The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The upcoming Budget will show how "serious" the Government is about transforming The Bahamas' "ease of doing business", the Chamber of Commerce's chief executive said yesterday.

Edison Sumner said the private sector organisation was eager to see evidence that the Minnis administration was following through on numerous business community recommendations to overhaul the country's permitting processes and systems.

Mr Sumner said: "We at the Chamber have identified that there are still some issues we have to work with, particularly in the areas of the "ease of doing business".

"We commend the Government for forming two very important national committees; one is the Ease of Doing Business Committee, and the other is the Economic Advisory Committee. Those committees have been putting forward recommendations on how we can grow the economy, reduce the bottlenecks and how we can get business done in the country."

Mr Sumner added: "We have seen a number of recommendations that have already made their way into the Government's papers. We are looking forward to seeing the draft of the Budget over the next few weeks.

"We will have the occasion to sit with the Minster of Finance to go over those, and see how much of those recommendations have made it into the Budget. Once it gets into the Budget, then we know the Government is serious about moving some things ahead because they would have put aside the resources to make those things happen."

Mr Sumner, who was speaking at a press conference to announce the Chamber's second annual Cyber Security Forum, added that the organisation is also assessing the Minnis administration's "Over-the-Hill" revitalisation initiative.

"We're looking at that now as well. We are expecting to make some comments on that very shortly," he said. "While we see that there are some benefits, we see that it will have some impact on other businesses operating in certain sectors Over-the-Hill currently. We've got to look at the balanced approach to how that is being done."