The limitations of the Chinese love affair
thenassauguardian editorial
The Bahamas has fallen fully into the embrace of China. And the rising empire has been kind with its “gifts.”
The $2.6 billion Baha Mar project and the $70 million airport highway are being financed by China. Last week, the government announced that the China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. will build the North Abaco Port and by-pass road; a bridge between Little and Great Abaco; a port and by-pass highway in Exuma; and the Eleuthera Glass Window Bridge and approaching embankments.
The airport highway money is a part of the $1 billion in loans set aside for the Caribbean by China. The Bahamas has been allocated $150 million of that amount.
Chinese loans are cheap. And The Bahamas is borrowing. What is tied to Chinese money in the developing world, however, is Chinese labor. When China lends or invests in poor countries, it sends lots of Chinese workers to construct the projects it finances.
For poor countries struggling to attract investment or to solicit financing, there is little resolve to make demands of the rising power.
Here in The Bahamas, Sarkis Izmirlian and Baha Mar needed financing. Baha Mar received that financing from China and it also received 8,150 foreign workers (who mostly will be Chinese).
The government borrowed cheap money from China for the airport highway and it received 200 Chinese workers. How many hundreds of Chinese will be forced on The Bahamas to build the Family Island ports and infrastructure upgrades announced last week?
What Bahamians must understand is that when China lends, and it contracts its workers to do the work, a significant amount of the money borrowed goes back to China with the workers who build the project. They pay their workers with money we borrow.
In addition, The Bahamas gets the bill for the loan. Over the years, the interest and principal payments also go to China.
The Chinese also keep their workers on self-contained on-site camps when they are sent abroad. We barely even get them to visit our stores to spend the money we borrowed when they are working in our countries.
The Bahamas should embrace Chinese investment. Without Baha Mar, our near future would look less bright. But The Bahamas must be careful regarding the relationship it develops with China regarding the labor issue.
We lose a significant chuck of the value of these investments when our uneducated laborers are denied work because Chinese get these jobs.
China brilliantly creates unequal trade relationships. China’s manipulated currency has helped it suck a significant portion of manufacturing from the West. It then loans the cash it has made back to countries such as the United States to buy more of its products.
China is now the second largest economy in the world and in the near future it will displace the United States as the world largest economy.
Much debate is needed among our policymakers about the Bahamian-Chinese embrace. We must find ways to continue to attract Chinese money that comes with fewer Chinese workers attached.
We think Chinese investment should be welcomed. We also think a reasonable number of Chinese workers should be accepted. However, China building most of our infrastructure projects and commercial projects almost solely with Chinese labor is not acceptable.
If China does not budge to the representations of a small place such as this, or a small region such as ours, we then have to do some analysis to determine if it is wise to borrow as much from China as opposed to other commercial lenders who do not set similar labor requirements. This issue is not simple.
Bahamians have thus far been okay with China’s involvement in The Bahamas. But as the numbers of Chinese coming to country get larger and larger with each announced project, the attitude towards China in The Bahamas will change. When a country has a double-digit unemployment level, its citizens get upset when foreigners get lots of jobs in their country.
Our political parties must be careful with this relationship. More concessions on the labor issue are needed from a China that does not like to compromise.
3/15/2011
thenassauguardian editorial
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.
Showing posts with label Chinese workers Bahamas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese workers Bahamas. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) change of heart on the Baha Mar deal and work permits for as many as 8,000 Chinese workers
PLP MAY CHANGE STANCE ON BAHA MAR
By KRYSTEL ROLLE
Guardian Staff Reporter
krystel@nasguard.com:
The Progressive Liberal Party(PLP)may have had a change of heart as it relates to its stance on the controversial foreign work component issue surrounding the Baha Mar deal - which could result in as many as 8,000 Chinese workers being granted work permits.
Yesterday PLP Leader Perry Christie said despite indicating in June that the party would not involve itself in the decision to allow thousands of Chinese workers to receive work permits, he would do what is best for the country.
"We have since met with the principle shareholder of Baha Mar and we were briefed by the top executives of the company, Christie said. "We are meeting this afternoon to consider our position on the matter in anticipation of going back to Parliament.
"The Progressive Liberal Party is absolutely aware of the state of our economy--the deteriorated state of our economy and the urgency for there to be some kind of development.
"In that regard we are going to take a position based on the needs of the country. And we're not going to be tied to anything that I may have said in the past in regards to the work permits. We want to be able to provide a very concerted view on the matter. We(the PLP)begin meeting on the matter at our parliamentary meeting today(yesterday).
In June, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said the approval of the "extraordinary" number of Chinese workers required to help construct the resort development would not be given without opposition support.
But at that time, Christie said the prime minister is "on his very own" as it regards deciding on the Baha Mar labor issue.
He said the PLP had not been given sufficient information on the deal and therefore would not involve itself. When speaking with The Nassau Guardian yesterday, Christie said he still has not spoken to the prime minister yet.
"I know representatives have met with the Chinese ambassador, and I don't know if the prime misinter has some special information to provide me with, but I anticipate that if he has new information that would be provided to me prior to our going to Parliament. I have not heard from him yet."
Ingraham met with Chinese Ambassador Hu Dingxian at the Office of the Prime Minister in Cable Beach on Thursday, to discuss the Baha Mar project.
Last week The Guardian also spoke to Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly Tommy Turnquest, who confirmed that the Ingraham administration intends to bring the labor resolution to Parliament on September 8.
The Guardian understands that since the announcement from the Cabinet Office late last month that the government of the People's Republic of China had approved the Baha Mar deal, Baha Mar officials have been meeting with officials from the prime minister's office to answer questions about the project.
Turnquest said the MPs would be allowed to express their views on the labor issue before the government makes a final determination.
If a majority of MPs take issue with that component, he said the government would have to take that into consideration prior to making its decision.
Turnquest said publicly that at the height of construction Baha Mar could have up to 8,000 foreign workers on the project.
Baha Mar has said that out of the 10,000 proposed construction jobs the project will create, at least 3,300 will be set aside for Bahamians. Eight thousand permanent jobs are also projected once the resort is completed.
The proposed Cable Beach development would be financed by the Export-Import Bank of China and constructed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
If the project receives Bahamas government approval, Baha Mar's first course of action would be to award nearly $60 million of construction contracts to six Bahamian contractors, representing early infrastructure works needed to prepare the site, Baha Mar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sarkis Izmirlian said in a press statement last month.
8/22/2010
thenassauguardian
By KRYSTEL ROLLE
Guardian Staff Reporter
krystel@nasguard.com:
The Progressive Liberal Party(PLP)may have had a change of heart as it relates to its stance on the controversial foreign work component issue surrounding the Baha Mar deal - which could result in as many as 8,000 Chinese workers being granted work permits.
Yesterday PLP Leader Perry Christie said despite indicating in June that the party would not involve itself in the decision to allow thousands of Chinese workers to receive work permits, he would do what is best for the country.
"We have since met with the principle shareholder of Baha Mar and we were briefed by the top executives of the company, Christie said. "We are meeting this afternoon to consider our position on the matter in anticipation of going back to Parliament.
"The Progressive Liberal Party is absolutely aware of the state of our economy--the deteriorated state of our economy and the urgency for there to be some kind of development.
"In that regard we are going to take a position based on the needs of the country. And we're not going to be tied to anything that I may have said in the past in regards to the work permits. We want to be able to provide a very concerted view on the matter. We(the PLP)begin meeting on the matter at our parliamentary meeting today(yesterday).
In June, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said the approval of the "extraordinary" number of Chinese workers required to help construct the resort development would not be given without opposition support.
But at that time, Christie said the prime minister is "on his very own" as it regards deciding on the Baha Mar labor issue.
He said the PLP had not been given sufficient information on the deal and therefore would not involve itself. When speaking with The Nassau Guardian yesterday, Christie said he still has not spoken to the prime minister yet.
"I know representatives have met with the Chinese ambassador, and I don't know if the prime misinter has some special information to provide me with, but I anticipate that if he has new information that would be provided to me prior to our going to Parliament. I have not heard from him yet."
Ingraham met with Chinese Ambassador Hu Dingxian at the Office of the Prime Minister in Cable Beach on Thursday, to discuss the Baha Mar project.
Last week The Guardian also spoke to Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly Tommy Turnquest, who confirmed that the Ingraham administration intends to bring the labor resolution to Parliament on September 8.
The Guardian understands that since the announcement from the Cabinet Office late last month that the government of the People's Republic of China had approved the Baha Mar deal, Baha Mar officials have been meeting with officials from the prime minister's office to answer questions about the project.
Turnquest said the MPs would be allowed to express their views on the labor issue before the government makes a final determination.
If a majority of MPs take issue with that component, he said the government would have to take that into consideration prior to making its decision.
Turnquest said publicly that at the height of construction Baha Mar could have up to 8,000 foreign workers on the project.
Baha Mar has said that out of the 10,000 proposed construction jobs the project will create, at least 3,300 will be set aside for Bahamians. Eight thousand permanent jobs are also projected once the resort is completed.
The proposed Cable Beach development would be financed by the Export-Import Bank of China and constructed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
If the project receives Bahamas government approval, Baha Mar's first course of action would be to award nearly $60 million of construction contracts to six Bahamian contractors, representing early infrastructure works needed to prepare the site, Baha Mar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sarkis Izmirlian said in a press statement last month.
8/22/2010
thenassauguardian
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