The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Freeport’s existing $10.5bn infrastructure cannot be supported by existing commercial activity and revenue streams, a report warned yesterday, calling for the city’s “economic transformation”.

The Grand Bahama Port Authority-appointed Revitalization and Economic Expansion of Freeport (REEF) committee, in its final recommendations on how to revive an economy that has been stagnating for almost 17 years, said diversification had been made “even more urgent” by the possibility that variants of the COVID-19 virus will threaten tourism “for some years to come”.

“Since 1955, over $12bn (in 2019 US dollars) has been invested in Freeport’s current infrastructure. Given impairment over the 60-plus years, and the impact of successive hurricanes over the past decade, that infrastructure has a current value (estimated on a depreciated replacement cost basis) of roughly $10.5bn,” the report said.

“Upgrading and enhancing that infrastructure to the quality required to support a modern, cosmopolitan city will require considerably more investment than can be supported with current revenue streams. The time has come for a radically different approach (see other articles on Page 24B).

“Freeport’s economic transformation will not be achieved with half-measures. We need to leverage the full spectrum of Freeport’s opportunities, including those offered by the Hawksbill Creek Agreement and drawing on lessons learned from the best in the world, to create an investment destination that sophisticated businesses and workers find more attractive than rival destinations, in the region or elsewhere.”

The report, produced for the committee by the KPMG accounting firm, added that Freeport’s existing infrastructure “is capable of supporting an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 persons, more than four times its current size. To recreate the city of Freeport today and equip it with all the resources and amenities currently in place would cost in the region of $10.5bn”.

Breaking this down, the report added that the port area possesses 410 miles of single lane roadways, and 62 miles of dual carriageways. “One of the most distinguishing features of Freeport is its well-maintained roadways. Freeport has a total of 472 miles of road infrastructure,” it said.