The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An ex-Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) president last night called for greater clarity on the projects the Government plans to "fast track", adding: "The devil is in the details."

Leonard Sands told Tribune Business that the local construction industry needed more information on the volume, scale and nature of the private sector investments referred to yesterday by the Prime Minister if it was to properly prepare its workforce and maximise the potential opportunities.

"I think the challenge quite honestly is we need to know the volume and scale of projects that are in the chute and, for whatever reason, were delayed or did not progress because of COVID-19 and any number of bureaucratic situations that prevented them from moving forward," he said.

"We have heard very little about these projects. What are these projects, and what is their scale? We need to quantify it. It could be three projects; it could be 30 projects. You're talking about a significant impact to the economy if it's 30 projects. There are more details that need to be fleshed out on the Prime Minister's address. The devil is in the details."

Mr Sands was reacting after Dr Hubert Minnis, in an address that effectively completed a 180-degree u-turn from full New Providence lockdown to opening up significant portions of the island's domestic economy in less than a week, said the Government planned to give a swift go-ahead for all "viable" private sector construction projects awaiting required approvals.

"Based on the Economic Recovery Committee's (ERC) recommendations, we are preparing a strategy to approve all pending viable private sector and construction projects that are currently under consideration, and to fast track those approvals," the Prime Minister said without going into specifics.

"The approval and execution of these projects will generate immediate employment and business opportunities for Bahamian contractors and trade professionals." Such a recommendation from the Government-appointed Economic Recovery Committee represents further 'low hanging fruit' for The Bahamas in efforts to revive its economy from the COVID-19 doldrums.

Persons such as Robert Myers, the Organisation for Responsible Governance's (ORG) principal, have been advocating for months that stimulating construction-related foreign direct investment (FDI) is critical to both tapping into one of the few non-tourism foreign exchange earnings streams available to The Bahamas and job creation - especially for semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

The latest Department of Statistics data from 2018 showed construction as employing almost 20,000 Bahamians, and Mr Sands yesterday said the industry needed more information from the Government on what exactly it plans to speedily approve.

"If these projects are going to be fast-tracked, what are the timelines for them to be started so our workforce can be engaged?" he questioned, adding that the Prime Minister's focus on government-funded capital works investments represented a further source of interest for Bahamian contractors.

"The Government is accelerating the execution of the budgeted public infrastructure and construction projects, and will pay special attention to the smaller scale projects that benefit multiple smaller contractors," Dr Minnis said. "This will allow for increased employment in many vulnerable segments of the economy and benefit a number of Bahamian small firms."

Mr Sands said this made it imperative for the Bahamian construction industry to hear from Desmond Bannister, minister of works, describing him as "the key guy" for the sector after the Prime Minister said all Cabinet ministers will report to the nation on how their ministries plan to advance in a COVID-19 world. The Ministry of Works' capital budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal is more than $151m.

"I believe the Government has a lot of capital works in mind," the ex-BCA chief told this newspaper, "but they need to speak to it so people can have more confidence as to what they are speaking about.

"The minister of works has to flesh out the details through to the close of 2020, and all he sees happening in the next 12 months in the country. Without that level of detail we're optimistic and hopeful, but it's better to be grounded in fact than just a little optimism."

The Prime Minister's pivot from full lockdown to New Providence's partial economic re-opening, which takes effect from next Monday, August 31, largely takes The Bahamas' commercial hub back to the state it was in prior to this month and the reimposition of restrictions designed to counter the surge in cases amid COVID-19's second wave.

A prime beneficiary is the restaurant sector, which can emerge from a three-week lockdown to offer outdoor dining, takeaway, curbside and delivery services. And this time, particularly where Arawak Cay and Potter's Cay are concerned, there will be less discrimination as vendors at both locations will be allowed to provide curb side, takeaway and delivery services.

Ash Henderson, marketing director for the Myers Group's various restaurant brands, hailed the industry's re-opening as "tremendous" and said it would enable the group to bring 1,000 persons back to work across the formats.

"Being able to re-open is huge for us," he told Tribune Business. "We employ more than 1,000 people, and the extended closure obviously put all those employees into flux and severely impacted us. These last two to three weeks of complete shut down, it's tough to run a business with zero revenue coming in."

The Myers Group operates the local KFC, Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Quiznos franchises, as well as Anthony's on Paradise Island. Mr Henderson said all planned to re-open from Monday to "help the economy, help the country and help people's state of mind".

"We'll be ready to roll," he added. "We're waiting to see what the actual orders are from the Prime Minister's Office but we will certainly be open as late as we're legally permitted to be.

"Most of the year we've had to close at 6pm, as well as deal with the weekend lockdowns, and normally we'd be open deep into the night between 10pm and midnight. It was a huge cut to our available hours."