Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis has said in a ZNS news report that he believes that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the economy and that the government’s mid-year budget will seek to improve the country’s current financial situation.
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MEXICO CITY – When Venezuela seized billions of dollars in assets from Exxon Mobil and other foreign companies, Chinese state banks and investors didn’t blink. Over the past five years they have loaned Venezuela more than $35 billion.

This is an excerpt from AP/The Japan Times as it appeared on February 25, 2013. For updates or to read the current version of this post in its entirety, please click here.

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The growing infrastructure gap in the Caribbean region represents a lucrative opportunity for foreign investors, according to KPMG partner Simon Townend.

Speaking at the Bahamas International Investment & Business Forum (BIIBF) held at the Grand Lucayan Resort in Freeport this week, Townend said services in The Bahamas such as road maintenance, schools, hospitals and transport links were all “critical to a successful competitive economy” and that several key areas were ripe for investment.

“It is a huge opportunity for investment,” he said. “We are not building for today, we are building for the future. A lot of this is going to have to come from the private sector.”

He stressed that infrastructure investment, such as the $400-million redevelopment of the Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, would produce good returns over the long term and benefitted from less competition in the Caribbean, saying: “[these investments] give long-term returns and [the sector is] less competitive than in the US or the larger countries.”

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Baha Mar executives and staff, dignitaries and artists attended the topping off ceremony of Baha Mar’s 25-storey casino hotel yesterday.

The building will be the largest in the $3.5-billion mega resort complex on Cable Beach on New Providence.

Attendees at the ceremony included Prime Minister Perry Christie, Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, Chinese Ambassador to The Bahamas Wu Shan, and singer and founder of Kravitz Design Lenny Kravitz.

The milestone has been reached two years after the groundbreaking ceremony February 21, 2011.

Executive vice-president of one of the major investors in the project, the China State Construction and China Construction America (CCA), Tiger Wu, addressed the event saying that it was an important point in the project’s development.

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WAKEFIELD, Mass. Feb, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE via COMTEX) — Comverse CNSI +0.93% announced today that Bahamas Telecommunications Company Ltd. (BTC), a leading provider of multi-play services in the Bahamas and a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless Communications PLC, has successfully deployed the Comverse ONE Real-Time Billing & Active Customer Management solution to support its business transformation and optimize its new 4G infrastructure for new service enablement and monetization, together with Comverse SMSC and USSD services.

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The Ministry of Financial Services officially launched its new trade policy yesterday, with Minister Ryan Pinder telling the Bahamas International Investment & Business Forum (BIIBF) that the government was committed to pursuing a “value added trade strategy.”

The initiative involves bringing products into The Bahamas, adding value, and then exporting the goods.

Minister Pinder said the strategy would “provide the catalyst for sustainable economic growth in The Bahamas” and added that Freeport was ideally suited to take advantage of this, as it already has the infrastructure in place for manufacturing and other processes.

“Value added trade seeks to increase the value of a product at each stage of production,” he said.

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With the Panama Canal set to double its capacity in 2015, the Grand Bahama Shipyard will reap the benefits of increased business and be able to contribute further to the island’s growing maritime sector, according to Carl-Gustaf Rotkirch, chairman and chief executive officer of the Grand Bahama Shipyard.

Freeport is located on a major shipping route and will see increased maritime traffic when the Panama Canal expansion project is completed in 2015, he said.

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Freeport is one of only four ports in the region that can accommodate the increased business expected from the Panama Canal expansion when it is completed in 2015, according to chairman of shipping firm The Kestrel Group Andy Thorne.

Freeport joins Kingston in Jamaica, Panama and Norfolk in the US as the only ports in the Atlantic and Caribbean region capable of handling the bigger ships that will be able to navigate the canal when it expands.

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George Markantonis, president and managing director of the multi-billion dollar Atlantis Paradise Island resort, shared some of the secrets of the resort’s success at an investment forum being held in Freeport this week.

Addressing potential investors at the Bahamas International Investment and Business Forum (BIIBF), Markantonis said: “Nothing is too big if you have the right mindset. There is a lot of money to be made in tourism.”

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A high level delegation from The Bahamas, including Prime Minister Perry Christie, is visiting Haiti this week to attend the 24th Intercessional CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting. See photos of the event here.

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