The Tribune

The Prime Minister says the Special Economic Recovery Zones (SERZs) have provided more than $105m in VAT, Customs duty and Excise tax breaks to aid Hurricane Dorian reconstruction.

Speaking in Abaco on Friday, Dr Hubert Minnis said that besides these exemptions more than $11m in business license fees have been waived for 4,475 companies based in the storm-devastated areas of Abaco and Grand Bahama.

To-date, he added that close to $6m has been disbursed by the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to aid their recovery with the Government providing some $138 million in direct support to Dorian-hit families and businesses during the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

“While there is still much work to do here on Hope Town and throughout Abaco and Grand Bahama, we are making progress together,” said the Prime Minister, who was speaking at the commissioning ceremony for the Hope Town Shoreline Stabilisation Project.

In 1999, Hurricane Floyd caused severe damage to the edge of Queen’s Highway and nearby sand dunes on Elbow Cay, resulting in the loss of beach sand in front of the dune.

Various attempts were made to re-construct the dune but, in 2011, it was again severely damaged by Hurricane Irene and a subsequent tropical storm.

“These series of events accelerated the shoreline erosion, which ultimately damaged the seaside edge of the road, leading to a sharp and dangerous drop-off,” said Dr Minnis.

“In some sections, traffic was reduced to one lane of road width. Immediate action needed to be taken to keep the road in a safe condition for motorists and pedestrians, and to stabilise the shoreline to mitigate further shoreline erosion.”

The Ministry of Public Works developed a design to repair the road and stabilise the existing dune and shoreline.

A $3m contract for the work was signed in August 2019 with Bahamas Marine Construction, but Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project.

The scope of work includes the rehabilitation of 790 feet of roadway, the construction of 850 feet of concrete retaining wall with steel railing and backfilling, and planting of dune vegetation.

“From tragedy to adversity the project pressed on and works were substantially completed in August 2020,” said the Prime Minister.