One area that requires immediate attention and action relates to the vital improvements that are needed in our domestic business environment, as identified
in the State of the Nation Report. Quite
strikingly, The Bahamas ranks 106th of 189
nations in the World Bank Ease of Doing
Business Index.
of which roughly three quarters will be
trade apprentices and one quarter technical/commercial apprentices. These will be
High School graduates in the 17-19 year
age group. Over the next 10 years, GBSL
plans to recruit and train 400 skilled Bahamian workers into permanent full-time
positions.
Some of the areas of particular concern
are: registering property, access to credit,
starting a business and getting secure and
lower priced electricity. We appreciate
that improvements must be brought to
these and other areas of the business environment and that our economic and social
prospects demand such improvements.
We are working diligently to that end. For
instance, the office of the Registrar General has now implemented an efficient online
process for the registration of companies.
Modernizing Opportunities for Apprenticeships and Training for our Youth
For its semi-skilled trades, GBSL plans to
recruit and train 200 Bahamians in the
25-40 year age group over the next two
years. The trades involved are blasters/
painters, riggers and scaffolders. At the
end of the training period, the trainees will
be assessed and certified by external, U.S.
examiners and will then work alongside
experienced workers for a 6-12 month
period to become fully proficient in their
respective trades.
Mr. Speaker,
Youth unemployment is another area of
grave concern for my Government as
prolonged idleness increasingly worsens
employability and is conducive to illicit activity and crime. This is an issue that
must be attacked on multiple fronts, beginning with education reform to ensure
that young persons leave school with the
range of hard and soft skills needed to be
successful in the job market. For those already in the job market and unemployed,
we must deploy resources to the building
of skills and increasing employability. To
that end, in the last Budget we allocated
$20 million for apprenticeship and training
programmes for our at-risk unemployed
youth.
Under a jointly funded agreement between the Government and Grand Bahama Shipyard Ltd. (GBSL), the latter will
increase the intake of its apprentice programme for skilled trades to 40 per year,
Mr. Speaker,
The Government is also introducing a new
apprenticeship and training programme
targeted to the unemployed that will be
managed jointly by the Office of the Prime
Minister and the National Training Agency.
Under this new programme, for which $22
million has been allocated, persons will be
paid to work and train in a very formal
manner, with certification on completion
of the apprenticeship period.
The programme differs from the Jobs programme introduced by the previous administration in that it is not strictly about
job placement for the unemployed but
rather training to ensure that persons are
able to attract and retain long-term employment. The programme is being structured along the lines of that between the
Government and GBSL that I discussed
previously.
The Government also intends to employ
immediately individuals from the apprenticeship programme to work on the creation of two green spaces for public use
in New Providence. One will be situated at Lake Killarney and the other, a National Hero’s Park, in an area just south
of the Botanical Gardens. Young people
with an aptitude and willingness to learn
professional landscaping will be engaged
to assist with the development of these
green spaces and will be apprenticed to
professional and skilled landscapers. Both
of these projects will be coordinated and
managed by the Parks and Beaches Authority with Lake Killarney being done in
concert with Bahamas National Trust and
the Nature Conservancy.
Mr. Speaker,
The Government will also, within the fiscal
year, seek to bring the number of temporary and contractual workers to an irreducible minimum. Many of these workers
joined the Public Service without the requisite qualifications and, through their own
hard work and commitment, are making a
valuable contribution to the Public Service
and the country; they are deserving of being integrated into the Public Service.
Modernizing Financial Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker,
The financial crisis impacted both financial
institutions and individuals in The Bahamas
and the commercial banks had to absorb
losses, to varying degrees, due to higher
than historical loan defaults. The Bank of
The Bahamas, an important part of the
country’s financial infrastructure and which
has no parent company balance sheet to
help absorb those losses, now requires recapitalization.
This is to be achieved through a combination of a rights offering and convertible
contingent bonds. The Government has
supported the bank through this period
of restructuring and modernizing and I
am pleased to note that the bank is on
schedule to return to profitability in the
2nd quarter of 2018, by refocusing itself
[19]
2016/2017
DRAFT
ESTIMATES
OF REVENUE &
EXPENDITURE