business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2025
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Decade-old Arawak Cay marina project is revived t /JOFUZ TMJQT TQBDF QBSLJOH MPU OFYU UP 'JTI 'SZ t "QQSPWBMT TPVHIU GPS DPNQMFY mSTU FZFE JO t 4UVEJFT BTTFSU ANJOJNBM JNQBDU UP OFBSCZ FOWJSPONFOU By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A MORE than decade-old, 90-slip marina project immediately adjacent to the Arawak Cay Fish Fry’s western end is being revived following a verdict that it will have “minimal impact” on the surrounding environment. The proposed Wong’s Marina, which will be located almost immediately opposite the West Bay Street and Chippingham Road junction, almost beside Arawak Cay’s western-most entrance, will also feature a 120-space parking lot and two commercial buildings covering 21,000 square feet that will host retail and other amenities. The project’s Environmental Baseline Study and Environmental Management Plan (EMP), which have been obtained by Tribune Business, do not name the marina project’s developer or principals but disclose that it was first submitted to the planning authorities and other government regulators as a “cultural and commercial complex” as far back as 2013. “The proposed Wong’s Marina is a resubmission of an earlier proposal to government agencies considered previously in 2013 and 2014. A ‘proposed cultural and commercial complex’ was considered by the Port Department, Ministry of Transport, on December 4, 2013, and by the Ministry of Works and Urban Development on November 21, 2014,” the environmental studies disclosed. “The Port Department considered drawings, which were given preliminary planning approval for a site plan dated April 4, 2013, by the Department of Physical Planning, which proposed the reclamation of approximately two acres of the Crown seabed between New Providence and Arawak Cay, opposite Chippingham Road, west of Arawak Cay Fish Fry.
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‘Don’t sell a dream’: Be real as debt hits $12bn By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government was yesterday urged “to not sell a dream” but remain “grounded” in a realistic pace of fiscal consolidation as The Bahamas’ national debt breached the $12bn mark. Gowon Bowe, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, in describing the $69.8m full-year deficit target for 2024-2025 as “aspirational” told Tribune Business that the Davis administration must stay real as “to what we can achieve in a realistic timeframe” with its projections and forecasts
t N EFmDJU ABTQJSBUJPOBM CVU FWFO EPVCMF JT QSPHSFTT t #BIBNBT OFFET ANPSF HPWFSOBODF BOE MFTT QPMJUJDT t 0QQPTJUJPO (PW U TQBS BHBJO PWFS 1. USBWFM CVEHFU Pointing out that a deficit “double” the full-year prediction would still represent progress towards the ultimate goal of a balanced Budget and fiscal surplus, where the Government’s revenue income finally exceeds total spending,
GOWON BOWE
he reiterated that The Bahamas needs “more governance, less politics” even with a general election now at most 18 months away.
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DR DUANE SANDS
BNT: Bahamas Moorings scheme ‘unfathomable’ with regulation gap By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas National Trust (BNT) has branded the now-aborted plan to “privatise” boat moorings throughout the Exuma Cays as “unfathomable” given the absence of strong regulatory safeguards. The national parks manager, in a statement to Tribune Business, voiced relief that the controversial Bahamas Moorings deal is not proceeding given that this nation lacks the necessary supervisory framework to “impose accountability” on private managers and operators
of moorings/anchorages throughout the archipelago. And, backing the Prime Minister’s mid-year Budget announcement that the Government plans to consult widely, and transparently, with all relevant stakeholders over the creation of a “national strategic plan for the management of mooring fields” in the wake of the fiasco, the BNT said it was critical that such facilities benefit both the environment and communities/economies where they are located. It also hinted that it was aware of the Bahamas Moorings project prior to its public disclosure by Tribune Business and others, but said
THE MOORING field in Warderick Wells, headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park (ECLSP), managed by the BNT. Photo:Courtesy of BNT the “early and numerous concerns” voiced to government officials had only been “partially addressed”. And it called on the Government to use the mooring scheme for Moriah Harbour Cay National Park and Elizabeth Harbour as the model for its proposed national strategy.
Meanwhile Peter Maury, the Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president, told this newspaper that the body and its members will “100 percent participate” in any public consultation on the development of a national moorings/anchorage strategy
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Business Licence exemption end for corporate tax payers By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government is eliminating the exemption from Business Licence fees that applied to companies subject to the new 15 percent corporate income tax, a Cabinet minister confirmed yesterday. Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, in a messaged reply to Tribune Business inquiries said that reforms to the Business Licence Act and Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT)
MICHAEL HALKITIS Act which were tabled in the House of Assembly alongside the mid-year Budget will “remove any
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Bahamas to ‘remagine’ trade with Canada via ‘inked deals’ By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas was yesterday urged to “reimagine our trade relationship with Canada” given the threat posed by an unpredictable US trade policy and Donald Trump’s continual threat to impose import tariffs. Dr Leo Rolle, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCE) chief executive, speaking as an 18-firm Canadian delegation arrived in this nation on a trade mission, said: “So we’ve actually been
working with Canada for a while now, the Government of the Bahamas, as well as a lot of our members. “What we found so interesting is that a lot of our members are using a lot of Canadian companies to get products and services, but a lot of them are also looking to become exporters to the Canadian market, of course, with that being a very large Bahamian diaspora. But what we’re hoping and thinking will come out of this Canada inbound mission is inked partnerships and inked deals.
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