The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

THE proposed merchant trade market for Freeport will "take up" 75 per cent of Grand Bahama's existing hotel room inventory, one of its directors implying it could spark more resort development on the island and the re-opening of closed properties such as the Royal Oasis.

Telling Tribune Business that the planned one million square foot AsiaMart facility would revitalise Grand Bahama's flagging resort industry "in a heartbeat", Ken Hutton, the former Freeport Concrete and John S George chief, said the hundreds of buyers and merchants who would come into Freeport to regularly assess manufacturers' wares would also help to create hundreds of hotel sector jobs.

"If it [AsiaMart] happens, you would have to open all the hotels, and how many thousands of jobs is that," Mr Hutton asked rhetorically. "There's just over 4,000 existing hotel rooms, and there's about 1,000 open right now.

"This [AsiaMart] should fill between 2,500-3,000 hotel rooms per day when it opens. We would take up 75 per cent of the hotel room capacity."

Mr Hutton revealed to Tribune Business yesterday how the AsiaMart buyers emporium/merchant market, where manufacturers from that region and elsewhere would showcase their products to potential buyers and partners in the Western Hemisphere, was projected to have an annual $400 million economic impact and create between 6,000-8,000 total jobs.

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 as the 3,000-4,000 direct, full-time jobs that AsiaMart was projected to create by itself.

Mr Hutton and his fellow directors/investors, who include Bahamian businessman Joe Thompson, are working feverishly to bring AsiaMart to fruition, although much work remains to be done to make it a reality.

Asked by Tribune Business whether AsiaMart had begun to sell any of its planned 1,600 stalls to potential clients, Mr Hutton replied: "We're not at that point. We've got things to pin down.

"I know the interest is there. I've been to China and had all sorts of correspondence from people who are interested. We're not at the point where we can sell it, because we're still in the design phase."

The idea of an AsiaMart-type facility in Freeport is not new, having first surfaced some eight years ago when the Chinese conglomerate, CITIC, was put forward as proposing a similar development. Nothing materialised, though, with one obstacle said to be the reluctance of the then-PLP government to approve what was speculated to be several hundred Chinese work permits.

When asked what made him confident that AsiaMart would succeed, where others have failed, Mr Hutton replied: "I think it's the fact that up until now one of the biggest drawbacks was that it was a foreign investor coming to the Bahamas, as opposed to this one, which is Bahamian initiated, using Bahamian talent and the Bahamian people to drive the investment and bring them here."

He also acknowledged that the relatively high cost of electricity on Grand Bahama - an issue frequently cited as an obstacle to more investment in the island's manufacturing and logistics/distribution sectors - was a concern for AsiaMart.

"It's an issue, there's no doubt about that," Mr Hutton confirmed to Tribune Business. "What we intend to do in construction is make this as energy efficient as possible, which is why we are spending a significant amount of time in the design phase."

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.