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Last Updated: Sep 24, 2017 - 8:17:38 PM |
 NASSAU, The Bahamas - The government appreciates that the ongoing success and vitality of the Bahamian economy is tied to the nation’s ability to attract quality “strategic” foreign investment, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance the Hon. Peter Turnquest said.
“In order to maintain and sustain living standards at the levels we have become accustomed [to], we need to not only attract a certain amount of foreign direct investment, we must do so on an annual basis and in competition with the rest of the Caribbean and Latin American region as well as with many states, municipalities, cities and towns within the United States,” DPM Turnquest said during the Eleuthera Business Outlook, Thursday, September 21, 2017.
Over the years, the country has been relatively successful in attracting those investments by extending a range of incentives to the foreign investor in terms of tax concessions, favourable terms for land acquisition and counterpart capital developmental funding for infrastructure by the government; all of which are elements of private and public partnership (PPP) cultivated over the years though we may not have labelled it as such, he noted.
One of the country’s main challenges going forward, he said will be -- how does it maintain that leadership position?
“Maintaining our leadership position would involve greater collaboration by the government and the private sector to improve and expand our infrastructure, the level of services offered and the number of opportunities created.
“This means, in my view, the expansion and formalization of the PPP concept. The basic aim of creating PPPs is to allow the public sector to employ private-sector capital and management expertise in the delivery of public services,” he said.
The government efforts to provide the necessary resources to meet public sector demand will be guided by the mandate to increase the revenue base without having to rely heavily on the introduction of new taxes or increases in existing tax rates, the DPM explained.
The government needs to re-organize, modernize and upgrade the revenue collection machinery in order to increase its yield, he said.
“In that regard, the government intends to introduce a number of measures with a view towards improving the administration of the collection process; improvements to the revenue statistical data base; and the development of programs to reduce leakages.
“In light of this challenge, we are guided by the principle that the private sector, in a competitive environment, is better able than the government to deliver goods and services to the public.
“Therefore consideration should be given to public-private partnership as a more efficient means of meeting the needs of the public sector.”
DPM Turnquest said the advantages of this type of partnership include the ability to raise additional finance in an environment of budgetary restrictions, make the best use of private sector operational efficiencies to reduce cost and increase quality to the public and the ability to speed up infrastructure development. In this way the private sector is seen as a partner in nation building.
It is my Government’s intention to mount a sustained effort to provide more resources to meet the growing public sector demand for improved health and education services; the need for heightened and more efficient security services; the expansion of social welfare and youth programs as well as the provision of new and improved infrastructure facilities. In terms of infrastructure, over near term, there is a need for increased government capital expenditure for airport developments and further road construction in order to accommodate the private sector investment plans for the tourism sector.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
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