The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas must “shift the pendulum” if it is to improve its position in the World Bank’s ‘ease of doijng business’ rankings, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederatio’s chairman said yesterday.

Gowon Bowe said this nation’s slippage to 121st spot was in large part due to inaction, and steps being taken by other countries to improve.

“For the most part we have not done a lot of things to fall in the ranks, but we also  have not done a lot of things to improve,” he said.

“This should not be a spotlight solely on government to say they haven’t lifted us in the rankings, but a spotlight on government from the perspective of facilitating public-private partnerships to work together to change all of these factors in a holistic way.

“It is a sobering report that effectively tells us what we should know. We have not done anything positive or negative. If we don’t do anything we can’t expect to improve.”

The Bahamas is now perilously close to dropping into the bottom third of the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ rankings, after the country was ranked 121st out of 190 nations when it comes to facilitating private sector activity.

Most notably, this nation had dropped 73 places in the global rankings when it comes to the ease of ‘paying taxes’. The drop  in the Bahamas’ ‘paying taxes ease’ ranking, from 22nd in the world to 95th, was the main reason why this nation failed to improve its overall position in the World Bank rankings, falling one spot from 120th to 121st year-over-year.

    “This isn’t a political issue, a public sector issue or a private sector issue; it’s a national issue,” Mr Bowe said. “If we want to improve on these types of rankings we are going to have to take advantage of the best and brightest that we have. There is no monopoly in government or the private sector.”    

He added: “The sad part of it all is that we are certainly not moving in the right direction. We have not done anything to move positively in the right direction. If we actually make a concerted effort by being collectively responsible in the public and private sector, we should start to shift the pendulum.”

    “There are continued efforts being made to automate and improve systems for various departments. However, when we look at the overall ease of doing business, what the Chamber has asked for is really operating what I would call a Task Force or a public-private partnership grouping which says how we tackle these issues. There are a number of factors that sit on the grid, and a large number of them are government-related elements.

“When you look at some of the others factors, like getting credit, however, that is not government related. As we look across it, if we are serious as a nation in terms of making a tremendous dent in the downward trajectory, we are going to have to put our best and brightest minds together to cut throughout the bureaucracy that has crept in as it relates to the things that we are now doing.”