President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Doswell Coakley, said that Grand Bahama, with a population of less than 50,000 and the capacity for 250,000, needs more people – the main engine that drives any economy.
One way to address that need, said Dr. Coakley, is to have an objective discussion about “targeted immigration,” following an examination of the island’s labour class needs.
“With respect to Grand Bahamians, whenever anyone speaks about immigration there is a feeling by many [that] they have been set up to serve a hidden agenda. It is an area of concern that must be addressed in an objective way if we are to ready ourselves for global competition, which is already upon us,” said, Dr. Coakley a former director of immigration.
He said that people in large numbers almost automatically demand additional amenities, products and services, from specialty stores to increased demand for a variety of housing and support programmes.
“To my mind, this is what sets Nassau’s economy apart from that of Freeport, even though Grand Bahama has several times the land mass of New Providence it does not have these economies as scaled,” said Dr. Coakley.
Pointing out that Grand Bahama should never take its tourism product for granted, Dr. Coakley said the island is also “considered one of the hottest spots for investments in the world.”
Since the launch of Ginn’s $3.7 billion development in West End, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce has received a number of inquiries following Hurricane Wilma, said executive director of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, Mercynth Ferguson in an earlier interview with The Bahama Journal.
However, Dr. Coakley noted that once the investors arrive residents must be able to cater to their particular needs, a big step in moving the island forward.
“I therefore submit that we need to one, review how Grand Bahama is marketed, put more emphasis on the training of staff, ensure there is greater clarity of our investments procedures, guidelines and incentives, inclusive of an approval timetable for potential investors, ensure Bahamian and non-Bahamian investors are assured of equal treatment, and revisit our school’s curriculum to put emphasis on certain services and trade skills,” Dr. Coakley said.
According to Dr. Coakley, other key suggestions for the island’s further growth include developing more tourist attractions, ensuring that a greater variety of food stuff is available for the discriminating traveller, improving the mode of transportation between Grand Bahama and the U.S. mainland and making available more Bahamian music and entertainment for Bahamians and tourists alike.
Offering his own suggestions, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, David Johnson, said Grand Bahama has for far too long made “poor decisions” or allowed the wrong decisions to prevail regarding who develops what in the island’s tourism sector.
“It is time we stop allowing for or ushering in investors or developers whose agenda is not a winning one for the destination if we are to professionally let them advance. We must realise that our business is a most competitive one. We must seek out those with winning track records and not continue to become the recipient of schemes that could never work,” Mr. Johnson said.
In spite of the hurricanes, Grand Bahama rebounded in the last quarter of 2005 with air arrivals showing a 64 percent increase over the same period a year ago and sea arrivals posting a 107 percent increase compared to 2004, according to Mr. Johnson.
Meanwhile, Dr. Coakley also said the island has already started to “feel pressure” from the growing shortage of available skilled labour.
“We advocate, however, that skilled persons be brought into the Bahamas only after exhaustive attempts with the Department of Labour to find Bahamians to fill available positions,” said Dr. Coakley at the recent Grand Bahama Business Outlook Conference.
“And where no Bahamians can be found, there ought to be an understudy, a training programme that is at least two-persons deep so as to allow for the smooth transfer of technology and skills,” Dr. Coakley said.
Suggestions such as these are being taken into consideration. The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute recently launched a programme with St. Georges High School in equipping students with the necessary skills to give students a jumpstart on their careers.
By: Courtnee Romer, The Bahama Journal
