The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Freeport will enjoy “a huge boost to business confidence” if the Government delivers a 20-year ‘tax break’ renewal for all, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president said yesterday.

Mick Holding told Tribune Business that the new administration’s economic agenda, with its emphasis on reviving Grand Bahama, was “fantastic” and made “quite a statement” for the island’s struggling private sector.

He also backed the “equal treatment” for all Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) licensees, as stated in the ‘Speech from the Throne’, as “the right approach” for reviving Freeport.

Mr Holding was responding after Dame Marguerite Pindling, in unveiling the new government’s headline policy objectives, promised that it would “repeal and replace” the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Incentives Act 2016.

In doing so, the Governor-General said it would “ensure that all licensees receive equal treatment under the law”. That represents a break from the Act passed by the previous administration, which gave the GBPA and Hutchison Whampoa an automatic, blanket 20-year tax breaks renewal while requiring all the former’s other licensees to apply to the Government for theirs on uncertain terms.

“I certainly think equal treatment for all is the right approach,” Mr Holding told Tribune Business. “I would like to think that because the 20-year term has been established, this is what they will go for.

“If they were to do that, it would be a huge boost to business confidence and enable us to attract more outside investment, as we can give them the surety of 20 years. I look forward to hearing more details.”

The ‘Speech from the Throne’ is effectively a statement of intent accompanied by few details, with the Government having much to do to transform its policy and legislative vision into reality.

However, the Minnis administration emphasised Grand Bahama’s importance to the Bahamas’ overall economic welfare, stressing how its infrastructure and industrial assets can be leveraged to potentially transform this nation’s GDP performance.

“My government realises that a healthy and strong Grand Bahamian economy is vital to the growth and development of the entire Bahamas,” Dame Marguerite said yesterday. “Consequently, my government will establish an Investment Promotion Board to promote Grand Bahama as a place for business and recreation.”

Mr Holding described the focus on Grand Bahama as “fantastic” and “quite a statement”, adding: “I’m very pleased to hear it. That’s very encouraging. It’s got to be a positive thing in that regard.”

However, he cautioned: “Before anyone invests, they need to see things in writing. They need to have all the assurances covered by some form of agreement, but it’s got to be positive and helpful in attracting people to Grand Bahama and Freeport.

“I’m hoping that in the next couple of weeks the Chamber will have the opportunity to sit down with representatives of the Government, the minister of state for Grand Bahama, the Deputy Prime Minister, to get a better understanding in detail of what they intend. But the signs are good, the signs are positive.”

Continuing the Grand Bahama focus, Dame Marguerite said the Government will “focus on the development of Freeport as an offshore technology hub” and “promote Grand Bahama as a primary location for the local and international film and television industries”. The provision of incentives “to establish a financial services centre in Grand Bahama” was also promised.

While no specifics were provided for any of these three strategies, which have all been explored before, Mr Holding and Carey Leonard, the Callenders & Co attorney, identified the film and TV industry, in particular, as a potential source of much-needed economic diversification.

It is unclear whether this strategy plans to revive the Bahamas Film Studios project at the former US Air Force Missile Base at Gold Rock Creek. That project, the brainchild of investor trio Paul Quigley, Hans Schutte and Michael Collyer, was undercapitalised and, after undergoing tumultuous ownership changes, has been closed for almost a decade.

Still, Mr Holding said the Bahamas Film Studios had shown the sector’s potential for the Bahamas, with its water tank used to film scenes for the Pirates of the Caribbean II and III movies.

“I haven’t been up there myself to the actual site for several years, but it was starting to decay and fall apart,” he recalled of the site. “It’s certainly not usable in its current state from what I could see.

“But it’s [films and TV] another avenue, another opening for us, and that in itself adds attractions. If film companies do start coming to Grand Bahama again, that can have a very positive effect.”

Mr Leonard said he had heard discussions about Freeport’s deteriorating International Bazaar, because of its architecture, having the potential to be transformed into a film studio.

Should such an idea become reality, he said it would both provide economic diversification and help to attract the numerous Bahamians working in the film and TV production industries back home.

“You’re creating a whole new industry for Bahamians out there in various countries, working in the film and TV industries in various countries, who have nothing to come home to,” Mr Leonard told Tribune Business.

“You’re saying to young, talented Bahamians: ‘We’re going to create something for you to come home to’. I think it’s fantastic.’

The ‘Speech from the Throne’ also pledged to “launch the rebound of Grand Bahama” as a tourist destination, via “the template of a master strategic plan designed for Grand Bahama”.

No details were provided, with Dame Marguerite saying: “My government will establish a tourism signature identity in the marketplace for the island of Grand Bahama.”