The Tribune

FORMER Chamber of Commerce president Dionisio D’Aguilar suggested at a recent Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce meeting that better service in the tourism sector would go a long way to help the island of Grand Bahama reach its full potential.

With more than 70 attendees packing the event, held late last week, Mr D’Aguilar said that over the

past 50 years, Freeport has not experienced the kind of growth seen in Nassau – or even Abaco for that matter.

Mr D’Aguilar said he found this fact to be “incredible” because Freeport is the best-equipped island in this hemisphere to accommodate a large influx of businesses. He ascertained that the $11 billion dollars worth of infrastructure created could easily support an additional 50,000 people today.

“The Freeport Container Port, has been the biggest home-run in Freeport to date,” he said.

He added that the successes of the Grand Bahama Shipyard, which creates more than 2,600 jobs paying close to $70 million, and the $350 to $400 million expansion of the BORCO facility currently underway, have been a godsend to a city clearly in distress.

“Deterrents to growth on this island have been many,” said D’Aguilar. He stated for example that the tourism product has “severely declined”.

He blamed poor service for much of this, plus the inability of Hutchinson Whampoa to really succeed in growing the tourism sector.

“Freeport needs to attract a Solomon Kerzner or a Sarkis Izmirlian or a Ken Dart to completely revolutionise its tourism product. Deep pockets, vision and a commitment to developing a workforce that is customer friendly and understands the word service is what is needed,” he said.

Discussing the Grand Bahama Port Authority, Mr D’Aguilar said the perception that no one has been in charge for the last eight years has been a real deterrent.

He said the GBPA needs someone who can go out into the world and land the investment deals that are needed to continue the growth of the island.

In addition, he believes that with no clear consensus on whether or not to extend the Customs duty exemption to 2015, investors are unwilling to make long term plans.

He suggested that the exemption be extended to 2054 with incentives for developing land within 10 years.

Mr D’Aguilar did not lay all the blame on the GBPA however.

He said the central government is not friendly to businesses and expects much of businessmen without providing support in return.

“Government is putting pressure on businesses to decrease work permits, but is not providing adequate education for Bahamians in order to have trainable or qualified people to take the place of foreign workers”.

He also lay blame on the banks, which he said appear are not to making it easy to borrow capital.

Despite what might be perceived as a negative and critical review of Freeport, Mr D’Aguilar concluded that there is hope.

He stated that from his perspective and personal experiences as chairman of AML Foods, there seems to be a general consensus that things are beginning to turn around.

He feels that chairman of the GBPA, Ian Fair, is very connected with the Bahamas government and is also considered a great friend of business and that the port is finally re-branding Freeport and putting greater emphasis on going out into the world to market the benefits of Freeport.

He said entities such as the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce are actively involved in slowly and methodically addressing the impediments and nuisances to doing business in Freeport.

He wrapped up his lively presentation by stating: “When all these cylinders are fired up, private sector, Bahamas government and the Port Authority all operating on the same page and in the same direction, Freeport will be, once and for all, able to demonstrate to the rest of the Bahamas and indeed the world the untapped opportunity it has always been.”