The Government of The Bahamas is turning to the local private sector to drive investments in the country and is creating a new statutory body to steer the process.

The administration is now in the process of identifying a select group of private sector leaders to establish the new statutory body to be called Invest Bahamas, which is expected to replace the Bahamas Investment Authority. The recommendation for the creation of Invest Bahamas came from the Economic Recovery Committee (ERC).

Acting Financial Secretary Marlon Johnson, who is also the chair of the ERC, said the Ministry of Finance is reviewing at least seven bids following the recent closure of the request for proposals (RFP) period.

According to Johnson, “we had an RFP for Invest Bahamas, which is a significant recommendation coming out of the ERC. And Invest Bahamas is how do you take the current Bahamas Investment Authority and create an industry with best practices from around the world to create a proper investment entity that would help both domestic and foreign investors be able to accelerate their investment plans.”

Substantive responses received from RFP

He advised that from the initial RFP, the Ministry has received six or seven substantive responses “and we’re getting ready to evaluate those and make a recommendation on that. The government has already given us the mandate to go ahead with that. Once the team has decided, you will see a brand new approach to investment facilitation, both for significant domestic and significant international investment coming into the country.”

In its executive summary, which contained dozens of recommendations on how the government could grow the economy following the shock of Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic, the ERC recommended the BIA be used only as a promotional arm of Invest Bahamas – an independent statutory body that would facilitate the investment process from conception to implementation.

The establishment of the new statutory body is considered by the government to be critical in the transformation of the country’s investment regime, by which it hopes to streamline government processes for domestic and foreign direct investments, as well as provide new incentives.

According to the RFP, Invest Bahamas would be, “a progressive, autonomous and integrated foreign and domestic investment agency that, among other things, will promote The Bahamas as a jurisdiction open for business for quality foreign direct investment, facilitate and in some cases approve foreign investment applications and assist Bahamians in accessing business capital and appropriate financial concessions.”

A successful bidder would have to provide a new efficient and transparent investment approval process, review and approval of investment proposals. The government said an important part of the consultancy must include recommendations on creating the value proposition of each island or grouping of islands in the Bahamian archipelago to be developed with specific types of investments based on each island’s suitability.