The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government is aiming to “instutionalise” an approvals process that “meets 90 per cent of the needs of investors” coming into the Bahamas, a Cabinet minister telling Tribune Business that “hundreds” of proposals were before it.

Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, said that of those proposals some 40 related to renewable energy investments, as he confirmed to this newspaper that the Cabinet would this week see the first draft of his “blueprint” for sustainable economic planning and growth.

He was speaking to Tribune Business after the HVS Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operations Summit (CHICOS), where the chairman of a Bahamas-based financial provider said “the door has never been more open” for foreign investors with viable projects.

David Kosoy, head of Sterling Financial Group, who together with Mr Rolle was a panellist in a session on investment opportunities in the Bahamas, said this nation would be “one of the best places to invest in the next 10 years”.

Armed with that endorsement, Mr Rolle told Tribune Business that a first draft of his economic growth and investment strategy had been submitted to Prime Minister Perry Christie, with the Cabinet set to get its first sight of the document this week.

“The first draft has been submitted to the Prime Minister, and we’ll go to Cabinet next [this] week,” he said. Mr Rolle described the document as a map for “real, sustainable economic plannning and development..... A plan and commitment, and a real philosophy and strategy for economic development”.

The Minister said investor proposals currently before the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) numbered “in the hundreds”, and he told Tribune Business: “Renewable energy has been extremely popular - there’s been about 40 of those.”

Earlier in the panel discussion, Mr Rolle said the Bahamas’ ‘welcome doors’ needed to be open even wider for legitimate foreign investors. The Government’s business plan aimed to institutionalise/formalise the investor approvals process, using online technology to give developers an answer on their application within 24-48 hours.

Mr Rolle said he was essentially aiming to take politics and personalities out of investor approvals, ensuring the system and processes did not change when governments changed, and that applications did not founder due to non-business reasons.

Taking his cue from Mr Kosoy, a fellow panellist in the discussion, Mr Rolle said: “We need to be more open. We need to have more furniture in the house to accommodate people coming in.”

Noting the latest decline in the Bahamas’ Ease of Doing Business rankings, with this nation bypassed by countries modernising their processes, Mr Rolle said the Government’s “new business plan” had been crafted after looking at how countries such as Jamaica and Mauritius sought investment and structured their respective promotional organisations.

“It is the blueprint for us for getting a system that is very comprehensive, so at a key touch I know every single investor in the Bahamas - their background, capacity and peculiar issues they need help with,” Mr Rolle said.

“That is the point we’re trying to get to; investors can pick up the phone, go online and in 24-48 hours they get a response from it. They do not have to interact with persons deciding upon their applications. We want to modernise the entire approval of investments in the Bahamas, doing business in the Bahamas.”

Admitting that it would not be easy to cut through bureaucracy and red tape, Mr Rolle added: “It’s going to take some time for us to become that destination where everything is automatic and relies very little on personalities and the Government.

“David made the point investing in the Bahamas is a lot more welcoming and easier now because of the approach of the new government, but it shouldn’t be. These things need to be institutionalised, beyond personalities.

“When a new government comes in, the focus should be on managing the development of the country, not changing the process...... The basic infrastructure should be there to meet 90 per cent of the need of investors coming into the country.”

Mr Kosoy, during his contribution to the panel discussion, said: “Would I put my money here? Yes, I would. The door is open here more than it’s ever been since I’ve been here for the last 11 years..... If you’re a real developer with real ideas, the door is more open that it ever has been before.”

“I think the Bahamas has nowhere to go but up. I believe this is going to be one of the best places to invest in the nexty 10 years. I don’t only talk the talk; I live it.”

Both Mr Rolle and Mr Kosoy said the Bahamas had tremendous real estate development opportunities, noting that continued economic turbulence, particularly in Europe, together with higher tax rates being imposed on the wealthy, would push those individuals to redomicile in the Bahamas as a ‘safe haven’ for their money.

“There will be capital flight to the Bahamas,” the Minister said. He added that he had recently met with one investor who had purchased 20 properties in this nation, because they were unsure their money was safe in their birth nation. Lifestyle and government stability were also important factors.