On Monday, May 7th, The Bahamas held its eighth election; an event which is best described as perhaps the most pivotal election since independence. The manner in which it was conducted took the process to a new level. It also resulted in the changing of the guard and will no doubt usher in a new cadre of political leaders.

We wish to congratulate Perry G. Christie, the new prime minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, on his election victory.

In less than five days Bahamians will go to the polls to elect a new government to manage The Bahamas Incorporated for the next five years. Voting is a right we all enjoy in a democratic society and we encourage all to vote but please, only once.

All three major parties have issued documents articulating their visions or business plans for The Bahamas for the next several years. We invite all to review and where possible seek clarifications to some of the lists of promises being made.

How much will the PLP's plan to tackle the mortgage 'crisis' cost the people of The Bahamas?

Total Bahamas domestic credit was approximately $7.103 billion at the end of February. Loans or mortgages with maturity over 10 years stood at $4.639 billion. Mortgages outstanding was $3.090 billion with total private sector loans in arrears of $1.159 billion. Total mortgage arrears stood at $619.6 million.

At the center of the 2008 global crisis was the mortgage debacle. The U.S. government funded mortgage agencies that provided funding for residential mortgages, which in most cases, the mortgagee was not able to afford. The end results were foreclosures and a depressed housing market — now headed into its fifth year.

As we all know, in the absence of a holistic economic plan The Bahamas continues to depend on the success — or lack thereof — of the U.S. economy.  The Bahamas is now experiencing what the U.S. experienced back in 2008 in the mortgage market as a result of lenient lending practices. To fix the core of this problem we need policies that are realistic, achievable and measurable.

The present system in The Bahamas, which employed persons contribute to, is a form of social security. Our health system includes tax-funded care through government hospitals and clinics, and private care funded by direct user fees or private insurers.  The incentives that exist include pension, invalidity assistance, medical incentives, maternity benefits, some income replacement, temporary and permanent disability benefits, and health coverage for occupational injuries.  Basically, social health insurance currently exists only through the industrial injury component of NIB.

Recently, the present government implemented the National Prescription Drug Plan to assist some Bahamian residents, particularly the elderly and children under the age of 18 years.  It is estimated that the cost of this program is currently running around $5 million; a figure which we expect to only increase in the future.

We read recently in The Nassau Guardian that Dr. Perry Gomez, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) candidate for North Andros and the Berry Islands said that under a PLP government National Health Insurance (NHI) would be implemented within the first year of coming to office.  While we are in the so-called ‘silly season’ and everyone and their brother are making promises, we would hope that some of the promises would be well reasoned outlining the attended cost and consequences for the wider community; the usual rhetoric is just not acceptable this time around.  We believe that members of the Bahamian electorate are a bit more discerning than most politicians give them credit for.

What is NHI?

Tourism, for more than half a century, has played a pivotal role in the economic development process of this country. It has accounted for most of the foreign direct investment, more than fifty per cent of direct and indirect employment, and has provided the necessary level of foreign exchange inflows to not only fund our insatiable import appetite but also to support the important one-to-one peg between the US dollar and the Bahamian dollar. In other words, unless and until we fix whatever is wrong with our Tourism industry (and fix it urgently), the economic and social dislocations currently being experienced in the country will continue unabated. Large numbers of skilled and semi-skilled Bahamians will join the unemployed labor force; unable to meet their debt commitments, they run the risk of losing their homes and other assets acquired during better times. Unable to provide the needed level of support for their immediate families, the inevitable household tension could rip families apart.

The Ministry of Tourism’s February 2012  ‘The Islands of The Bahamas Arrivals Report’ contains some very useful and informative data on the tourist industry in The Bahamas and a lot more information on the economic performances of those countries from which our visitors originate.

The report, compiled by the ministry’s Research Department, provides a summary of total visitor arrivals to The Bahamas for the year 2011, in what appears to be a record-breaking total of 5.234 million. That figure is broken down further to show that only 1.29 million of those visitors (or about 25 percent) arrived by air.  

After the market close on Friday, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's made good on its threat to downgrade US debt. In lowering the long-term sovereign rating from AAA to AA+, S&P cited their view that "the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges . . .". Adding insult to injury, they left the rating outlook as negative, warning that they could lower it to AA within the next two years if they see fewer reductions in spending, higher interest rates or new fiscal pressures that result in higher than anticipated government debt levels.