The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

THE proposed trade market for Freeport is projected to have an annual $400 million economic impact and create between 6,000-8,000 total jobs, one of its directors telling Tribune Business yesterday that it would be a "game changer for the entire Bahamas".

Ken Hutton, the former Freeport Concrete and John S George chief who is among those spearheading the AsiaMart buyers emporium/merchant market, said that while much of the project remained to be finalised its investors were 50 per cent of the way through the 'concept planning' phase.

Disclosing that there would be two full-time Bahamian employees for each of AsiaMart's planned 1,600 stalls, which manufacturers from that region and elsewhere would use to showcase their products to potential buyers and partners in the Western Hemisphere, Mr Hutton told Tribune Business that the one million square foot facility would create between 3,000-4,000 direct jobs.

And he added that the spin-offs for sectors such as the Freeport Container Port and Freeport Harbour Company, Grand Bahama International Airport, the hotel sector, restaurants and other businesses would create "as many or more" jobs - taking AsiaMart's total employment impact to around 6,000-8,000 jobs.

While the project is not yet a 'done deal', it would potentially provide a major employment and economic activity boost in an island - indeed, a nation - that badly needs new jobs following four long years of recession (eight in Grand Bahama's case).

It could make a major dent in the 21 per cent unemployment rate Grand Bahama and Freeport are currently experiencing, and also realise the long-held vision for the Bahamas' second city and its Sea Air Business Centre - that of a major logistics and distribution hub in the Western Hemisphere.

Estimating that the project's build-out, once approved, would create between 600-800 Bahamian construction jobs, Mr Hutton told Tribune Business he would "insist" on the main contractor, the US/international arm of Beijing Construction and Engineering Group (BCEGI-USA), entering into a Joint Venture with a Bahamian contractor.

Mr Hutton and his fellow directors, who also include Bahamian businessman Joe Thompson, are pushing for a 2013 first quarter construction start on AsiaMart, with completion in 2015, meaning that any economic impact will be felt in the medium, rather than near-term.

Describing the proposed development, Mr Hutton told Tribune Business: "It's a merchant market for trade.... Just to give you an idea of the scale, there will be 1,600 stalls, each stall employing a minimum of two Bahamians.

"That's not including the large warehouse, which will create employment for a couple of hundred, that does not include transportation or maintenance staff at the Mart, which will be another 200-300 jobs. [Direct] employment could be anywhere between 3,000-4,000 people."

Noting that Grand Bahama's hotels would have to be open to cater to visiting buyers and merchants, Mr Hutton added: "We've estimated the economic impact to be $400 million a year, just between the hotel rooms, the departure taxes, the hotel room taxes, the spin-off businesses. All those people have to eat.

"This is a game changer for the country, in my opinion. This is trade tourism, which does not exist right now. We have trade shows and conventions. The ancillary employment is going to be as big or bigger."

Mr Hutton said the AsiaMart investors were seeking to create as many Bahamian jobs "as humanly possible. We're going to be reserving certain segments of the Mart for Bahamian ownership. My goal is to employ as many Bahamians as humanly possible, because then the profits will stay in the Bahamas".

Explaining that he and his fellow investors had been working on their proposal for a year-and-a-half, Mr Hutton said they had drawn inspiration not only from China's Yiwu International Trade Centre and the wholesale facilities offered there, but also the 1.6 million square foot DragonMart that opened in Dubai in 2004.

While Dubai had been among the hardest hit Middle East nations during the world recession, Mr Hutton said Dragon Mart had just announced it was about to double in size.

"It'll happen, but it'll happen very slowly and deliberately, and we want to have all our ducks in a row," Mr Hutton said, when asked how close AsiaMart was to coming to fruition.

"There are so many facets to the business, and there are so many moving parts to the business. Some parts have come together quickly and some have not, and all we are doing is continuing to plug away and put check marks next to the outstanding issues. We're definitely half-way through the concept planning phase; putting the business plan together and selling the concept. We're fairly far along."

The AsiaMart director added that he had been informed that the company's Business Licence application had been sent from the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) to the Cabinet Office in Nassau, saying he hoped approval would be "imminent".

While construction is still some way off, Mr Hutton said AsiaMart's investors wanted to break ground by the end of the 2013 first quarter. And he told Tribune Business that he was pushing BECGI-USA to enter into a joint venture with a Bahamian contractor.

"Their best bet, and I'm going to insist on it, is that they get a JV partner here. I think it'll work best that way," Mr Hutton added. "That was the model used when Polymers International built their plant. The foreign contractor joint ventured with Island Projects, and it turned out extraordinarily well."

Apart from Chinese and other Asian companies, Mr Hutton said AsiaMart had been attracting attention from businesses in other nations, such as Brazil and Canada. Freeport's location, he explained, provided entities in those two nations with the ability to reach buyers, trading partners and merchants in the respective other halves of the Western Hemisphere.

"The attraction to the Chinese businesses is that it provides them with a focused outlet close to 800 million consumers in the region," Mr Hutton said.

"The name AsiaMart may be a misnomer. It really is a GlobalMart. Without a doubt, Freeport is the perfect location in the Western Hemisphere for it. It's got all the infrastructure in place, waiting for it to happen. It'll wake the city up. It'll bring Freeport back into what it was supposed to be."