By GENEA NOEL
Freeport News Reporter
genea@nasguard.com
Vice president of Telecomm Trading and Consulting Inc. K. Peter Turnquest was elected uncontested as the new president of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Com-merce (GBCC) yesterday.
Elections for the officers and directors were held at the GBCC's annual general meeting at the Sunrise Resort and Marina yesterday afternoon.
Other officers elected to the executive board were: John Swain, 1st Vice President; Esmond Weeks, 2nd Vice President, Chatto Outten, Treasurer and Leigh Lightbourne-Termath as secretary.
The five new directors elected were: Lanelle Philips, Vanessa Mallory, Patra Major-Albury, Malvese Capron and Neville Wilch-combe.
They will add to the existing board of directors- Clev-eland Duncombe, Ta'Shar Currucullo, Jenny Barr, Minna Outten-Winters and Philip Franks- who are serving in their second year.
With educational training for its members and the community as his focus, Turn-quest said that Grand Baha-ma business owners have to prepare their businesses to compete nationally as well as globally.
Turnquest said although he plans to continue with the programs which have been very successful for the GBCC, for the new year he would also like to implement in-depth educational training.
"We have to realize that because of the limitations of our population here in Grand Bahama there are some things that need to be done to prepare ourselves to compete," he said.
"I would also like to see some promotional trips and activities to try to bring investors to Grand Bahama, not only internationally but domestically as well."
Turnquest said that he believes that Grand Bahama has tremendous assets in terms of infrastructure and quality of life and have to do a better job of promoting what we have.
The Chamber, he said, also has to be a little more proactive in terms of addressing legislative issues.
"We know that the government has embarked on a lot of social programs since the recession, but we know at some point that someone is going to pay for this," Turnquest said
"We want to get ahead of that and make sure that whatever revenue collection records that come in that they are sensible, that they show respect to the current business level and fair to the business community because obviously we can't shoulder all of the cost ourselves."
The GBCC operates as an action agency designed to meet community needs. It is a voluntary organization of individuals and businesses that band together to advance the commercial, financial, industrial and civic interests of the community.
It also serves as a civic clearing house, public relations counsellor, a legislative representative at the local and national levels of government, an information bureau and a research and promotion medium.
