The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister has admitted to “struggling” with the Government’s politically-led approach to decision-making on foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, saying: “I ain’t no politician.”

Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, told Tribune Business that while he and the Government had accomplished much since 2012, it was “not nearly enough” to compensate for the Bahamas’ lack of post-independence planning.

The Minister explained that he had been pursuing a “dual track” approach to the investments portfolio, developing a system that will underpin “sustainable” future development, while also attracting sufficient new projects “to keep us afloat”.

Reiterating that the Bahamas was failing to maximise the potential economic benefits from FDI, Mr Rolle said the country was “still fighting” to develop a model to address this in the form of the National Development Plan (NDP).

Explaining that the NDP was intended to be a living, breathing document that was open to change, and intended to guide the Bahamas’ development for the next 30 years, Mr Rolle warned that any administration who brought the exercise to a close “does so at their own peril.

Listing numerous projects that have been approved by the Christie administration, including Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) private island at Ocean Cay, which is scheduled to ‘break ground’ today, Mr Rolle alluded to discomfort and frustration with the intrusion of politics into the Government’s FDI decision-making.

“It hasn’t been easy at all. I’m not a politician; I’m a businessman first,” he told Tribune Business. “Their [Government’s] approach is to look at the political implications, mine is to look at the economic implications and manage it from that perspective. That’s been somewhat of a struggle.”

Mr Rolle, a former senior executive with Bahamas Ferries, was also a former Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president and an entrepreneur with his own businesses, prior to entering politics and being elected to government in 2012.

He has been one of the private sector’s few supporters in Cabinet, while working to put in place a more scientific approach to growing the Bahamian economy through the NDP.

Mr Rolle, who has ministerial oversight of that project, told Tribune Business that the NDP represents the first real effort to maximise the benefits of FDI projects for Bahamians and their economy.

“A lot of work has been done, but a country like the Bahamas does not capture as much as I think it should of the downstream impact of foreign investment. It doesn’t show as much as it should,” Mr Rolle said of FDI.

“That was an observation I made in December 2012; that we haven’t seen in our model how we derive benefits from FDI. We haven’t done that.

“It hasn’t just been in the last 20 years, it hasn’t been in just the last 30 years. That has not been a real focus of the machinery behind it,” he added.

“We lament it, but putting a well-researched plan in place to address it, that hasn’t happened until now, and we’re still fighting to try and develop a model and the mechanisms to implement it.”

Mr Rolle explained that he has been working on parallel processes, simultaneously seeking to attract FDI projects while developing and implementing a system that would ensure they contributed to long-term economic growth and development.

“We’ve been running a dual track for the last five years, one of trying to change the system from the old way of doing things to a new way that requires a lot of research and planning,” he said.

“And, at the same time, trying to generate sufficient investment that we can have economic activity that helps to grow GDP and keep us afloat.”

Mr Rolle pointed to several FDI successes, including his successful efforts to broker a sale of the Abaco Club at Winding Bay from Marriott/Ritz-Carlton to Southworth Development, backed by a group of existing homeowners.

“You look at Bimini and what has taken place there, the amount of economic growth and development,” he told Tribune Business, in reference to Resorts World’s takeover of Bimini Bay.

“You look at Paradise Island, with the Warwick taking over a derelict property where nothing was happening. You look at the place opposite Long Wharf, the now-Marriott Courtyard.”

Mr Rolle said new ownership for both properties had given them the chance to become “sustainable hotels”, as he also noted the continuing expansions at Baker’s Bay and Albany.

Yet he acknowledged: “A lot of work has been done, but not nearly enough, due to the level of growth and development needed to compensate for the many years of not focusing on sustainable growth and a sustainable strategy.”

Mr Rolle also conceded that while the Investments Boards’s ‘turnaround time’ for processing foreign real estate purchase applications had improved, it was “still not where I want it to be”.

“I ain’t no politician,” he told Tribune Business. “I call it as I see it. We’ve seen some improvement, but it’s not where I’d like it to be.”

Emphasising that he was “not comfortable” if inefficiency on the Government’s part was causing permits to be delayed, Mr Rolle said the Investments Board was processing applications on weekly basis if the workload required it.

The Government has placed much emphasis on the NDP, and the Minister described the recently-released first draft as “a very rough cut” but very detailed.

“We didn’t want to get too far ahead without getting feedback,” he explained. “It’s just a draft that’s open for more critique and feedback.

“It’s not coming from anyone’s lunch pallet and head. It’s getting people’s ideas and putting it into detailed form.”

Mr Rolle urged that politics not interfere with the NDP, adding: “This doesn’t end with the elections; by no means. Any government that brings it to an end does so at their own peril.

“I just want to see it [the NDP] done. My legacy, to me, will be seeing real change in the way we do business, the way government functions and making sure the environment is easier for us to exist. That’s what I want to see.”