The Tribune

THE Government wants all investor Heads of Agreements to go beyond job promises and create entrepreneurial opportunities that will help The Bahamas retain more of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows.

K Peter Turnquest, deputy prime minister, speaking with Tribune Business following a recent Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) town hall meeting, said: “One of the things we have been very active in is ensuring that when we do these agreements with various foreign direct investments they pay particular attention to, and set aside opportunities for, Bahamian entrepreneurs to ensure that not only do we create jobs for Bahamians but we create wealth opportunities for Bahamians, and that we get to retain a bit more of that US foreign dollar here in The Bahamas.

“We are paying particular attention to all of the Heads of Agreements to ensure that they include traditional Bahamian employment but also entrepreneurial opportunities for Bahamians to provide goods and services to their guests and persons who would be utilising those services.”

Mr Turnquest explained that the SBDC initiative is ultimately intended to create a new class of entrepreneurs, and inspire creative ideas that include using native resources to create products for domestic use and export.

“We want to provide services that visitors to our shores will enjoy, and memorable experiences that they will tell others about,” he said.

“In so doing, by particularly empowering underprivileged and underserved communities, we believe that we will be able to empower people to take care of themselves as well as help develop their communities.

“We pay particular attention to the Over-the-Hill communities. At the end of the day, we are hoping to diversify the economy, and encourage persons who feel marginalised outside the scope of economic activity to come into the sector in a formal way.

“It’s about diversifying the economy, spreading the wealth, creating opportunities in some of these disadvantaged communities and ensure that we create generational wealth across our country.”

Turning to the SBDC’s funding, Mr Turnquest said: “We are committed to multi-year funding and are working with the financial institutions, which will give it the kind of sustainability that we are looking for.

“We believe that through this initiative, and over the next three to five years of sustained results, that we would be able to cut our funding and the private sector will see the value in sustaining this project because - at the end of the day - it is generating quality client for them.”

The Government in February signed a deal which increased the available funding pool for local entrepreneurs to $9m.

The government had previously committed to investing $25m to help develop small and medium-sized enterprises over a five-year period.