Rick Lowe

Lots of ink is spent proclaiming that The Bahamas and her people would be better off if all economic activity in "The Bahamas was reserved exclusively for Bahamians" or similar arguments.

Back in 2003 I helped write a discussion paper on Bahamianisation & Economic Growth while serving on the Financial Services Task Force, assembled by the PLP Government of the day.

In a nutshell Foreign Direct Investment and the benefits of the prosperity it brings by way of benefits to the lower-income households seems indisputable.

Here's a snippet:

"…GNP over five years (from 1995 to 2000) grew at 4.3% per year in real terms—an outstanding achievement."

"And even more importantly, the benefits of that prosperity were more widely distributed.
The lower-income 60 per cent of the population (per Department of Statistics data in the
table below) got a bigger slice of the growing economic pie; the top 40% got a reduced
share; and the top 20% had the largest loss of share."

(Click on the image fo an enlarged view)

To enjoy a pdf of the discussion paper, Click here…