Bahamas News

Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) executives met with lawyers, accountants and bankers yesterday to discuss the companys new vision for Freeport.

The GBPA hosted the licensees to a luncheon at the Westin Grand Bahama Island at Our Lucaya Beach and Golf Resort.

Chairman Hannes Babak, at a subsequent meeting, briefed the media on the purpose of the talks, revealing that it was to discuss how the Port Authority can improve and become more transparent.

Babak said determining how the GBPA – the licensing authority of Freeport – can react quicker to requests for licenses was also up for discussion.

The move comes weeks after much criticism on the sluggish state of the economy of Grand Bahama.

“Part of the community that was here today represents all the clients, all investors who are investing already in Grand Bahama, in Freeport, but especially all (of the new) investors,” said Babak.

GBPA Chief Executive Officer Albert Miller said the luncheon produced positive feedback from the group which represents a cross section of the business community.

Sir Albert also revealed that he and the chairman met last Thursday with Prime Minister Christie and with Minister of Financial Services Vincent Peet on Monday.

“We told him of our vision,” he said of the meeting with the Prime Minister. “We told him about things we think we can do to help turn the economy around in Freeport.”

Regarding the existing process for obtaining a license in Freeport, the CEO says they are working on a plan to speed it up that will allow for Bahamians and non-Bahamians to get answers more quickly.

Sir Albert says the aim is to remove that stigma from the Port Authority where people are afraid to come to the Port Authority for answers and feel the organization is not serving the community.

“We want to cut that out. We want to be transparent, we want to be quick, we want you to see us as your partners, as a service industry,” he said.

“If you want anything from the Port, we want to change that old way of doing business. We want to make life a lot easier and we want to speed up the foreign investor’s process.”

Cognizant that there are critics who have heard it all before, Sir Albert assured that from now on in, there will be a difference.

The difference this time, Sir Albert explained, is that the shareholders have assured they will not interfere.

“We think we are changing the way we did business. We want to be investor friendly, we want to be open, we want you to know what’s going on,” he added.

Also at yesterday’s luncheon, the lawyers, accountants and bankers were informed that the chairman now possesses a work permit.