The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama Port Authority president Ian Rolle said yesterday that the port is not for sale.

He was questioned on the Bahamas Business Outlook’s sidelines.

He said whether to sell the authority is a decision for its shareholders, but added: “As far as I know, we’re not up for sale.”

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said in November that the government informed the existing owners of Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority that it is prepared to acquire the GBPA and its affiliated assets if no suitable private investor or buyer emerges.

However, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said recently that the government had withdrawn an offer to buy out the GBPA’s two shareholders, the Hayward and St George families, in favour of arbitration action.

“I will do what I have to do to get Grand Bahama on the right track,” Mr Davis told reporters, adding he has no dispute with its leaders.

Tension has been brewing publicly between GBPA and the government after the prime minister accused the authority last year of failing to follow its Hawksbill Creek Agreement obligations to maintain Freeport’s infrastructure and facilitate its growth.

Mr Rolle said the two parties are engaged in dialogue regarding the island’s future.

“Well, I can tell you this, that the Ministry for Grand Bahama is working very closely with the Grand Bahama Port Authority executives to ensure that we focus on ease of doing business initiatives and also to get other things done,” he said.

“The Grand Bahama Port Authority have requested certain amendments to the bylaws and the Ministry of Grand Bahama was working very closely with us to cause the amendments to happen.”

They said Grand Bahamas has suffered. “There’s no other island in The Bahamas who suffered like Grand Bahama was a result of these natural disasters, and so I think persons on the island have become frustrated and had communications with government, etc, and that caused the government, very passionate about every single Island wanting development to happen, was very concerned,” he said.

“But we are pleased to actually say to everybody that we have well over $1.5 billion, almost $2 billion worth of projects now for Grand Bahama and I think the government has also said that recently, in fact, the PM said today, he reiterated what we’ve been saying for a while about the number of projects in the pipeline that will help trans- form the economy of Grand Bahama.”