The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

ANOTHER technology company has been approved by the government under the Commercial Enterprises Act to operate a software development firm in Grand Bahama.

Minister of State for Grand Bahama Senator Kwasi Thompson announced yesterday the Office of the Prime Minister is pleased to welcome Dev Digital, a software development firm, to Freeport.

“Today is another good day in Grand Bahama,” said Mr Thompson, who noted the company is in the final steps to obtaining its business licence from the Grand Bahama Port Authority.

Dev Digital CEO Peter Markum, and other principals Burton Rodgers and Alan Cates attended the press conference. The company has already hired three persons and is in the process of searching for a location for its office in Freeport.

Mr Thompson said the Commercial Enterprises Act, recently passed by the Minnis administration, is significant in helping Grand Bahama become a tech hub.

GIBC Digital was the first technology company approved by the government last year under the law and opened its offices last June.

“Grand Bahama is experiencing significant benefits of the (law), and we are pleased that a company like Dev Digital has been approved to operate a full software development firm,” Mr Thompson said. “And we are pleased they are going to look to have a location in Grand Bahama.”

According to Mr Thompson, the applications to operate under the act are approved within 30 days as a result of the newly formed investment unit of the Bahamas Investment Authority in the OPM in Freeport.

He noted that approval time is a significant improvement to doing business in the country.

“The unit is set up to make the process of investment easier and to provide better service to Bahamian and foreign investors,” he said. “The unit is for the first time in Freeport (and) has been accepting and processing applications and drafting paperwork for approval, and Dev Digital was one that received assistance from one of the officers in Grand Bahama.”

Dev Digital operates software companies internationally and is looking to establish a regional office in Grand Bahama.

Mr Markum said that Dev Digital employs 135 people, with offices in the US, India, and Zambia. “We decided we wanted a software company and we thought over the last few years we are going to take a global view. Today we are incorporated in India, and Zambia where we are working in education with many groups of professionals,” he said.

Mr Markum explained that Grand Bahama was an ideal location and fit for their tech company because of its proximity to the US East Coast. “That was a big attraction to us,” he explained.

“We have incorporated Dev Digital Bahamas; we don’t have investors - we have us. We run prison software in nine US states, and we run educational software,” he added.

Mr Rodgers said Dev Digital is excited to be in Freeport. “We already have three persons working with the company before we got started, and we are in search of a location now for our office here in Grand Bahama, and looking at staffing the business.

“Hopefully, we will be starting in a matter of days,” he said, added that they would employ anywhere between 15 to 20 persons. “We are very conservative, and as the business grows we will bring on persons,” Mr Rodgers said. ‘The plan is to make this a regional office.”

When asked about investment figures, Mr Rodgers said: “We do not have an actual figure to get the business going.”

However, Mr Markum indicated that they did not want to come in making any big talks and promises that they could not deliver. “Our investment numbers are not going to be as big as others - we are a people’s business and… we don’t want to come in here and say we will do $20 million and say stuff that probably ain’t going to happen. So it is hard to say what it would be,” he said.