The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government will on Thursday meet with business stakeholders to further develop its economic strategy, a Cabinet minister telling Tribune Business that the private sector was “key to driving the recovery”.

Confirming the Thursday, September 27 meeting at the British Colonial Hilton, Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, said that in every crisis came opportunity, and the Bahamas “must position” itself to attract capital flight from troubled economies such as Europe.

Mr Rolle told Tribune Business that Thursday’s meeting could lead to a Sustainable Economic Recovery Summit, with both short and long-term economic plans set to be discussed with the private sector. Prime Minister Perry Christie is due to attend.

“The private sector drives the economy, they drive the recovery, and no one has sat down with them to find out what needs to happen to drive recovery,” the Minister confirmed to this newspaper.

“What I am doing is something that should have been done a long time ago; I want to sit down with the people who drive it and get their input on what needs to happen.

“I have some ideas and some answers, but we need to get everyone involved in the process of economic recovery. It will not happen with the Government alone. How can we have recovery without the private sector?”

Mr Rolle, a former Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president, knows better than most that economic recovery must be driven by expansion and job creation in the private sector, especially since the Government is essentially ‘maxed out’ through its huge deficits.

Tribune Business understands that apart from discussing an economic development strategy for the Bahamas, the meeting will also look at holding a future summit intended to create a framework for short-term recovery.

Other items on the agenda include determining how important projects should best be executed, and co-ordinating the different industries and economic sectors in the Bahamas.

Confirming that Thursday’s meeting would look to chart “a way forward” and assess “some short-term strategies”, Mr Rolle told Tribune Business: “I’ve been having a lot of individual conversations, and everyone’s been taking and giving me some input as to what the policies of government” should be.

“The Bahamas Hotel Association has given me some proposals on what needs to happen to kickstart the economy. The Chamber has done some, so I want to have a meeting with them, which may led to a Sustainable Economic Recovery Summit, and I will share some of my long-term plans with them,” he added.

Mr Rolle has been working on the Government’s economic development strategy since taking office, telling Tribune Business in a previous interview that it would “maximise returns” on foreign direct investment (FDI) and lead to sustainable, better economic management.

Explaining the inspiration for his approach, Mr Rolle took a veiled swipe at the former Ingraham administration, saying that policy decisions were taken without consulting the private sector.

“Decisions were made on my behalf without consulting me,” he said, referring to the 2010-2011 Budget’s tax increases.

“I don’t want to be in a position where the previous administration made decisions and recommendations on my behalf that were not in my best interest, but I did not find out until after it happened.”

Yet every economic crisis spawned opportunities. The Bahamas has already attracted capital inflows from French and other European real estate buyers, who are seeking a safe haven for their assets away from socialist governments and economic stricken by the continent’s sovereign debt crisis.

Suggesting that the Bahamas, and its various industries, continue to seek out such opportunities, Mr Rolle said: “With global uncertainty there’s capital flight, especially from Europe.

“The Bahamas has to be positioned to attract some of this capital flight.”