By E. D. APPIAH

Freeport News Reporter

ewurabena@nasguard.com

Realizing Grand Bahama's desperate need for economic change, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) has commissioned the assistance of a U.S. company to identify and plan the company's economic goals in the near future.

In response to calls for a change in the island's economic model, GBPA President Ian Rolle revealed the company's latest efforts during a recent town meeting on the economy.

"The focus should not be on the model, but what we the key stakeholders are doing to get the economy to flourish," he said.

"We have engaged the services of reputable consultants in the U.S. to assist us in identifying short-term, mid-term and long-term goals," Rolle explained.

"Short-term opportunities that would arise in zero to three year period, mid-term (would be) three to five years, (and) long-term (would be) five plus years."

The consultant firm was commissioned by the GBPA some four months ago and is expected to be completed with its work by the end of November. It is hoped by company executives that their report will provide focused information on the advantages of doing business here on the island.

GBPA Chairman Hannes Babak told The Freeport News on Sunday that the consultant firm will provide pertinent information regarding what business conditions U.S. companies look for when expanding into international territories like Freeport.

"We hired them to have a view of what American companies would expect, or what would be interesting, or what would be advantageous to them (U.S. companies) and what we could offer," he said. "That way we know what companies we can approach or what would make more sense."

The chairman noted that the report would provide information on the various legal and tax limitations faced by companies which could potentially seek business opportunities within the city of Freeport.

"We needed to hire an American company which also knows the specific laws which apply to U.S. companies, and which tax laws (which is often more important) apply to these companies."

Babak went on to say that such invaluable information then puts the GBPA in a position to communicate with companies who may have otherwise overlooked Grand Bahama Island as a viable option for conducting their business.

According to Rolle, once completed, the GBPA will use the information to identify and reach out to those companies in an effort to increase foreign investment flows into Grand Bahama.

"The idea is once we have this report in hand the executives in GBPA will not sit on their laurels," Rolle said during the town meeting. "We will go out and get the businesses identified by our consultants."

Babak, declined requests to release the name of the consulting firm, but said that so far, the preliminary findings of the report looks promising and he expects the full document to be very helpful.

Babak added that the findings of the study are expected to be released to the public although additional meetings with the consultants may be necessary to address any questions that may arise from the report and fine tune the company's approach to marketing Freeport and Grand Bahama to the companies in question.