Showing posts with label Baha Mar agreement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baha Mar agreement. Show all posts

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Perry Christie - Opposition Leader says: ... if the government considers itself a partner in the deal with Baha Mar, it should have dealt with the alleged breach with Kerzner outside of the House of Assembly

Christie: Issues with Kerzner should have been resolved first
By CHESTER ROBARDS
Guardian Staff Reporter
chester@nasguard.com


Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie admonished the government during his contribution to debate in the House of Assembly yesterday, for not moving to resolve their apparent breach of a ‘Most Favored Nation’ (MFN) clause with Kerzner International, before bringing the Baha Mar resolution to Parliament for a vote.

Christie said if the government considers itself a partner in the deal with Baha Mar, it should have dealt with the alleged breach with Kerzner outside of the House of Assembly.

According to him, when the government was made aware that Kerzner considered the allowance of 8,000 Chinese workers for the Baha Mar project a violation of MFN, the prime minister should have met with them to resolve the issue before yesterday.

“It looks like there is antagonism in the product, serious difficulties in the product, where the government is making a decision to breach an agreement,” said Christie.

“Because, if we are saying that we are going to approve it (Baha Mar) and he (Sol Kerzner) is saying we are in breach of it (MFN), Parliament should suspend itself, since we have been asked to come to this point to have a determination made as to whether or not we are in breach.”

According to him, the matter of a breach of contract is “a matter to do with partners” and “not to do with public relations of a government”.

He said he was taken aback when Member of Parliament for Marco City, Zhivargo Laing read the press statement in the House of Assembly that was issued by Kerzner International outlining what it considered to be a breach of MFN.

“I was shocked yesterday,” he said. “This (MFN breach) is essentially a major legal matter that has exercised the minds of lawyers here in the attorney general’s office and the Queens Counsel of England.”

Christie also used much of the beginning of his alloted time in the House to respond to the government’s accusations that his party was not an effective government when they were in power and with regard to the Baha Mar agreement.

He got extremely testy with his colleagues across the floor yesterday, reminding them to act like parliamentarians while addressing the House and each other, as Bahamians look to them as a good example.

“We are coming to a time in the country where we have to be careful that we do not begin applying in our country retribution and reaction,” he said.

“That is not good for this country and our leadership in this country must exercise the greatest care as we move forward, dealing with people's reputations.

“Recognize that as best we can, we will try to avoid the snaring remarks and try to focus on the issues at hand.”

11/19/2010

thenassauguardian

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Baha Mar Drama - (Part 1)

The Drama at Baha Mar – Part 1
by Simon


Lights, camera, action! At least, that was the theory. With giddy fanfare the Christie administration broke into the ZNS evening news to broadcast live from Cable Beach a deal hyping an agreement with Baha Mar. The made-for-television reality show was obviously and deliberately timed to coincide with the beginning of the evening news, commandeering most of that night’s broadcast.

But after the lights and cameras trekked back to Third Terrace Centreville, nothing happened. Well, quite a bit happened. Except, of course, the construction of the promised mega complex. The original deal, the world economy and the Christie administration all collapsed, though not necessarily in that order.

The impressive architectural models and glittering high-tech videos of the touted development glossed over the realities on the ground. The public relations bonanza also obscured the nature and details surrounding the proposed plans to re-develop the historic Cable Beach.

We have seen this reality show before. It involves the same mindset, plot and cast of PLP cabinet ministers and their associated dealmakers that brought us the Great Mayaguana Land Give-away. The initial arrangements for the Baha Mar deal and the I-Group deal in Mayaguana involved more than rank hypocrisy by the party whose progressive and liberal brand name are whispery echoes of a by-gone era.

More fundamentally, the deals betrayed the PLP’s own nationalist rhetoric and chest-thumping patriotism. At the core of the Cable Beach and Mayaguana deals were stunning betrayals of the very idea of Bahamianization. This included making Bahamians subordinate in the deals, while alienating prime Crown Land and Government real estate to foreigners in perpetuity.


GALLING

Equally galling, was the PLP’s attempt to market these schemes to Bahamians as if we were idiots who could not see the big picture or read the fine print. There was also the smugness and arrogance by PLP hucksters. They pretended that these deals were more for the benefit of ordinary Bahamians than for the self-satisfied oligarchs who brokered them with gleeful abandon.

As recently as the 2010/11 budget debate, the Opposition’s Leader in the Senate, Senator Allyson Maynard Gibson, boasted that the Mayaguana Development Company, the group responsible for a proposed development at our most easterly island, was owned 50/50 by the I-Group and the Bahamas Government.

As noted in Front Porch in July: “This 50/50 arrangement would have eventually sold off nearly 100 per cent of Mayaguana’s coastal area and nearly 10,000 acres to non-Bahamians.

“As Mayaguana, by comparison, is somewhat larger than New Providence, the deal the PLP continues to brag about was the equivalent of turning over to a single developer a stretch of coastal land from the eastern end of New Providence to Lyford Cay. Again, the vast majority of this land would have ended up in foreign hands.”

Back to the drama at Baha Mar. Perry Gladstone Christie and his new PLP sold off at bargain basement prices prime beachfront and other public land at Cable Beach that Sir Stafford Sands and the UBP, Sir Lynden Pindling and an earlier version of the PLP, and Hubert Ingraham and the FNM never did over the course of more than half a century. Mr. Christie now has his place in the history books!

The original Baha Mar deal was a disaster on so many levels. Despite the rhetoric, the supposedly new PLP under Mr. Christie never updated their philosophy and policy ideas. The party simply wanted to be back in power. Upon returning to office they scrambled, cobbling together various slogans, clichés and talking points to justify their old habits of wheeling and dealing.

Perhaps realizing the controversial nature of significant elements of the original Baha Mar deal, Mr. Christie -- who purports to be the man of great consultation -- kept details of the deal secret. It was left to the Ingraham administration to table the Heads of Agreements on the initial deal.

INSULT

This was an insult added to the many injuries inflicted on our national interest in the initial deal, including public land sold at discounted prices and the proposed grant of extraordinarily generous concessions and cash payments. There were initial hints that Goodman’s Bay may have been alienated from the Bahamian people, though somebody appeared to backtrack quickly on this affront.

With Baha Mar and various anchor projects, the PLP failed to embrace newer ideas in terms of our tourism product and economic development. The idea of Baha Mar as essentially another Atlantis may have been a critical mistake. Such a vision stoked the egos of the proponents of the deal and Mr. Christie.

Still, a different type of project or variety of projects at Cable Beach, aimed at a different tourism demographic, would have been the wiser course of action. Moreover, rather than alienating invaluable public land, other arrangements could have been made to secure most of this land for generations of Bahamians.

In the Mayaguana deal the PLP at least pretended to be concerned about the national interest. The deal with Baha Mar was a give-away of monumental proportions.

There could have also been arrangements to enable Bahamians to have various levels of ownership and equity in a development which was to be built on mostly public land. Instead, the Christie administration turned its back on the core ideal of Bahamianization which was at the heart of the movement for Majority Rule.

Sadly, with the conclusion of the original deal with Baha Mar, there was no turning back, one of the slogans beloved by the PLP’s marketers. That other favourite PLP slogan, “Forward Ever, Backward Never”, also crashed and burned in light of the initial deal negotiated by Mr. Christie.

Having set in motion and made unavoidable many of the features of the current deal with Baha Mar, Mr. Christie in his typical political style, has left it up to Prime Minister Ingraham to do the heavy lifting on a final deal which he himself failed to conclude.

TONE!

Now Mr. Christie is commenting on the Prime Minister’s tone – tone! -- on a final deal. This is in keeping with his usual course of inaction in which style and tone are more important than substance. After all, who can forget his gushing and ingratiating tone when the Baha Mar deal was announced live on television? For all of Mr. Christie’s sweet melodies and tone, nothing happened.

Moreover, despite his lovely tone about the initial deal, he brokered an agreement which was wrong for The Bahamas on many levels. Mr. Ingraham has replaced Mr. Christie’s amateur tone with that of a seasoned leader. Whereas Mr. Christie was impetuous and cavalier, Mr. Ingraham has been measured and has driven a harder bargain.

Unlike Sir Lynden and the PLP’s unilateral abrogation of elements of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, Mr. Ingraham negotiated the best deal he could for the Bahamas with Baha Mar. He has struck the right tone in negotiating with others who simply rolled over the hapless Mr. Christie, who was panicked about getting a deal at just about any cost to secure his re-election and legacy.

Short-term, the Prime Minister has sometimes been criticized about his manner and timing in negotiating elements of a final deal. In the longer term the wisdom of his negotiating strategy may prove more beneficial for the country.

In addition to tabling all heads of agreements related to Baha Mar, the Prime Minister is correct in bringing a resolution to the House of Assembly so that the Bahamian people’s elected representatives can express their will.

This will be time for Mr. Christie to do something which he has been reluctant to do from the inception of Baha Mar: To go on record clearly and unambiguously about his party’s stance on many of the controversial issues involved in an agreement whose initial seeds he helped to plant and water.

Baha Mar Drama - (Part 2)

bahamapundit

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Sir Baltron Bethel: The Baha Mar project is one of the pillars for the continued expansion and development of the tourism industry

SIR BALTRON BIG ON BAH MAR
By CANDIA DAMES
Guardian News Editor
candia@nasguard.com:



The planned transfer of more than 264 acres of publicly-owned land to the Baha Mar developers would be justified given the tremendous benefits the project would provide for the country, according to Sir Baltron Bethel, who was the chief negotiator for the deal under the Christie government.

"I think that both the original agreement and the supplemental agreement were fair agreements, having been involved with those,"said Sir Baltron, who spoke after he was approached by The Nassau Guardian for an interview yesterday.

"I say that because of what the project is all about. The project is one of the pillars for the continued expansion and development of the tourism industry.

"The Cable Beach resort area is tired and in order to put it right it needed a vision, a plan. Now it could be argued that this project could have been approached in phases, however, the developers'concept was to do the project all one time."

Sir Baltron served as managing director of the Hotel Corporation and also investments and tourism development consultant for the government. He spent many hours helping to arrive at a deal that former Prime Minister Perry Christie had repeatedly said would be transformational.

Unlike Kerzner International's Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, the Baha Mar project would not be developed in separate phases, Sir Baltron pointed out yesterday.

He noted that the thinking was that Baha Mar would complement Atlantis, and would occur simultaneously with the redevelopment of Lynden Pindling International Airport.

Sir Baltron indicated that when the original deal was being negotiated government negotiators looked closely at all issues surrounding the Cable Beach deal, including the controversial land issue.

"For purposes of finance the developer was unable to obtain financing without there being some provision for the freehold transfer(of publicly-owned land)so that has been the long and short of it and the current arrangement with the Chinese, as I understand it, is contingent upon the freehold being conveyed to the developer."

When he brought a resolution to the House of Assembly on the Baha Mar project on Wednesday, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who is also the minister responsible for lands, said approval for the Baha Mar project requires the transfer of 264.965 acres of publicly-owned land.

Among other properties, this would include the land on which the Wyndham Resort and casino sit; the Nassau Beach Resort; the Hobby Horse Hall parcel; Fidelity Bank; the Cecil Wallace-Whifield Centre; the Cable Beach Police Station and 50 acres on Gladstone Road.

Because of the conditions precedent set by Baha Mar's financiers--The Export-Import Bank of China and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation--these lands are required to be transfered in advance of the start of construction of the project.

"It is the position of my government that these lands will only be transferred for the expressed purpose of facilitating the development and that should the development not proceed the land must return to the government,"said Ingraham, who inherited the Baha Mar deal from the previous administration.

He has termed Baha Mar" a PLP baby "and on Wednesday outlined the requirements, consequences and benefits related to the deal.

Sir Baltron said the Baha Mar agreement must be looked at in the context of today's economic environment.

"The developer has secured the financing. There are very few projects anywhere in the world where financing to the tune of$2.5 billion is available for a tourism project in a developing country," he said.

"I think we have to weigh all of these things; your outlook with regard to how public lands should be transfered and the other demands which are being made in light of prevailing circumstances.

"So the arrangements that are now being proposed represent the best possible arrangements that the developers could secure and certainly it's a feather in the cap of the developer to have obtained such a gigantic amount of funding at the present time."

The Central Bank reported last week in its latest economic report that the outlook for 2011 is less favorable than originally forecast.

"However, upside benefits could accrue to the economy, if the proposed large-scale hotel investment projects gain traction in the coming months,"the Central Bank said.

There is a great deal riding on Baha Mar because of its promise of job creation--even with the 8,150 work permits factored in--and economic spinoffs.

Sir Baltron said given the current depressed climate, Baha Mar would provide"the push that we need".

"If the project gets off the ground it would not only be good for the Baha Mar project and for the economy of New Providence, but it can also be that which could jumpstart other smaller projects," said Sir Baltron, who currently serves as president of the Bahamas Baptist Community College.

These days he is an independent observer as it relates to Baha Mar, he noted.

Speaking of the project, he added,"It would be a good thing from where I sit as president of the Community College in terms of providing jobs and also of being able to continue to provide the kind of services that a growing college like this needs to provide, and we can only do that if the economy is growing."

When Sir Baltron helped negotiate the deal, the Chinese element was not yet a factor.

Asked yesterday what his thoughts are on the extraordinary work permit request, he said,"We all know with Chinese funding there comes the demand for use of a significant amount of Chinese labor, more than would be the norm, but the Chinese have also financed a project for more than the norm. It would be the largest touristic project ever financed in one shot in The Bahamas."

He added,"It's very important to see this project go forward. The government has invested a huge amount of money in the airport. We're going to have the finest airport in all of the Caribbean and the return on that depends upon its utilization which included the Baha Mar project coming to fruition."

9/10/2010

thenassauguardian