From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
PM Minnis: Protecting and Boosting Financial Services Industry
Dec 6, 2017 - 10:12:51 AM
The Bahamian financial services industry has been under threat for some time. Upon coming to office, some of our worse fears were realized when we found that this sector of the economy was in deeper trouble than anticipated because of negligence by the previous administration.
Despite The PLP administration’s claim of being for the people, its lackluster and late-again approach to dealing with this very important part of the economy was about to land us in the very same position that caused a previous FNM administration to have to prevent the country from being blacklisted.
Since the election, the Government has been working to get our economy back on track. Strengthening and growing our economy will lead to better paying jobs and greater job security.
We will continue to put economic recovery front and center by debating and passing the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (Amendment) Bill, the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (Amendment) Regulations and the International Tax Cooperation (Amendment) Bill.
These bills and regulations are extremely important to our country and our image on the international stage. These bills will enable The Bahamas to satisfy the requirements to ensure that we meet various international standards.
These bills also place us in a position to ratify the multinational Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance Tax Matters, and the full implementation of the Common Reporting Standard, while enhancing the framework to allow for the automatic exchange of financial account information.
As important, this legislation will prevent The Bahamas from being placed on the European Union’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, meaning that we will not be blacklisted after enacting this suite of legislation.
After years of our economy being mismanaged, we are starting to make headway in turning around the country’s economic prospects. The Bahamas cannot risk setbacks like being blacklisted by other countries.
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