The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism has been in Toronto this week to promote the island nation as a premier travel destination. For the first two months of 2018, tourist visitor numbers have increased 23.7 per cent year on year, according to Bahamas director general of tourism Joy Jibrilu.
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Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Inter-American Development Bank Governor Peter Turnquest led a Bahamas delegation to the IDB’s 7th Annual Consultation of the Governors of the Caribbean Country Department, February 26-27, 2018 in Kingston, Jamaica.

The annual consultation of Caribbean Governors involves discussion on a range of urgent administrative topics, dialogue on IDB-sponsored developments in the region, and agreement on main agenda points for the bank’s Annual Meeting in Mendoza, Argentina, in late March.

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LONDON, February 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — The TigerWit Group is pleased to announce that following the acquisition of Mercor Index it has changed the business’s name to TigerWit Limited and appointed Tim Hughes as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with Simon Denham becoming Chief Risk Officer (CRO).

Tim Hughes was formerly at IG Group where he spent thirteen years, progressing to the role of Managing Director, UK before leaving to set up compliance advisory firm, ionStar. At IG, Tim built out and ran the whole retail sales function, and was also responsible for institutional sales, marketing, PR and events in the UK and Ireland, managing a team of 70 people, and contributing to the growth of IG to a £2 billion market capitalisation business, from less than £100 million.

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On Sunday, 25 February 2018, a high level meeting was held at the National Palace of the Republic of Haiti between the President of the Republic of Haiti Jovenel Moise and Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas Dr Hubert Minnis in the margins of the 29th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of State of the Caribbean Community being held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from 26-27 February 2018.

The two government leaders released a joint communication following the meeting.

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The Central Bank of The Bahamas is hosting selected stakeholders to a half-day seminar on Blockchain technology on Thursday March 1st 2018, at the British Colonial Hilton.

Most of the seminar will be spent discussing blockchain technology and its various applications. Opportunities presented by the technology are varied. For The Bahamas they include payments and other uses in domestic financial services. The Central Bank also looks forward to sharing more about its strategic plans to promote greater access and inclusion to financial services. In an island nation, aspirations lean rightly towards providing even more services digitally and securely.

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The Central Bank of The Bahamas has released its Consultation Paper on Proposed Reforms to Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Account Opening and Provision of Financial Services in Supervised Financial Institutions.

It is accompanied by a proposed Annex to the Central Bank’s Guidelines for Licensees on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

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Pictured: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest addresses delegates during the 20th annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook. (BIS Photo/Lisa Davis)

During his keynote address at the Grand Bahama 20th Annual Business Outlook at Grand Lucayan resort February 22, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest outlined some of the initiatives the government is taking in order to remain transparent in its fiscal policies.

One of those initiatives relates to public financial management and reform.

“In this regard we are starting with an innovative programme for e-tendering for government contracts and services,” explained Minister Turnquest.

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The Governor of The Central Bank of The Bahamas John Rolle made remarks to the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation on the State of The Economy Report 2018, February 22.

The Governor addressed foreign investment and exchange controls during his speech, saying:

“Notwithstanding the present debate on the usefulness of the exchange control regime, it is important to note that the controls do ensure that adequate foreign exchange flows are always available to support the fixed parity of the Bahamian dollar against the US dollar (B$1.00 = US$1.00), for all trade payments and approved investment outflows.”

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Engineers and environmental teams from Oban Energies, including local and international experts, met with Bahamas Environment, Science & Technology Commission (BEST) Commission and members of the Local Government Committee for East Grand Bahama at the Office of the Prime Minister in Grand Bahama, to conduct preliminary discussions regarding the project.

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The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said the public finances of The Bahamas are in a better place than they were at the mid-point of the last financial year.

“The aggregate GFS Deficit for the first six months of the current fiscal year totalled some $198.0 million, down sharply from the deficit of $290.3 million recorded by the previous administration at the mid-point of the 2016/17 fiscal year,” DPM Turnquest said as he presented fiscal developments during the first half of the 2017/18 fiscal year in the House of Assembly, February 21, 2018.

He said the latter figure at the mid-year point of last fiscal year represented nearly three times the total deficit that had been projected for the entire year.

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