The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama’s economy has stalled because the island abandoned the regulatory model that once made Freeport thrive, the head of its Chamber of Commerce said yesterday, urging a return to the framework of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement.

Dillon Knowles, president of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, told business and government leaders at the 27th Grand Bahama Business Outlook that restoring the island’s competitive regulatory environment is essential to renewed growth.

“What is now missing is the regulatory environment,” he said.

He argued that Freeport’s rise from pine barren to an international trade and tourism hub was driven by private investment backed by an outward-looking regulatory system, but policy changes weakened investor confidence and damaged the Free Trade Zone.

“While other nations embraced free trade zones, transforming themselves into global hubs of prosperity, we drifted. We had the original regulatory model, yet we abandoned it,” he said.

Mr Knowles said the island still holds major economic weight, housing about ten percent of the country’s population and producing roughly 12 percent of gross domestic product.

“Grand Bahama accounts for as much as all other Family Islands combined. The outwardly looking regulatory environment and private capital did more in 20 years than the inwardly looking regulatory environment and the public purse has been able to accomplish in the last 70 years,” he said.

He also contended that Grand Bahama has contributed billions in taxes while receiving little reinvestment.

“Inconsequential capital, inconsequential operational, and inconsequential maintenance expenditures. Not even to East and West Grand Bahama. Grand Bahama has been essentially self-sufficient. It has not had a “free ride” like some of my Nassau family and friends, it has paid its own way and significantly subsidised other islands,” he said.

He said Freeport is not a failed city but a dormant success constrained by policy choices and challenged residents to demand reform so the island can reach its full potential.

Mr Knowles did not detail which elements of the earlier system he wants restored. The original Hawksbill Creek Agreement, signed in 1955, created the Freeport area as a semi-autonomous commercial zone administered largely by the Grand Bahama Port Authority rather than central government ministries.

Under that framework, the Port Authority handled business licensing, zoning, building approvals and many commercial regulations, allowing investors to deal primarily with a single local regulator. The arrangement also paired long-term tax concessions with predictable rules intended to shield businesses from policy changes.

The zone further operated with freer trade and labour processes than the rest of the country, facilitating duty-free transhipment activity and comparatively streamlined work permit approvals tied to investment activity — features widely credited with accelerating Freeport’s early industrial and shipping growth.