The twenty nine member cabinet of the second administration led by Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis held its first meeting at the Office of the Prime Minister in New Providence on Tuesday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration and Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman, the Hon. Fred Mitchell told ZNS News the administration is now focused on turning campaign promises into policy. He said the cabinet aims to address matters more efficiently and swiftly such as the applications for work permits.
Mitchell said, “the main complaint is essentially how the process has actually worked. The business community complains that they apply for work permits, it just takes too long, they can’t get an answer, they constantly have to intervene at a personal level with the minister in order to get something done. So I hope that that is something that can be tackled immediately.”
Member of Parliament for Golden Isles, the Hon. Darron Pickstock has been appointed Minister of State for Immigration. According to Mitchell, Pickstock will oversee immigration operations. “I think what’s very important is that since the country is largely made up of people closer to his age than my age that he and his contemporaries have notions of what immigration ought to be and so therefore they ought to have an opportunity to apply their individual consciences to immigration policy.”
Mitchell said while stability and continuity is uppermost in the mind of the government transitions are taking place going forward.
