President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, James Carey is sharing his concerns about the ease of doing business in the country as the Bahamas is currently ranked 119th in the world.
Carey said, “there’s no one stop shop which is something I believe that former Prime Minister Pindling was worried about many, many years ago. Introduction of a one stop shop where you can go to one spot get all your questions answered and get your processes done, I’m talking about the average business, if its a huge development of course that’s different.”
The Chamber President encouraged that the process be made more efficient through the use of technology. ”The government with its growing ability with technology and so many things with the government are now online and a lot of things we can do. We need to embrace that and make it easy to get started.”
To start a business in Grand Bahama persons need a license from the Grand Bahama Port Authority and undergo an investment evaluation. Carey said, “so you have you money on the ground, its done and then you’re waiting for this other things to happen cause there’s no process, to my knowledge, where you can get certain clearances subject to final inspection or final process. It all, you know, wait and see, get it done and then we will inspect and look at and make determinations etc., etc.”
Carey says potential business owners whose money is out there needs to start getting it back and the sooner they can open the business and get it going the better.
