The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas must enact the economic and fiscal reforms to make it “the best little country we can be”, the Chamber of Commerce’s chairman said yesterday.

Gowon Bowe told Tribune Business that the two ratings agencies, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, delivered similar messages during their recent to the Bahamas.

“They wanted to get clarity on the revisions in terms of growth numbers, the projected deficit and that kind of thing, looking at the growth prospects,” he said.

“I think the main message is there are certainly a lot of things that are in the works as it relates to economic development, but we have to make sure we are doing the things necessary to bring them to fruition.

“The National Development Plan is a very large part of that. They have areas of focus where they want to make sure we are meeting obligations or commitments to performance. We expect that they would be objective in their criticisms.”

Moody’s announced early last month it was placing the Bahamas “on review” for a potential credit rating downgrade, due to both its unexpected economic contraction and further deterioration in the Government’s fiscal position.

“The message wasn’t that we are in imminent danger, but the message was that we have to make sure that our financial reporting is improved so that we are not doing revisions, and ensure that we have growth prospects,” Mr Bowe said.

“If Baha Mar isn’t imminent then we have to have some other projects coming on stream, and we need to have a vibrant public sector collaboration to make sure all these areas are worked on collectively.

“While I wouldn’t have any expectations of them raising our credit rating, I think that there are positive elements that they became aware of. We have to be mindful that we have to deliver. We have to do the things to ensure we are the best little country we can be.”