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TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2022
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$50m project eyes ‘Bali in beautiful Bahamas’ • Eleuthera development to create 200 full-time jobs • Developer: All approvals in; site clearance started • Briland experience to help: ‘I’m not a crazy guy’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A NORTH Eleuthera developer plans to create “a Bali in beautiful Bahamas” through a mixed-use project forecast to generate up to 200 full-time jobs via a $50m investment in the resort component alone. Eric Harari, principal for the Gregory Town-based Bel Air Resort development, told Tribune Business in a recent interview he was seeking to “create something very special and unique” by combining the environment and culture that The Bahamas offers with the quality service typically found at Aman Resorts and other high-end Asian inspired boutique hotels.
Disclosing that site clearance has already at the 50.73-acre parcel located some 300 yards from The Cove resort, he added that the necessary planning and environmental approvals - including the Environmental Clearance Certificate (CEC) - have been obtained to allow Bel Air to proceed with construction work likely to start “within five months”. Mr Harari, a Miami-based real estate developer who has delivered projects in Canada as well as three upscale villas on Harbour Island, told this newspaper the project’s build-out will see 50-100 construction workers on-site “at all times” with this number potentially increasing to between 150-200 once work on
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BEL AIR RESORT NORTH ELEUTHERA
‘Second class citizens’ in the financial system
Bahamas urged to ‘get serious on education fix’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas was yesterday urged “to get serious about fixing” its long-standing education crisis amid private sector fears that it will continue to undermine workforce productivity and economic competitiveness. Peter Goudie, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) labour division head, told Tribune Business that the business community continues to be “very concerned” about the public education system’s output after just 13 percent of students obtained five BGCSE grades of ‘C’ or higher in this summer’s exams. “That is a question that doesn’t need to be asked,” he replied to this newspaper’s inquiries. “Everybody’s concerned. They keep talking about reforming the education system, but it’s going to take years to fix it and that will only be if someone wants to fix it. “In many ways, social progression has to be stopped and people have to pass into the next grade. Yes, we’re
A BAHAMIAN crowdfunding platform was yesterday moving aggressively to solve the challenges faced by small retail investors “cut out of the financial system”, adding: “We’ve treated these people like second class citizens.” D’Arcy Rahming Jnr, ArawakX’s chief technology officer, told Tribune Business that “real world problems we have to fix as
• ArawakX: Challenge converting crowdfund pledges to purchases • Executive says ‘real world problems we have to fix as a society’ • Smallest investors lack accounts; can’t afford time on bank line a society” were exposed when it inquired why the smallest investors in recent crowdfund equity offerings had yet to actually pay
for the shares they were acquiring. In seeking to convert “pledges” into actual transactions, he explained that many purchasing
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
D’ARCY RAHMING JNR the minimum amount between $36 to $50 worth of shares - were revealing that they either lacked bank accounts or, as workers who were paid daily, could not afford to stand in bank lines since they would lose a day’s pay. Mr Rahming told this newspaper that such persons had effectively been cut-off from the formal
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Bahamas’ arrivals at 3m, just 16% off pre-COVID By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas received almost three million tourist arrivals during the 2022 first half, it was revealed yesterday, with June’s numbers just 16 percent down on the record-breaking pre-COVID pace set in 2019. The Central Bank of The Bahamas, unveiling its monthly economic assessment for July, reported that tourism’s post-pandemic recovery momentum was maintained although total visitor arrivals remain somewhat short of the
trajectory that took this nation to 8.2m tourists in 2019 despite the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Dorian. “On a year-to-date basis, total arrivals rebounded to 2.998m compared to 413,653 in the corresponding 2021 period, when a 75.7 percent contraction was registered. Underlying this outcome, air arrivals rose to 734,976 passengers, extending the 2.2 percent gain in the preceding year, supported by growth in all major source markets. Further, sea arrivals increased to 2.263m visitors, following a 95.9 percent fall-off in
2021,” the Central Bank said. “Official data provided by the Ministry of Tourism showed that total visitor arrivals by first port of entry rose to 562,485 in June from 135,092 visitors in the comparative period of 2021. Contributing to this development, the dominant sea segment expanded to 421,225 visitors from 21,903 in the prior year. Similarly, air traffic increased to 141,260 from 113,189 in the previous year, restoring 83.9 percent of the volumes registered in 2019. “A breakdown by major port of entry revealed that total arrivals to New
Providence more than tripled to 265,252 visitors in June from 83,314 in the corresponding period of 2021. Underlying this outturn, the air and sea segments both rose to 109,336 and 155,916 visitors, respectively,” it continued. “Likewise, traffic to the Family Islands strengthened to 261,812 from 44,543 a year earlier, as respective air and sea passengers measured 29,040 and 232,772. Further, foreign arrivals to Grand Bahama increased to 35,421 from 7,235 in the previous year, owing
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Inflation jumps five-fold to back PM’s warning By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Central Bank yesterday revealed that annual inflation for the year to June 2022 increased almost five-fold compared to the previous 12 months to give a stark indication of the cost of living crisis facing many Bahamian families. The monetary policy regulator, unveiling its July economic update, revealed
that the annual domestic inflation rate had increased to 4.4 percent as opposed to 0.9 percent some 12 months ago just one day after the Prime Minister urged Bahamians to be frugal with their spending and warned that the country was “in for a rough ride”. “Reflective of the passthrough effects of the increase in global oil prices and supply chain shortages, domestic consumer price inflation - as measured by the All-Bahamas
Retail Price Index - rose to 4.4 percent during the 12 months to June, from 0.9 percent in the same period of 2021,” the Central Bank said. “Leading this outturn, average costs for transport rose by 14.2 percent; for communications by 12.2 percent; for education by 2.3 percent; and for recreation and culture by 1.3 percent after posting respective reductions in the prior year. Further, average inflation accelerated
for food and non-alcoholic beverages (7 percent); restaurants and hotels (6.8 percent); clothing and footwear (5.4 percent); health (4.8 percent); and furnishings, household equipment and maintenance (2.1 percent). “Similarly, the rise in average costs quickened for alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics and housing, water, gas, electricity and other fuels, by
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PETER GOUDIE very concerned. Of course we are. If people are not coming out with better than a ‘D-’ average, we have a problem. The thing is the Ministry of Education has got to get serious about fixing the problem, and also the private sector is worried about people with these grade averages and how much it’s going to affect our productivity.” Some 633 students gained five BGCSE grades that were ‘C’ or higher out of 4,906 total students who sat the exams this summer. That, though, was hailed by Ministry of Education officials as a 15 percent increase over the prior year when just 550 met this benchmark.
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