NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – A new session of the Bahamas Parliament began here on Wednesday with Prime Minister Phillip Davis saying that two years after his ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration took office, it has been able to reverse the “dire straits” confronting the Bahamas.
“Our national debt was at the highest levels in our nation’s history – the debt-to-GDP ratio was over 100 percent. That means that for every dollar our economy produced, we owed another dollar to a creditor,” Davis told legislators.
He said unemployment was the highest in recorded history, with one out of every three Bahamian workers out of work.
“Our schools were closed, and thousands of our children either dropped out completely or attended irregularly. Our hospitals were overcrowded and under-resourced. And our communities were still burdened with strict curfews and extreme, inflexible rules that did not give our people and businesses room to recover and grow.”
But he said that two years later, the debt-to-GDP has dropped to pre-pandemic levels, and unemployment is now at its lowest level since 2008, predicting that “by the next time a labor force survey is conducted, we may very well be looking at employment levels that are nearing historic highs.”
Davis said schools have re-opened, tourism numbers are at record levels, businesses are thriving, “and we are experiencing economic growth again.
“From day one, this administration made it clear that we were committed to delivering on the changes we promised, beginning with getting rid of the economy-killing, dictatorial, unfair, elitist policies that were stagnating our growth and getting the nation back on the right track.”
Davis told Parliament that while there was a confident expectation of a post-COVID rebound, the extent of the recovery was less certain.
He said re-opening the economy quickly allowed the country to take early advantage of pent-up tourism demand, which jump-started the economy.
“Yes, the pandemic was bound to subside eventually, but the quick decisions made at the moment made all the difference. Different approaches to governing would have yielded different results. They said re-opening the nation would spread the virus and hurt the economy in the long run because we would have to shut down entirely again.
“We countered their fear-mongering with data-driven, science-backed policies that allowed us to re-open while administering free testing, free masks, investing in our clinics and temporary COVID treatment facilities, and enforcing common sense rules in public settings.”
Davis stated that no country in the region can lay claim to the tourism success being experienced here and that the international agencies have recognized the turnaround in the economy, with the World Bank data indicating “that our economy grew by 14.4 percent last year, which is above the regional average.
“While the World Bank acknowledges that many countries have returned to pre-pandemic employment levels in the region, we have gone further. We have returned to the lowest levels since the 2008 global recession. Once again, going above and beyond the average.”
Davis said that the next priority is to build a solid foundation for continued progress because recovery alone isn’t enough, noting, “We fully intended to make good on our promises in the Blueprint for Change regardless of the historically bad conditions we inherited.
“I know there was talk about us not yet fulfilling every promise we made in our Blueprint for Change. Somehow, there are people on the side opposite who seemingly believe that by this point, two years into our term, we apparently should have fulfilled every promise made by now.”.
But he said that not every promise made in the Blueprint for Change is a short-term promise, noting, for example, diversifying the tourism industry or reforming the school curriculum to prepare young people for future opportunities better are not things that will be done in a single year.
“Sure, we can begin laying the foundation right away, but doing things the right way takes time. Developing new industries and sub-industries or retooling our educational system for success cannot be rushed. There is critical research to be done—policies to be developed. “Pilots to be launched. There are the implementation, evaluation, and measurement phases and the adjustments you must make. Policymaking and policy implementation at a national scale is a serious undertaking, and it should be taken seriously by all who seek to lead this country. There is no room for “jokey” political commentary.”
Davis said that the Throne Speech delivered by Governor General Cynthia A. Pratt, outlining the government plans for the new year, is not about novelty but about vision.
“If we have repeated anything, it is because there is consistency in vision that drives our actions. We launched housing initiatives and will now expand on the work done. “We hired new police officers and launched saturation patrols throughout the island, and now we are expanding our efforts. We trained one cohort of the National Youth Guard, and now we will introduce another.
“These are not one-off efforts. Running this nation is not an exercise in checking boxes – doing stuff superficially to say it’s done. It is about the impact we make and the lives we change,” Davis said, acknowledging that we couldn’t do everything in years one and two.”
Davis said that with the economy fully recovered and a foundation for success established this fiscal year, “our focus is on three pillars of national development: personal security, economic security, and national security.”
He said personal security refers to securing the whole person, which includes financial security, employment, health and wellness, and all the aspects of their personal life that enable them to attain stability and thrive.
“Employment remains our primary focus as we continue to drive unemployment numbers down. We will not be satisfied until every Bahamian who wants a job has one. Full employment is an ambitious goal that all governments must strive for. The closer we realize that goal, the more our citizens will have experienced elevated personal security.”
Davis said that every Bahamian who wants to start a business should be able to do so.
“Every impediment in their way represents the failures of successive governments to empower more Bahamians to be owners in our economy. While it is not solely up to the government, the government certainly has a powerful role in supporting businesses of all sizes, especially micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, as well as youth and women businesses.”.
Prime Minister Davis said that the Bahamas would celebrate National Public Service Week to honor and recognize public servants in just a few days.
“But we didn’t wait until Public Service Week to act on our public servants’ behalf. After negotiating 24 new labor agreements in 23 months, increasing salaries, improving benefits, and clearing the backpay and promotions backlog, we are now rolling out the first public service-wide promotional exercise in over eight years.
“This exercise ensures that all who qualified for promotions in the past eight years receive the promotions they earned. Many of our public servants have been performing duties higher than their current titles for years – some have waited over a decade for their promotions – and now, they are finally receiving the promotions they deserve,” he added.
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