on the government for everything and in turn the government depends on the foreign investor for everything. The problem is when the foreign dollars stop flowing, everything comes to a grinding halt."
Mr McCartney noted that the American and European economies are still in turmoil and the Bahamas will be feeling the effects for another five to 10 years.
To break this crippling dependency, Bahamians must strive to create an economy in which they are the real owners, "and not one in which 85 per cent of every tourist dollar leaves or never enters the country".
Mr McCartney also lamented the fact that "99 per cent" of all offshore banks in the Bahamas are foreign owned and that the vast majority of the country's food is imported.
"This is an environment in which Bahamians have become and endangered species," he said.
"No economy can be self sustained when all of the capital is being sucked out of it every day to enrich persons in other countries. No country can survive if it has no food security. You know, if all imports of food were cut of today, the Bahamas would only have enough food for two weeks."
Mr McCartney said the DNA proposes to put in place a new, bipartisan national economic council made up of qualified, "economically and financially competent" individuals who will help the government implement a new National Economic Plan.
This team, he said, will work to reduce government spending, stop wastage and overspending, renegotiate government leases, implement an audit of pension liabilities, and look at ways to reduce the cost of living.
"This can be done, he said, "by the removal of import duties to sales and service tax.
"We must look at alternative energy, and consider the relaxation of exchange controls. Interest rates at the Central Bank must be decreased."
Mr McCartney said the country also needs land reform, diversification of the economy and a revival of Grand Bahama.
Comments
spoitier 12 years ago
Now Branville is getting back to the basics, The Bahamas needs to empower its citizens to create an economy, in fact we could do a lot with Haiti in terms of trade to help both countries and this will help the influx of Haitians into the Bahamas. The government could give out loans to Bahamians who is making Bahamian products and penalize those that bring in those same product from abroad by charging higher customs on it. There is no reason for a tropical country not to produce some of the products that is imported like produce, the only things that should be imported is things like apples that can't grow in the Bahamas. In terms of clothing, this country should be able to produce sheep for wool and food, cotton for materials, these things have been done in the caribbean before and could still be done. Now if the Bahamas get the energy situation figure out it will be cheap to do all of these things, and a tropical country like the Bahamas is in a prime location for just about any type of alternative energy from hydro, solar, and wind.
C_MonMan 12 years ago
I don't know which world S Poitier and Bran are living in but the rest of the world is moving toward free trade and globalisation yet these fellas still looking backwards and talking about protectionist policies. This unstructured dribble is what you would expect to hear from a high school senior or a college freshman and not from someone hoping to be the PM. Open an economics 101 book my friend and while you at it try talking to someone on the unique characteristics of the Bahamain economy. Then come back with some observations and issues that are not self-evident with some possible policy initiatives that are not mutually exclusive. Leaders lead from the front and not by focus groups or polling. We already had 5 years of councils, committees and focus groups to decide every issue under the previous PLP government.
dacy 12 years ago
ah boy...it has been my observation that the DNA is approaching this election as if it was in the class room giving lectures... the choice is clear because i watching this PLP ralley in golden gates and its a damn shame
spoitier 12 years ago
If the rest of the world is going to free trade then why is the Bahamas still only depending on tourism and banking? This is what i'm talking about finding some other industry to bring the country into the 21st century. A country that can at-least be self sufficient in taking care of these simple things like feeding your own people.Everything you see in that economics 101 book is not necessarily to help you, it is to help you make money for that wealthy owner of a corperation and give you an hourly salary out of it, learning to make your self efficient you would never see that in that book.
dacy 12 years ago
of course this country has the resources to feed itself but bahamians are going to have to work the land. the DNA acts like these things will be automated once they become the government. I never liked the imagine speech, why imagine what is already our reality.
Gadfly 12 years ago
The true reality is that this country is feeding itself right now. There is no need to grow or produce all of our food here in the Bahamas to feed our selves. What is necessary is that we maximise and optimise our production of those goods and services for which we have a comparative advantage so that we are capable of trading for those goods where we do not enjoy a comparative advantage. In fact, the agrarian society approach and mind-set that Bran and S Poitier are talking about represents backward and not forward thinking and is anything but the 21st century. Using this standard, the USA, the country powered by the greatest economic engine in the world over the past 250 years is not feeding itself, because it does not grow or manufacture all of the food it consumes. We need foreign partners and investors with whom to trade. Any half prepared politician who understands econ 101 would also understand this and the law of comparative advantage. Understanding basic economic principles and constructs would help us to understand that resources are scarce, that there are no free lunches and that every choice or decision have an actual or opportunity costs. We cannot close our eyes and imagine these things into existence. Understanding basic econ principles also allows one to apply a systematic and structural underpinning and framework to problem identification and solving which is not possible without such an understanding. This anti-knowledge and expertise bias that most of our politicians and some of our citizens exhibit is, in my view, one of the greatest problems facing our country because it shows in the state of our schools and it shows in the small minded thinking of our current political leaders and the people that follow them.
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