The Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) is responding to comments by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service and a former parliamentarian on the state of affairs in the city of Freeport.
Former Member of Parliament and Grand Bahama resident Frederick McAlpine expressed, “we are still in an economic slum. We’re not receiving from the Port Authority what we think needs to be done. Of course they’ve done a a lot of PR exercise but at the end of the day we believe that the Port can do more and give us more in terms of creating opportunities and seeking to bring more investors in.”
The Hon. Fred Mitchell chimed in on the topic while responding to the comments made by McAlpine. He said, “the owners of the Port are unable or apparently unwilling to meet the financial commitments which they have to the place and take it to the next stage. We all know that its as clear as day the owners of the city have sold off assets, failed in their commitments to bring fresh investment, failed in their obligations to bring essential infrastructure and build in the city. Its only politics that can find a solution to the problems of Freeport.”
Speak on behalf of the GBPA, President Ian Rolle said, “we have over one billion worth of transactions either underway or in the pipeline. Freeport has not seen that amount of activity in many years and that’s under GBPA. And a lot of these deals were in the making more than two years ago because a number of these transactions take a year or even two years sometime to complete. So GBPA has right now, for the city of Freeport, well over $1 billion worth of transactions. That says that we’re doing our job.”
Rolle also addressed speculation on the Grand Bahama Port Authority being acquired by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). “Far as I know it isn’t being sold to anybody at this time, that’s as much as I can say. But its not being sold to anyone at this time,” Rolle said.
