The Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader yesterday said crime fears had cost the Bahamas a job-creating investment by a “multi-millionaire client”, as he likened doing business in this nation to “hell”.
Branville McCartney told Tribune Business that the Bahamas “continues to put tremendous hurdles” in the way of investors coming to its shores, with local entrepreneurs enjoying an equally hard time.
A former immigration minister, he described one such hurdle as the “bureaucracy and red tape” of the work permit and permanent residency processes, urging that these be “streamlined”.
And, turning his attention to this week’s highly publicise detention of a top UBS (Bahamas) executive by the Immigration Department, Mr McCartney said the whole episode sent a message that the Bahamas was still living “in the Third World”.
He added that the heavy-handed treatment allegedly meted out to Emmanuel Fiaux had embarrassed not just the Government but the entire Bahamas.
And Mr McCartney called for Immigration to issue an “across the board” apology, going beyond the Swiss banker, encompassing the numerous persons apprehended while waiting – in some cases for “months and months” – for their work permit renewal applications to be processed.
Calling for the Bahamas to become “more progressive”, the DNA leader said the “Third World mindset” of its leaders meant it was stuck in a rut and failing to tackle key issues.
“This is so Third World and continues to happen.”
Suggesting that continuing high crime levels, and the fear of crime, was starting to deter foreign direct investment vital to the Bahamian economy, Mr McCartney told Tribune Business: “I had a client call me yesterday, a multi-millionaire client.
“He had a group of persons wishing to come over to the Bahamas to invest. He said to me: ‘McCartney, we are pulling out of the proposed investment, and you know why? Because of crime’.
