10282019 BUSINESS

business@tribunemedia.net

MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019

$4.52

$4.57

World bank drops Bahamas ‘ease of doing business’ ranking

A

S THE World Bank has dropped The Bahamas a spot in its ease of doing business rankings, Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest has called its assessment a “misunderstanding”.

The Bahamas has dropped one notch in the ease of doing business rankings - from 118 to 119 out of 190 countries.

The annual ranking is a benchmark examining starting a business, getting electricity, registering property, protecting minority investors and paying taxes.

The Bahamas is said to have made progress in four of these areas, with “registering property” being the only one where the country has failed.

K PETER TURNQUEST The report said: “The Bahamas made property registration more costly by increasing the stamp duty on property transfers.”

The report also pointed to The Bahamas having high compliance and the costs associated with preparing documents.

Top realtor: ‘Not enough affordable housing’

By YOURI KEMP A TOP realtor has expressed concern over the high cost of homes in The Bahamas - and a shortage of affordable housing.

“The cost of owning the Bahamian dream of having your own home is far outpacing the majority of Bahamians because in today’s economy affordable housing just doesn’t exist.”

Mr Carey, founder of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate MCR Bahamas Group, told Tribune Business: “Incomes in The Bahamas can’t keep up with inflation, the cost of living, increases in VAT/ taxes,

MARIO CAREY lack of access capital for the business community along with a high unemployment rate in addition to the lack of diversity in housing inventory.

“The cost of owning the Bahamian dream of having your own home is

SEE PAGE 3

IDB to host digitisation workshop for govt project

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will be hosting a kick-off workshop for the government’s new digitisation project unit next month.

Minister of State for Grand Bahama Kwasi Thompson said the workshop will be held November 11-15. The project aims to connect various government offices and agencies digitally, so that a customer does not have to take the

KWASI THOMPSON same paperwork to each place once the documents are uploaded into the

SEE PAGE 3

Last year, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said he was going to make ease of doing business a top priority for the government and that the Ministry of Finance was spearheading an interagency working group to make business faster, cheaper and better.

“Ease of doing business is a serious issue that has support and attention at the highest levels of government. At the Ministry of Finance, we spearhead the inter-agency working group that is focused on driving change across government based on the focus areas assessed by the World Banks’ Global Ease of Doing Business Ranking,” said Mr Turnquest, when last year’s rankings were published.

The Bahamas had shown marginal improvement each year, having ranked 121 in 2016, 119 in 2017, 118 in 2018, but now ranking 119 again in 2019.

Last year, the government announced that they formed a “working group” aimed at aggressively increasing the ease of doing business rankings. The group included representatives from the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Prime Minister, the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Inland Revenue, the Customs Department, the Department of Public Works, the Central Bank of The Bahamas, the Registrar General’s Office and the Securities Commission.

SEE PAGE 2

$4.55

$4.56

Cooper calls for ‘czar’ to handle business reform PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party deputy leader, Chester Cooper, has called for a “czar” to spearhead the government’s attempts to improve the ease of doing business in The Bahamas.

At the same time Mr Cooper also said government funding to help small and medium sized businesses should be increased by $45m.

In a release sent to Tribune Business, the PLP deputy leader and shadow minister for finance, Cooper, stated: “I note that The Bahamas has dropped on the World Bank’s annual ease of doing business index. While the drop is not precipitous, it is noteworthy given the pace at which other countries in the region are implementing reforms and climbing the index. In the global marketplace, The Bahamas must

CHESTER COOPER stand out as being open for business and ready to work with local and international partners.”

“The Minnis administration talks a good game on business reform, but independent assessments tell the true tale. It has become apparent that the time for talk alone has passed.

Action should be the order of the day.”

Mr Cooper added: “To that effect, the government should immediately appoint an ease of doing business

SEE PAGE 3

PAGE 2, Monday, October 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

World bank drops Bahamas ‘ease of doing business’ ranking FROM PAGE ONE Mr Turnquest said about this year’s drop: “We had a full year of intensive improvements in legislation to address the main points with us being marked down in the rankings in previous years.”

The government passed the Companies Amendment Act 2019 in April, AN article in Thursday’s Tribune incorrectly stated that the Engel & Völkers real estate brokerage shop was moving to downtown Nassau from Lyford Cay. In fact, it is relocating from downtown to Lyford Cay. Our apologies for the error.

designed “to support the growth of equity markets by providing for the enhanced protection of minority investors primarily as it relates to conflicts of interest, related party transactions, shareholder governance and matters connected thereto. It seeks to bring these aspects of the Companies Act in line with international best practice”.

Mr Turnquest pointed to the need to speed up building permits and also the speed at which electricity is connected along with the reporting of outages and said his government is “working on those”. He also added: “We have been trying to streamline the process.”

On the category where The Bahamas was reported to have not progressed, Mr Turnquest said: “That is a misunderstanding on the bank’s part. The cost of registering land has not gone up, but what the government did was changed it from the dual taxation regime of 7.5 percent in value added tax (VAT) along with the stamp tax at 2.5 percent, because what we found was that some companies were abusing the system and only paying the stamp tax 2.5 percent and not the VAT. So we sought to close that loophole to move back to just paying the stamp tax at ten percent.

“Theoretically the company may be able to claim that their stamp tax went up to 10% but what we did was close the loophole that allowed them to get around paying the VAT by claiming it as an input.

“But then we had to move the entire regime back to VAT again to address some Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) matters so we can do away

with perceived ring fencing issue. They thought that the way the original legislation was worded when we switched back to paying simply the stamp tax was that they felt that Bahamians were paying a different stamp tax than foreigners.

“The caveat is that they cannot claim it as an input now. These amendments were done in the last budget.”

Mr Turnquest also cited the high document compliance fees and said: “Unfortunately for us we are subject to a slew of compliance costs that are not really relevant to us via cross-border initiatives we have signed on to and are obligated to, but we are obligated to monitor and keep in compliance.

This is not something that is new or something only with regard to us but it may be more pronounced to us because we are a small jurisdiction. We are now looking at everyday issues that affect everyday Bahamian businesses.”

Democratic National Alliance leader Arinthia Komolafe criticised the efforts to improve the national ranking, saying: “The fact that we have dropped another notch shows that we are not doing sufficient to improve our ranking in the international community’s eyes.”

She also lamented the inability to get services completed in a timely fashion from government agencies, saying “being able to get services from agencies is still a challenge” and that “reliable electricity is a major issue. This is no surprise that our rankings are falling”.

Mrs Komolafe said digitisation of government services is “not where it needs to be”.

She added: “With regard

ARINTHIA KOMOLAFE to getting drivers licences, Bahamians should be able to do that simply. There should be a barcode on your licence plate that should allow the person scanning it to look at all of your details, rather than having to drive around with your insurance documents in car and produce them on site.

“Once you register with the Road Traffic Department your information should be put into a system and when your licence is scanned like a barcode all of your registration details should appear.”

Mrs Komolafe called for energy reform and said high energy costs are a considerable hindrance to doing business in The Bahamas, and that “the time that it takes to get a construction permit is still an issue and people are now openly complaining”.

Mrs Komolafe did welcome progress in the Department of Customs with the newly launched electronic single window and said: “The Bahamas click to clear is a good sign of progress. But ultimately, we are just slow to make changes in the relevant areas. We have been making headway but we need to speed up the pace in these reforms.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 28, 2019, PAGE 3

IDB to host digitisation workshop for govt project FROM PAGE ONE government’s database.

He said: “The digitization project has commenced, for example the pilot work has already commenced on putting the pilot together. The pilot is the initial project which will digitally connect the Passport Office, Road Traffic Department, National Insurance and the Registrar General’s Office.

“It will connect it by an interoperable platform which means all of those agencies will be able to digitally exchange the information. Instead of the public having to go in and supply each agency with the information, it will really save time and make it far more convenient for the customer.”

The minister added: “That pilot is ongoing now and that platform is being built now. It’s actually being based on the Estonia digitisation model, but it is being refined to fit the Bahamian context. There will be a form of digitise identification and I think that identification will be based on the National Insurance infrastructure which is already there. That is one of the portfolios (under) the project unit which is to put in place the digital identification.”

Mr Thompson said the unit spearheading the project is made up of talented and qualified

persons who have IT and project management experience.

“There will be a project manager and a lawyer.

Because a number of our laws will have to be modified to fit the change in this digital process,” he said.

“There is an accountant who has to manage the expenditure, there is a procurement specialist who again has to manage procurement issues and there is also an IT specialist, who will be responsible for building the infrastructure. The real project is very wide and it’s going to be done over a number of years. The pilot really is just one aspect of the whole digitalisation plan.

The plan also includes how we look at building IT as an industry in the Bahamas.”

Earlier in the year, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said his government was designing a pilot programme to digitally connect government agencies such as the Passport Office and Road Traffic Department - a process that would allow Bahamians to fully apply online for these services without physically providing documents.

Dr Minnis made those remarks while speaking at the signing ceremony for two Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loans — the “Government Digital Transformation to Strengthen Competitiveness” and “The Contingent Loan for Natural Disasters”.

Top realtor: ‘Not enough affordable housing’ FROM PAGE ONE far outpacing the majority of Bahamians because in today’s economy affordable housing just doesn’t exist.”

Mr Carey added: “There is limited housing data to demonstrate how many building permits of affordable housing have been issued in Nassau for any period of time. What’s being noticed by real estate professionals working in the industry, however, is that the demand for affordable housing is higher than the supply; and unfortunately, the idea of Bahamians moving to a Family Island where housing prices may be cheaper may not be viable due to the lack of substantial jobs and industries that can support strong economic livelihoods.”

“Add into the mix the level of student debt that’s directly incurred by our returning educated Bahamians, the future of our country, are in most cases in debt and unable to start their own homes within ten or sometimes twenty years

upon returning even if they are able to do so.

“We have to ask ourselves: How do we rid those with student debt, or even a portion of it if they return home with a Bachelor’s or a Master’s Degree.”

He added: “What type of fund or charitable vehicle for tax write-off purposes can be set up so student debt can be paid off so thereby that person can enter the real estate market free of debt?”

Mr Carey said many studies have been done regarding the social and economic benefits of home ownership, as it lowers crime rates, spurs the creation of wealth across the population, and helps students achieve better school grades.

With regard to foreclosed properties, he said almost 70 percent of the values are below $300k and primarily blames the cost of living and inflation verses salaries along with lifestyle choices and the inability to save and budget and suggests that there may be a need for additional tax breaks under

Cooper calls for ‘czar’ to handle business reform FROM PAGE ONE czar whose sole focus is to drill down into the categories where we slid or where there is an obvious need to improve, and formulate policies and legislation to address it which can be implemented in the next six to nine months.”

The government had established a The National Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Committee, cochaired by former president of the Senate Lyn Holowesko and lawyer, Bryan Glinton.

Through Mrs Holowesko, the committee has gone on

record in saying they were disappointed the government had not enacted more of its recommendations.

Mrs Holowesko then came back in August and said that said the committee is now very pleased with many of the policies had been introduced in the 2019/2020 budget aimed at improving the business climate in the country, particularly surrounding immigration, conveyance valuations and estate planning.

The Bahamas last week dropped one slot on the World Bank’s Ease of doing Business ranking from 118 to 119.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

The Cove Eleuthera is seeking a qualified Resort The Cove Eleuthera is seeking a qualified Resort Manager to join our Operations Team. The successful Manager to join our Operations Team. The candidate should have the following minimum requirements: successful candidate should have the following

Bachelor’s degree from four-year College or university or equivalent experience. A minimum of three to minimum requirements: five years of Food & Beverage and Rooms Executive Management experience at high end luxury properties are highly desired. Prior Resort Manager or Director of Operations position preferred. Must Bachelor’s from four-year College or and verbal communication skills and be able to have strong degree organizational skills, excellent written university or prioritize equivalentmultiple experience. minimum perform and tasks Awith ease. Computer skills required. Strong team member relations skills. Must maintain current CPR and First Aid certification. Safety sensitive position. of three to five years of Food & Beverage and Rooms Executive Management experience at high end luxury properties are highly All interested applicants can forward their Resume and Cover Letter to desired. Prior Resort Manager or Director Human.Resources@thecoveeleuthera.com.

of Operations position preferred. Must have

strong organizational skills, excellent written

and verbal communication skills and be able to perform and prioritize multiple tasks with ease.

Computer skills required. Strong team member relations skills. Must maintain current CPR and First Aid certification. Safety sensitive position.

All interested applicants can forward their Resume and Cover Letter to

Human.Resources@thecoveeleutheracom.

certain regulations.

Mr Carey pointed to pathways for home ownership and said duplex, or multi family properties work best for home owners as they provide income along with housing and seldom get foreclosed.

Mr Carey added that typically the land cost is too high in subdivisions and municipal requirements are outdated, or not properly planned with regard to zoning requirements.

But he said the solution is to have the cost to develop the land subsidised by government and added: “After all every home incurs electricity, water, telecommunications, value added tax, and in some cases real property tax. All income to offset any subsidies.”

Mr Carey suggested “maybe” there can be an annual duty free home improvement allowance, similar to that for overseas shopping. He said: “Let it be $5lk per year on all building materials for anyone proving ownership of the dwelling.”

Mr Carey also pointed

to AirBnB being encouraged in The Bahamas and highlighted the AirBnB business being one of the fastest growing global industries, moving at the pace alongside the big four of Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google.

He said: “The Bahamas needs to fully embraced this industry and empower all Bahamians in every way shape or form possible.

It is the tourists who use AirBnB and tourism is the number one industry for The Bahamas. We’re seeing guests in homes popping up in areas like Fox Hill and off Carmichael road and in places that will surprise anyone “What an opportunity this has been for the ‘people to people’ concept to thrive and for Bahamian entrepreneurs to thrive. A whole national empowerment program for AirBnB ownership for Bahamians only should be created that allows wealth creation and huge employment opportunities.”

PAGE 4, Monday, October 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

US deficit hits nearly $1tn. When will it matter?

WASHINGTON Associated Press THE Trump administration reported a river of red ink Friday.

The federal deficit for the 2019 budget year surged 26% from 2018 to $984.4bn — its highest point in seven years. The gap is widely expected to top $1tn in the current budget year and likely remain there for the next decade.

The year-over-year widening in the deficit reflected such factors as revenue lost from the 2017 Trump tax cut and a budget deal that added billions in spending for military and domestic programs.

Forecasts by the Trump administration and the Congressional Budget Office project that the deficit will top $1tn in the 2020 budget year, which began Oct 1.

And the CBO estimates that the deficit will stay above $1tn over the next decade.

Those projections stand in contrast to President Donald Trump’s campaign promises that even with revenue lost initially from his tax cuts, he could eliminate the budget deficit with cuts in spending and increased growth generated by the tax cuts.

Here are some questions and answers about the current state of the government’s finances.

WHAT HAPPENED? The deficit has been rising every year for the past four years. It’s a stretch of widening deficits not seen since the early 1980s, when the deficit exploded with President Ronald Reagan’s big tax cut.

For 2019, revenues grew 4%. But spending jumped at twice that rate, reflecting a deal that Trump reached with Congress in early 2018 to boost spending.

WHY DOESN’T WASHINGTON DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT? Fiscal hawks have long warned of the economic dangers of running big government deficits. Yet the apocalypse they fear never seems to happen, and the government just keeps on spending.

There have been numerous attempts by presidents after Reagan to control spending. President George HW Bush actually agreed to a tax increase to control deficits when he was in office, breaking his “Read my lips” pledge not to raise taxes.

And a standoff between President Bill Clinton and

THE VIEW of the US Capitol building from the Washington Monument in Washington. The federal deficit for the 2019 budget year is expected to have soared to near $1tn, up more than $200bn from last year and the largest such gap in seven years.

Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP House Speaker Newt Gingrich did produce a rare string of four years of budget surpluses from 1998 through 2001. In fact, the budget picture was so bright when George W Bush took office in 2001 that the Congressional Budget Office projected that the government would run surpluses of $5.6tn over the next decade.

That didn’t happen. The economy slid into a mild recession, Bush pushed through a big tax cut and the war on terrorism sent military spending surging. Then the 2008 financial crisis erupted and triggered a devastating recession.

The downturn produced the economy’s first round of trillion-dollar deficits under President Barack Obama and is expected to do so again under Trump.

SHOULD WE WORRY? As far as most of us can

tell, the huge deficits don’t seem to threaten the economy or elevate the interest rates we pay on credit cards, mortgages and car loans.

And in fact, the huge deficits are coinciding with a period of ultra-low rates rather than the surging borrowing costs that economists had warned would likely occur if government deficits got this high.

There is even a new school of economic theory known as the “modern monetary theory”. It argues that such major economies as the United States and Japan don’t need to worry about running deficits because their central banks can print as much money as they need.

Yet this remains a distinctly minority view among economists.

Most still believe that while the huge deficits are not an immediate threat, at some point they will become a big problem.

They will crowd out borrowing by consumers and businesses and elevate interest rates to levels that ignite a recession.

What’s more, the interest payments on the deficits

become part of a mounting government debt that must be repaid and could depress economic growth in coming years. In fact, even with low rates this year, the government’s interest payments on the debt were one of the fastest growing items in the budget, rising nearly 16% to $375.6bn.

HAVEN’T ECONOMISTS BEEN MAKING THESE WARNING FOR DECADES? Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says the day of reckoning is still coming but isn’t here yet.

Most analysts think any real solution will involve a combination of higher taxes and cost savings in the government’s huge benefit programs of Social Security and Medicare.

ANY SIGN THAT WASHINGTON MAY TAKE THE POLITICALLY PAINFUL STEPS TO CUT THE DEFICIT? In short, no. There has been a major change since the first round of trilliondollar deficits prompted the Tea Party revolt. This shift

brought Republicans back into power in the House and incited a round of fighting between GOP congressional leaders and the Obama administration. A result was government shutdowns and near-defaults on the national debt.

But once Trump took office, things changed: The president focused on his biggest legislative achievement, the $1.5tn tax cut passed in 2017. This appeared to satisfy Republican lawmakers and quelled concerns about rising deficits.

Democratic presidential candidates have for the most part pledged to roll back Trump’s tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals. But they would use the money not to lower the deficits but for increased spending on expensive programs such as Medicare for All. SO THE DEFICITS WON’T ANIMATE THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN? It doesn’t seem likely, though former Rep Mark Sanford, who has mounted a long-shot Republican campaign against Trump, is urging Republican voters to return to their historic concerns about the high deficits.

And economists note that today’s huge deficits are occurring when the economy is in a record-long economic expansion. This is unlike the previous stretch of trillion-dollar deficits, which coincided with the worst recession since the 1930s.

But analysts warn that if the economy does go into a recession, the huge deficits projected now will expand significantly — possibly to a size that would send interest rates surging. Such a development, if it sparked worries about the stability of the US financial system, might produce the type of deficit crisis they have been warning about for so long.

Vacancy Announcement The American Embassy in Nassau is accepting applications for the following position:

Electrical Engineer Salary $51,114 - $76,672 Duties: The Electrical Engineer shall be directly responsible to the OBO Project Director in the performance of their duties. Services shall generally consist of eight (8) hours a day, 40 hours a week from Monday through Friday or as Otherwise directed. The electrical engineer shall be available for compensated overtime work as directed by the OBO Project Director. The Electrical Engineer will observe, inspect, and report on the construction of the New Embassy Compound (NEC) in Nassau as directed by the OBO Project Director.

Interested candidates are required to possess the following skills and qualifications: •

Education: Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from an accredited institution is required.

•

Experience: Five years of progressively responsible experience in Electrical Engineering with at least three years of experience in the field of building construction.

•

Language: English level IV (Fluent) Written/Speaking/Reading is required.

The complete Vacancy Announcement and Application forms are available online at: https://bs.usembassy.gov/embassy/jobs Application forms must be submitted electronically to the following email for consideration: NassauHR@state.gov.

Applications will not be accepted at the Security Gate of the Embassy or by mail or other means of delivery.

Deadline for applications is November 8, 2019.

Due to the high volume of applications, unsuccessful candidates will not be contacted.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 28, 2019, PAGE 5

‘It’s a fine target’: Census bureau to fight misinformation

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

CHICAGO Associated Press WORRIED about internet trolls and foreign powers spreading false news, census officials are preparing to battle misinformation campaigns for the first time in the count’s 230-year history.

The stakes are huge. Who participates in the 2020 census count could influence how US congressional seats and billions of federal tax dollars to educate children, help low-income families and pave new roads are divvied up.

“It’s a fine target,” former US Census Bureau director John Thompson said of the form, which is sent every decade to households in America to count the population. “If you want to disrupt a democracy, you can certainly go about it by disrupting a census.”

Already, false and inaccurate social media posts about the census have begun to appear online, where they have been viewed thousands of times.

Foremost on everyone’s mind are the misinformation wars waged during the last presidential election to confuse US voters.

Fake posts about the census began popping up days after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration could not ask about citizenship status on the 2020 census: Conservative bloggers, Twitter users and pundits falsely blamed former President Barack Obama for scrubbing the question from the form in 2010. In fact, the main census form hasn’t included a citizenship question since 1950, and the bureau’s own analysis found it would discourage people from participating, possibly skewing results.

And last month, sham posts popped up warning online neighborhood chat groups that robbers were scamming their way into people’s homes by asking to check residents’ identification for the upcoming census. The online hoax left Census Bureau officials scrambling to get the post removed from Facebook, concerned that census workers who were knocking doors to verify addresses could face trouble.

Cyber and census experts worry that trolls and foreign governments will sow more confusion to discourage people from participating in the census, either for political reasons or to game the allocation of resources.

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ’s)

IN this April 23, 2019, file photo, immigration activists rally outside the Supreme Court as the justices hear arguments over the Trump administration’s plan to ask about citizenship on the 2020 Census, in Washington.

Their main targets?

Major US internet platforms such as Google, Twitter and Facebook, according to Dipayan Ghosh, the co-director of Harvard Kennedy School’s digital platforms and democracy project.

“In terms of the bad actors that are pushing this type of content — absolutely, foreign parties, particularly Russia and China, are concerns in the case of the census, as well as domestic operators,” Ghosh added.

Government officials spend years preparing for each census, but the extent of Russia’s misinformation campaign during the last presidential elections — inaccurate and divisive images, posts and stories on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter that often went viral — wasn’t really understood until 2017.

That’s when Census Bureau leaders began to wonder if the 2020 census could be the next target, Thompson said.

“We were aware of the potential by the time I left,” said Thompson, who resigned from his post in June 2017. “We hadn’t gotten much further than that.”

As a first line of defense, census officials have spent months forging relationships with dozens of technology companies that keep close guard on their massive datasets and proprietary information.

The bureau now works directly with all major platforms — Facebook, Twitter and Google — to help inform people about the mechanics of the census and to stamp out inaccurate information that’s swirling around.

“We can communicate with them quickly and try to resolve, whether it’s on public forums or in closed groups,” said Zack

Schwartz, the deputy division chief for the Census Bureau’s Center for New Media & Promotion.

Both Facebook and Google have told The Associated Press they will set up teams dedicated to stopping misinformation about the census.

Facebook will use a mix of people and artificial intelligence to spot, review and remove troublesome posts. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress on Wednesday that the company would soon release a new census policy similar to its election rules, which prohibit false content about voting hours, location and registration on its site.

“We recognise this is important and this rises above normal hoaxes or misinformation,” Zuckerberg said.

The Central Bank of The Bahamas is in need of suitably qualified individuals or companies to provide proof of relevant experience with reference to the following services, as it relates to the project to develop its new premises, on the Royal Victoria Gardens site between East Street and Parliament Street, south of Shirley Street, and north of East Hill Street in the city of Nassau, Bahamas.

1. Electrical Engineering Services – the licensed professional engineer shall perform electrical engineering services for the proposed new premises of the Central Bank.

2. Mechanical Engineering Services - the licensed professional engineer shall perform mechanical, plumbing, fire protection services for the proposed new premises of the Central Bank.

All interested parties should submit the following information listed below to: tenders@centralbankbahamas.com 1. Please indicate which services you are interested in providing.

2. Please provide the Individual/Company name, address and contact information.

3. Please provide a CV of key personnel or company profile (if applicable).

All responses to this advertisement must be submitted by Tuesday, 29 October 2019 @ 5PM.

PAGE 6, Monday, October 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

UTAH SEES RAPID GROWTH IN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS SALT LAKE CITY Associated Press UTAH’S tree-lined suburbs and sweeping landscapes of red bluffs, deserts and lakes have increasingly dotted the silver screen in recent years, serving as the backdrop for several popular movies and TV shows including “Hereditary”, ‘’Westworld”, and the Disney Channel series “Andi Mack”.

The Beehive State has seen considerable growth in its television and film productions since 2015, with total dollars spent by productions more than doubling to about $87m, according to a recent report from the state-sponsored Utah Film Commission.

That growth can be credited to an aggressive strategy by state officials to court bigger production companies and promote scouting locations for TV series that provide more jobs and longer economic investments than movies, said Virginia Peace, the director of the Utah Film Commission.

“We had to ask ourselves: How do we make the most of what we have, get the biggest bang for our buck?” Pearce added.

TY COOPER, director of the narrative short “Mingle”, puts up a poster on Main Street to promote his film during the second day of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. The money spent

by TV and film production crews in Utah has more than doubled over the last five years as directors are drawn to the state’s proximity to Los Angeles and sweeping landscapes of red bluffs, deserts and lakes, according to a state report.

Photo: Chris Pizzello/AP Still, Utah struggles to compete with British Columbia and New Mexico, locations with similar looks that can offer better tax breaks for productions.

The state currently offers up to a 25% tax credit or cash rebate on money spent by productions in the state, with the programme capped at about $8m each year. The program is considered conservative compared to other states such as Illinois and Georgia with larger breaks

and no cap.

Utah enjoyed steady success in the entertainment industry throughout the 20th century as the site of the Sundance Film Festival and several highgrossing films including “Footloose”, ‘’The Sandlot” and “Forrest Gump”.

But production slowed in Utah during the early 2000s as other states introduced more competitive incentive programs.

State legislators initially balked at incentive

packages that required significant front-loading of state funds to support tax breaks and incentives for production companies.

The stronger, revised incentive programme proposed

by Republican Rep Greg Hughes was finally put in place in 2012.

Pearce, who began leading the film commission in 2014, leveraged Utah’s proximity to Los Angeles and its unique scenery to attract more producers to the state.

Her strategy helped cultivate a strong partnership with Disney, which has filmed at least 20 movies in Utah and recently wrapped up filming its show “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”, set to premiere next month.

Susette Hsiung, the executive vice president of production for Disney Channel, has worked on productions in Utah for about 20 years.

She said Disney has benefited from Utah’s family-friendly atmosphere and diverse filming locations.

“The locations have unique looks. when we needed a herd of buffalo for (the film) ‘Buffalo Dreams’, we found buffalo near Salt Lake City, easily,” she said. “And when we filmed (snowboarding film) ‘Cloud 9’, we shot at a resort in Park City.”

Utah’s entertainment boom is part of a national trend in which several states with a strong production incentive program are experiencing “exponential growth”, Van Stevenson, a senior vice president at the Motion Picture Association said.

Stevenson pointed to Louisiana and New Jersey as other states with blossoming entertainment

industries by increased funding, new sound stages and legislators enticed by the industry’s promise to generate jobs and millions in revenue.

Utah has tried to keep pace with its rivals by investing in new production facilities and larger crews throughout the state.

Several movies ranging from Christmas tales to thrillers are currently filming in Utah.

Hsiung said she would consider shooting more Disney productions in Utah but raised concern about the tight incentive program.

“It’s difficult to constantly go back and ask if there’s enough money, especially when you’re working with a smaller budget on children programs,” she said. “The tax incentive programme makes a big difference.”

Still, Pearce said she is optimistic about Utah’s future in show business.

“We’ve made great progress in the past five years ... when people film here for the first time, the main thing I hear is how impressed they are with the crew and resources they can find here,” she said.

“That’s why they come back.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 28, 2019, PAGE 7

Pentagon hands Microsoft $10B ‘war cloud’ deal, snubs Amazon President Brad Smith wrote last fall that Microsoft has long supplied technology to the military and would continue to do so, despite pushback from employees.

Oracle and IBM were eliminated earlier in the process, leaving Microsoft and Amazon to battle it out at the end.

THE MICROSOFT logo in Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, France. The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a $10bn cloud computing contract called JEDI on Friday. The contentious bidding process for the contract pitted Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle, among others, against one another.

SAN FRANCISCO Associated Press THE Pentagon awarded Microsoft a $10bn cloud computing contract , snubbing early front-runner Amazon, whose competitive bid drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals.

Bidding for the huge project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and IBM against one another.

The giant contract has attracted more attention than most, sparked by speculation early in the process that Amazon would be the sole winner of the deal.

Tech giants Oracle and IBM pushed back with their own bids and also formally protested the bidding process last year.

Oracle later challenged the process in federal court, but lost.

Trump waded into the fray in July, saying that the administration would “take a very long look” at the process, saying he had heard complaints. Trump has frequently expressed his ire for Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post. At

the time, he said other companies told him that the contract “wasn’t competitively bid”.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper recused himself from the controversial bidding process earlier this week, citing a conflict of interest because his son works for one of the companies that originally bid.

The JEDI system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the US military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.

A cloud strategy document unveiled by the Defense Department last year called for replacing the military’s “disjointed and stove-piped information systems” with a commercial cloud service “that will empower the warfighter with data and is critical to maintaining our military’s technological advantage”.

The Pentagon emphasised in an announcement that the process was fair and followed procurement guidelines. It noted that over the past two years, it has awarded more than $11bn in ten separate cloud-computing contracts, and said the JEDI award “continues our strategy of a multi-vendor, multi-cloud environment”.

The latter statement appeared designed to address previous criticism about awarding such a large deal to one company.

The deal is a major win for Microsoft’s cloud business Azure, which has long been playing catch-up to Amazon’s market leading Amazon Web Services.

Microsoft said it was preparing a statement.

Amazon said on Friday it was surprised by the decision.

“AWS is the clear leader in cloud computing, and a detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings clearly lead to a different conclusion,” Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said in a statement. “We remain deeply committed to continuing to innovate for the new digital battlefield where security, efficiency, resiliency, and scalability of resources can be the difference between success and failure.”

According to a July report from the research firm Gartner, Amazon holds almost 48% of the market for public cloud computing, followed by Microsoft in second place with close to 16%.

Over the last year, Microsoft has positioned itself as a friend to the US military.

Google decided last year not to compete for the contract, saying it would conflict with its AI ethics principles.

Google employees have been especially vocal in protesting the company’s involvement with government contracts.

“It’s a paradigm changer for Microsoft to win JEDI,” said Dan Ives, managing

director of Wedbush Securities. “And it’s a huge black eye for Amazon and Bezos.”

Microsoft, Amazon, Google and other tech giants have faced criticism from their own employees about doing business with the government, especially on military and immigration related projects.

PAGE 8, Monday, October 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Facebook launches a news section - and will pay publishers

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AND TALI ARBEL Associated Press OVER the course of its 15 year history, Facebook has variously ignored news organisations while eating their advertising revenue, courted them for video projects it subsequently abandoned, and then largely

cut their stories out of its newsfeeds .

Now it plans to pay them for news headlines — reportedly millions of dollars in some cases.

Enter the “News Tab”, a new section in the Facebook mobile app that will display headlines — and nothing else — from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed News,

Business Insider, NBC, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

Breitbart, a conservative news outlet that has been accused of running racist stories, will also be part of the news tab, as will local stories from several of the largest US cities. Headlines from smaller towns are on their way, Facebook says.

Tapping on those headlines will take you directly to publisher websites or apps, if you have any installed.

Which is one thing publishers have been requesting from Facebook’s news efforts for years.

It’s potentially a big step for a platform that has long struggled with both stamping out misinformation and making nice with struggling purveyors of news. Though media watchers remain skeptical that Facebook is really committed to helping sustain the news industry.

Facebook declined to say who is getting paid and how much, saying only that it will be paying “a range of publishers for access to all of their content”. Just last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wasn’t sure it “makes sense” to pay news outlets for their material.

But now, as Zuckerberg told The Associated Press in an interview, “there’s an

Vacancy Announcement The American Embassy in Nassau is accepting applications for the following position:

Mechanical Engineer Salary $51,114 - $76,672 Duties: The Mechanical Engineer shall be directly responsible to the OBO Project Director in the performance of their duties. Services shall generally consist of eight (8) hours a day, 40 hours a week from Monday through Friday or as otherwise directed. The mechanical engineer shall be available for compensated overtime work as directed by the OBO Project Director. The Mechanical Engineer will observe, inspect, and report on the construction of the New Embassy Compound (NEC) in Nassau as directed by the OBO Project Director.

Interested candidates are required to possess the following skills and qualifications: • Education: Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from an accredited institution is required.

• Experience: Five years of progressively responsible experience in Mechanical Engineering with at least three years of experience in the field of building construction.

• Language: English level IV (Fluent) Written/Speaking/Reading is required.

The complete Vacancy Announcement and Application forms are available online at: https://bs.usembassy.gov/embassy/jobs Application forms must be submitted electronically to the following email for consideration: NassauHR@state.gov.

Applications will not be accepted at the Security Gate of the Embassy or by mail or other means of delivery.

Deadline for applications is November 8, 2019.

Due to the high volume of applications, unsuccessful candidates will not be contacted.

opportunity to set up new long term, stable financial relationships with publishers.”

The Associated Press is not participating in the initiative.

News executives have long been unhappy about the extent to which digital giants like Facebook make use of their stories — mostly by displaying headlines and short summaries when users post news links. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this year would grant an antitrust exemption to news companies, letting them band together to negotiate payments from the big tech platforms.

“It’s a good direction that they’re willing for the first time to value and pay for news content,” said David Chavern, head of the News Media Alliance, a publisher trade group. “The trouble is that most publishers aren’t included.”

Zuckerberg said Facebook aims to set up partnerships with a “wide range” of publishers.

“We think that this is an opportunity to build something quite meaningful here,” he said. “We’re going to have journalists curating this, we are really focused on provenance and branding and where the stories come from.”

At an event Friday in New York, Zuckerberg was asked why Facebook isn’t paying all publishers in the news section. He replied that the initial focus was on building a broad set of content and figuring how to compensate publishers with paywalls.

The next step will be to add local and international sources to the tab, he said.

In a statement, the Los Angeles Times said it expects the Facebook effort will help expand its readership and digital subscribers.

The New York Times said it was a “welcome first step”.

Facebook killed its most recent effort to curate news, the ill-fated Trending topics, in 2018. Conservatives complained about political bias, leading Facebook to fire its human editors and automate the section until it began recycling false stories,

FACEBOOK CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks about “News Tab” at the Paley Center on Friday in New York. The new feature in the Facebook mobile app will display headlines — and nothing else — from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, Business Insider, NBC, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP after which the social giant shut it down entirely.

But what happens when the sprawling social network plays news editor? An approach that sends people news based on what they’ve liked before could over time elevate stories with greater “emotional resonance” over news that “allows public discourse to take place”, said Edward Wasserman, dean of the graduate journalism program at the University of California-Berkeley.

“It deepens my concern that they’ll be applying Facebook logic to news judgment,” he added.

The social network has come under criticism for its news judgment recently.

In September, it removed a fact-check from Science Feedback that called out an anti-abortion activist’s video for claiming that abortion is never medically necessary.

Republican senators had complained about the fact check.

Asked at the Friday event asked Zuckerberg why Breitbart was included in the news section, Zuckerberg replied that the

company wants a “breadth of content”.

Facebook says a small team of “seasoned” journalists it employs will choose the headlines for the “Today’s Story” section of the tab, designed to “catch you up” on the day’s news.

The rest of the news section will be populated with stories algorithmically based on users’ interests.

That sounds similar to the approach taken by Apple News, a free iPhone app. But Apple’s effort to contract with news organizations has been slow to take off. Apple News Plus, a $10-a-month paid version, remains primarily a hub for magazines; other news publishers have largely sat it out.

Apple’s service reportedly offered publishers only half the revenue it pulled in from subscriptions, divided according to how popular publishers were with readers.

Zuckerberg said on Friday that he hopes to have 20 to 30 million people in the US using the news section over a few years.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 28, 2019, PAGE 9

WASHINGTON BANNING US FLIGHTS TO ALL CUBAN CITIES BUT HAVANA MIAMI Associated Press THE Trump administration is banning US flights to all Cuban cities except Havana in the latest move to roll back the Obama-era easing of relations, officials said on Friday.

Supporters of the ban said it would starve the Havana government of cash and limit its ability to repress Cubans and support Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US wants to overthrow.

Opponents said prohibiting flights would simply make it harder for CubanAmericans to visit their families outside the capital, without making a significant impact on the Cuban government.

The State Department said JetBlue flights to Santa Clara in central Cuba and the eastern cities of Holguin, Camaguey would be banned starting in December. American Airlines flights to Camaguey, Holguin and Santa Clara, the beach resort of Varadero and the eastern city of Santiago are also being banned.

Flights to Havana, which account for the great majority of US flights to Cuba, will remain legal.

“This action will prevent the Castro regime from profiting from US air travel and using the revenues to repress the Cuban people,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Twitter.

Raul Castro stepped down as president last year but remains head of the Communist Party, the country’s highest authority.

Another stated reason for the move is to prevent

tourism to Cuba, which is barred by US law. But it is not clear how many people take the banned flights for tourism purposes. Many are used by Cuban-Americans visiting relatives in cities far from Havana by road.

“Eager to punish Cuba’s unbreakable defiance, imperialism is going after regular flights to various Cuban cities. It doesn’t matter that they’re affecting family relations, or the modest pocketbooks of most Cubans in both countries,” Carlos F de Cossío, head of Cuba’s department of US affairs, said on Twitter. “Our response isn’t changing.”

Charter flights to destinations outside Havana are apparently not affected by the ban, but those flights tend to be more expensive and far less convenient.

The other remaining legal option is a flight to Havana and then a road trip that could last as much as eight to more than 12 hours over rutted, unsafe roads, in the case of Cuba’s eastern cities.

JetBlue and American issued brief statements saying they would comply with the decision.

The announcement coincided with an event in Miami calling for regime change in Cuba and featuring US officials, Organization of Americans States President Luis Almagro, and a variety of Cuban-Americans and Cuban dissidents.

“This is a step forward,” said Cuba-born barber Ernesto Regues, who said he left the island in 2012 and still has family in Havana. “Now they need to stop the flights to Havana.”

Carrie Filipetti, deputy assistant secretary for Cuba and Venezuela in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said Havana would serve as the gateway for Cuban-Americans wanting to see their relatives.

“We want to make sure that Cuban-Americans do have a route to their families. You need to enter.

Havana is currently carved out for this,” she said.

She warned, however, that “we will continue to increase sanctions” and said other countries should do the same.

“It is a long path with many steps along the way,” she said to a standing ovation.

Lourdes Díaz, a retired Cuban-American who arrived in the US one year after Castro’s Revolution, said she disagrees with the current sanctions, feeling

they help Cuba’s communist government more than hurt it.

“The only thing that suffers is the people,” Diaz said.

The Trump administration has been regularly tightening the six-decadeold embargo on Cuba in recent months with the stated purpose of cutting off income to the Cuban government and forcing it to cut ties to Venezuela and

grant more human rights to Cuban citizens. Washington has barred US cruise ships visiting Cuba, sanctioned oil tankers moving petroleum from Venezuela to Cuba and permitted lawsuits against foreign companies profiting from their use of properties confiscated from Americans or from Cubans who later obtained American citizenship.

PAGE 10, Monday, October 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Stocks post gains on solid earnings, US-China trade optimism

By ALEX VEIGA AND DAMIAN J TROISE Associated Press THE S&P 500 closed just short of an all-time high on Friday as investors welcomed solid company earnings reports and an encouraging update on trade talks between the US and China.

Technology, communications services and financial stocks powered the rally.

The index ended within 0.1% of its record set July 26. It also notched its third straight weekly gain.

Strong earnings reports from Intel, Charter

Communications and other companies helped reverse a mixed start.

The buying accelerated around midday after the US Trade Representative’s office said the discussions with China’s negotiating team “made headway and the two sides are close to finalising some sections of the agreement”.

The encouraging update gave the market a boost, but it wasn’t enough to sustain a record close for the S&P 500. For that to happen, a broader variety of the market’s sectors must to do well, not just technology, utilities and real estate stocks, said

Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird.

“You’ve had indexes around the world make new highs since the last time the S&P did,” he said. “If we want to see a new high that’s going to be durable we need to see more US broad market improvement. It’s heading in that direction, but it’s not there yet.”

The S&P 500 rose 12.26 points, or 0.4%, to 3,022.55.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 152.53 points, or 0.6%, to 26,958.06. The Nasdaq climbed 57.32 points, or 0.7%, or 8,243.12. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks picked up 8.53 points, or 0.6%, to 1,558.71.

The US-China trade conflict, which has led both sides to impose billions in tariffs on each other’s goods, has roiled financial markets and stoked worries that the dispute could tip the global economy into a recession.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

Those worries eased in recent weeks, after Washington and Beijing worked to calm tensions and then resumed negotiations.

That’s allowed investors to focus on company earnings reports the past two weeks. Traders want to get a sense of how Corporate America is faring against the backdrop of the costly trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

Earnings reports so far have mostly exceeded Wall Street analysts’ modest expectations.

However, many of those that delivered improved results for the quarter have also issued disappointing profit outlooks.

Of the roughly 40% of the companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far, 80% of them had results that topped Wall Street’s earnings forecasts, while 64% beat revenue estimates, according to FactSet. Factoring in the earnings reports that have already come in, analysts expect earnings from S&P 500 companies for the JulySeptember quarter will be down 3.7% from a year ago.

That’s slightly better than the 4% drop that analysts were initially expecting.

As of Friday, some 38 companies in the S&P 500

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that RODACHENA CHARLES of Podoleo Street, Nassau, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration/ Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 21st day of October, 2019 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

MARKET REPORT www.bisxbahamas.com

(242) 323-2330

FRIDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2019

had issued earnings forecasts for the fourth quarter.

Of those, 26 issued negative guidance and 12 gave a positive outlook. That works out to 68% of those companies lowering their guidance, which is just below the five-year average of 70%, according to FactSet. Until this week, the market had a mostly muted reaction to earnings. In contrast, the S&P 500 notched gains four out of the past five days, rounding out the week with a three-day winning streak.

Intel jumped 8.1% after raising its profit forecast for the year following a solid third quarter. Fellow chipmakers, including Nvidia, also made strong gains.

Charter Communications gained 6.2% after reporting solid financial results.

The cable operator made some of the strongest gains among its fellow communications companies.

Banks rose as bond yields moved higher. The yield on the ten-year Treasury rose to 1.8% from 1.76% late Thursday.

Consumer product makers, utilities and real estate companies lagged the market.

Amazon fell 1.1% after releasing disappointing third-quarter profits and a weak sales forecast for the holiday shopping season.

A robust mix of earnings, economic indicators and an interest rate decision from the Fed should keep investors busy next week, and

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that JENNIFER ELAINE WILLIAMS RODGERS of Fox Hill Road, #2 Yamacraw, Nassau, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration/Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 18th day of October, 2019 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE

(242) 323-2320

ALL SHARE INDEX: CLOSE: 2,201.59 | CHG: 3.83 | %CHG: 0.17 | YTD: 92.14 | YTD%: 4.37 BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.45 22.65 7.00 5.92 2.60 2.00 5.47 11.75 6.17 4.64 12.40 2.81 3.85 10.21 7.51 16.50 9.40 3.64 14.20

52WK LOW 3.70 20.91 4.90 4.46 1.01 0.22 2.00 9.25 6.15 3.95 6.75 2.35 1.76 7.51 6.10 12.10 6.20 3.01 13.01

SECURITY AML Foods Limited APD Limited Bahamas Property Fund Bahamas Waste Bank of Bahamas Benchmark Cable Bahamas CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank Colina Holdings Commonwealth Bank Commonwealth Brewery Consolidated Water BDRs Doctor's Hospital Emera Incorporated Famguard Fidelity Bank Finco Focol J. S. Johnson

SYMBOL AML APD BPF BWL BOB BBL CAB CIB CHL CBL CBB CWCB DHS EMAB FAM FBB FIN FCL JSJ

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

Cable Bahamas Series 6 Cable Bahamas Series 8 Cable Bahamas Series 9 Cable Bahamas Series 10 Colina Holdings Class A Fidelity Bank Class A Focol Class B

CAB6 CAB8 CAB9 CAB10 CHLA FBBA FCLB

PREFERENCE SHARES

1.00 10.00 1.00

1.00 10.00 1.00

CORPORATE DEBT - (percentage pricing) 52WK HI 100.00

52WK LOW 100.00

115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

104.79 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

52WK HI 2.27 4.31 2.07 194.86 158.57 1.65 1.82 1.74 1.21 8.01 9.60 6.83 11.39 12.30 10.68 10.00 8.69 11.79

52WK LOW 1.67 3.04 1.68 164.74 116.70 1.58 1.69 1.66 1.09 6.41 7.62 5.66 8.65 10.54 9.57 9.88 8.45 11.20

SECURITY Fidelity Bank Note 22 (Series B) +

SYMBOL FBB22

Bahamas Note 6.95 (2029) BGS: 2015-1-3Y BGS: 2014-12-5Y BGS: 2015-1-5Y BGS: 2014-12-7Y BGS: 2015-1-7Y BGS: 2014-12-30Y BGS: 2015-1-30Y BGS: 2015-6-3Y BGS: 2015-6-5Y BGS: 2015-6-7Y BGS: 2015-6-30Y BGS: 2015-10-3Y BGS: 2015-10-5Y BGS: 2015-10-7Y

BAH29 BG0203 BG0105 BG0205 BG0107 BG0207 BG0130 BG0230 BG0303 BG0305 BG0307 BG0330 BG0403 BG0405 BG0407

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT STOCK - (percentage pricing)

MUTUAL FUNDS

MARKET TERMS

LAST CLOSE 3.70 17.43 6.00 5.92 2.46 1.80 4.70 11.06 6.16 4.07 8.01 3.34 3.85 10.38 7.51 16.50 9.33 3.54 14.20

CLOSE 3.70 17.43 6.00 5.92 2.46 1.80 4.70 11.06 6.16 4.10 8.01 3.33 3.85 10.21 7.51 16.50 9.33 3.54 14.20

CHANGE 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.00 -0.01 0.00 -0.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

LAST SALE 100.00

CLOSE 100.00

CHANGE 0.00

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

FUND CFAL Bond Fund CFAL Balanced Fund CFAL Money Market Fund CFAL Global Bond Fund CFAL Global Equity Fund Leno Preferred Income Fund Leno Growth Fund Leno Diversified Fund Leno Global USD Bond Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Secured Balanced Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Targeted Equity Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Prime Income Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Equities Sub Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - High Yield Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Alternative Strategies Fund Colonial Bahamas Fund Class D Colonial Bahamas Fund Class E Colonial Bahamas Fund Class F

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX - 19 Dec 02 = 1,000.00 52wk-Hi - Highest closing price in last 52 weeks 52wk-Low - Lowest closing price in last 52 weeks Previous Close - Previous day's weighted price for daily volume Today's Close - Current day's weighted price for daily volume Change - Change in closing price from day to day Daily Vol. - Number of total shares traded today DIV $ - Dividends per share paid in the last 12 months P/E - Closing price divided by the last 12 month earnings

VOLUME 500

25,000 200

500

VOLUME

NAV 2.27 4.30 2.07 193.72 158.42 1.65 1.82 1.74 1.19 8.23 10.10 6.85 11.24 12.28 10.74 9.92 8.68 11.38

EPS$ 0.239 0.932 1.760 0.369 0.070 0.000 -0.438 0.722 0.449 0.184 0.140 0.102 0.467 0.646 0.728 0.816 0.939 0.203 0.631

DIV$ 0.170 1.260 0.000 0.250 0.000 0.020 0.000 0.720 0.220 0.120 0.000 0.434 0.060 0.328 0.240 0.540 0.200 0.120 0.610

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

P/E 15.5 18.7 N/M 16.0 N/M N/M -10.7 15.3 13.7 22.3 57.2 32.6 8.2 15.8 10.3 20.2 9.9 17.4 22.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

YIELD 4.59% 7.23% 0.00% 4.22% 0.00% 1.11% 0.00% 6.51% 3.57% 2.93% 0.00% 13.03% 1.56% 3.21% 3.20% 3.27% 2.14% 3.39% 4.30% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 7.00% 6.50%

INTEREST Prime + 1.75%

MATURITY 19-Oct-2022

6.95% 4.00% 4.25% 4.25% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.00% 4.25% 4.50% 6.25% 3.50% 3.88% 4.25%

20-Nov-2029 30-Jul-2018 16-Dec-2019 30-Jul-2020 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2018 26-Jun-2020 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2018 15-Oct-2020 15-Oct-2022

YTD% 12 MTH% 2.77% 3.84% 1.38% 3.46% 2.03% 2.76% 4.99% 6.20% 7.18% -0.08% 2.88% 3.80% 4.56% 6.50% 3.35% 4.17% 5.77% 7.89% 7.17% 8.76% 11.07% 12.58% 3.50% 4.96% 8.92% -0.97% 5.22% 5.44% 2.95% 2.64% -0.71% 0.16% 7.40% 2.70% 10.20% 1.30%

NAV Date 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 27-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Sep-2019 30-Mar-2019 30-Mar-2019 30-Mar-2019

YIELD - last 12 month dividends divided by closing price Bid $ - Buying price of Colina and Fidelity Ask $ - Selling price of Colina and fidelity Last Price - Last traded over-the-counter price Weekly Vol. - Trading volume of the prior week EPS $ - A company's reported earnings per share for the last 12 mths NAV - Net Asset Value N/M - Not Meaningful

could determine whether the S&P 500 sets a record.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reports today; General Motors, and drugmakers Merck and Pfizer on Tuesday; Apple and Facebook on Wednesday; and, Exxon on Friday.

Beyond earnings, the Federal Reserve issues its latest interest rate policy statement Wednesday afternoon, while the government will release its latest monthly reports on hiring and consumer confidence.

“The big focus will be the Fed,” Delwiche said.

“They’re likely to cut rates.

If they didn’t that would come as a surprise. The uncertainty is what sort of guidance they give going forward.”

Benchmark crude oil rose 43 cents to settle at $56.66 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, gained 35 cents to close at $62.02 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline rose one cent to $1.67 per gallon. Heating oil fell one cent to $1.98 per gallon. Natural gas slid one cent to $2.46 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose 60 cents to $1,499.50 per ounce, silver rose 12 cents to $17.86 per ounce and copper added a penny to $2.67 per pound.

The dollar fell to 108.68 Japanese yen from 108.62 yen on Thursday. The euro weakened to $1.1080 from $1.1108.

NOTICE is hereby given that TRANIQUE TAMIA THURSTON of Collins Avenue, Tenwich Street, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration/Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 21st day of October, 2019 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

The Cove Eleuthera is seeking a qualified Resort Man The Cove Eleuthera is seeking a qualified Spa Thercandidate should have the following minimum require apist – Thai Specialist to join our Spa Team on a Fix Term Contract. The successful candidate should Bachelor’s degree from four-year College or university have the following minimum requirements: five years of Food & Beverage and Rooms Executi properties are highly desired. Prior Resort Manager o Bachelor’s from four-year College or a have strong degree organizational skills, excellent written university; orprioritize equivalent related work related perform and multiple tasks with ease. C experience and/or training. Prior Spa Lead relations skills. Must maintain current CPR and First Ai

experience and Yoga or Pilates trainer preferred.

Must have strong organizational skills, excellent All interested applicants can forward their Resume and written and verbal communication skills and be Human.Resources@thecoveeleuthera.com.

able to perform and prioritize multiple tasks with ease. Computer skills required. Strong guest and team member relations skills. Must have therapist certifications. Must maintain current CPR and First Aid certification. Safety sensitive position.

All interested applicants can forward their Resume and Cover Letter to

Human.Resources@thecoveeleutheracom.

TO TRADE CALL: CFAL 242-502-7010 | ROYALFIDELITY 242-356-7764 | COLONIAL 242-502-7525 | LENO 242-396-3225 | BENCHMARK 242-326-7333

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, October 28, 2019, PAGE 11

CHESS MOVE: UK PARTIES SUGGEST DEC 9 VOTE IN BREXIT GAMBIT LONDON Associated Press TWO British opposition parties yesterday proposed an even earlier election date than Prime Minister Boris Johnson, pictured, has offered, trying to force his government to delay a final decision on its European Union divorce deal.

The chess move by the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party reflects the volatile political landscape now in Britain.

The ruling Conservatives desperately want a new election to bolster their numbers in Parliament, but they face resistance from the main opposition Labour Party, which fears the country will be unwittingly tricked into crashing out of the European Union without a deal.

The latest election proposal is an effort to force Johnson to delay debate in Parliament on his Brexit withdrawal bill until after any election, depriving him of a possible victory on his trademark issue going into the campaign. It makes Johnson’s government choose between holding an election to improve its position in Parliament and its goal of securing Brexit before that election takes place.

“The challenge is absolutely on (the prime minister), because if he is serious about wanting an election and if he’s genuine about having an election before Christmas, then he can back this bill,” Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson told the BBC yesterday.

Looming over the political manoeuvring is what Johnson and Parliament are going to do about his Brexit deal and how long an extension EU leaders will give Britain to the current Brexit deadline, which is Thursday. The EU in principle has backed extending the Brexit deadline but officials were meeting again this week to figure out how long it should be.

The Liberal Democrats and the SNP plan to introduce legislation on Tuesday that calls for an early national election on Dec 9, three days earlier than Johnson proposed and years earlier than Britain’s next scheduled vote in 2022.

Because UK law requires Parliament to be dissolved 25 working days before an election, the date of any poll will dictate how much time is available to debate Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal deal.

The Liberal Democrats expect a vote on their

proposal Thursday, just days before Parliament would be suspended. That would effectively leave no time for lawmakers to consider Johnson’s Brexit deal.

In contrast, Johnson announced last week he will ask lawmakers today to authorise a Dec 12 election, then use the rest of the legislative term to push through his Brexit deal.

Under this plan, Parliament would be dissolved on Nov 7, giving lawmakers about seven days to debate the withdrawal agreement that Johnson and EU leaders agreed upon.

The two sides have effectively been debating Britain’s departure from the 28-nation bloc — which has never seen a member leave — since British voters in June 2016 chose to leave the EU. But Johnson’s deal was cemented only ten days ago — and British lawmakers fear rushing through a document that has enormous economic and political consequences for the country.

The problem for Johnson is that his proposal requires a two-thirds vote of the House of Commons and it is opposed by opposition parties who fear it could lead to an economically damaging no-deal Brexit.

In contrast, the Liberal Democrat plan only needs a simple majority in the 650-seat House of Commons due to laws governing elections.

The Liberal Democrat plan would be conditional upon the EU agreeing to extend the Brexit deadline until to the end of January. Johnson has sought a shorter Brexit extension to keep alive the possibility of a no-deal departure, which in turn keeps the pressure on British lawmakers to approve his deal.

Economists say a no-deal departure would be very damaging to both the British and EU economies.

Conservative Party chair James Cleverly dismissed the new election proposal as “clearly a gimmick” designed to delay Brexit because it only moves the election date ahead three days. If the Liberal Democrats and SNP really want an election, they should vote for the Dec 12 date proposed by Johnson, Cleverly said.

“We’re not going to listen to two parties who explicitly said they want to stop Brexit from happening,” he told the BBC. “We’re not going to be complicit in them stopping Brexit.”

The move by the Liberal Democrats and the SNP is also a challenge to

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that FRED LOUIS of Guana Cay, Abaco, Bahamas, General Delivery, is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 28th day of October, 2019 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

Mid-size commercial law firm is seeking suitable candidates to fill the post of:

BOOKKEEPER/ ACCOUNTANT Qualifications: • •

•

Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or related area Experience: 3-5 years in an Accounting-related field Interested persons should submit resumé to

Lawfirmhelp00@gmail.com Deadline for submission is October 31st, 2019

the Labour Party, which has repeatedly vacillated on whether to call an early election in which they could lose seats.

Diane Abbott, a senior Labour spokeswoman, said yesterday that Labour will wait to see what kind of Brexit extension the

EU offers before deciding whether to support the latest domestic election proposal. She also repeated the party’s position that it will back an early election only after Johnson explicitly says there won’t be a no-deal Brexit.

“He could come to

Parliament and categorically give Parliament an undertaking that he’s not going to come out without a deal, but he won’t do that, because coming out without a deal is something that people around him ... would want,” she said.

PAGE 12, Monday, October 28, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Johnson’s NIreland allies vow to keep rejecting Brexit deal LONDON Associated Press BORIS Johnson’s allies in Northern Ireland vowed on Saturday to keep rejecting the British prime minister’s divorce deal with the European Union until his government wins more concessions from the bloc.

Arlene Foster, the leader

of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, said she demanded honesty from the British government. She told her party conference in Belfast that regulatory and customs borders between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom were not acceptable.

“We will not give support

to the government when we believe they are fundamentally wrong and acting in a way that is detrimental to Northern Ireland and taking us in the wrong direction,” she said. “We will oppose them and we will use our votes to defeat them.”

Her comments are important because Johnson needs

more votes in Parliament than just his Conservative party to get his Brexit deal passed.

“Let me say clearly from this platform today that we want to support a deal that works for the whole of the United Kingdom and which does not leave Northern Ireland behind,” she said.

“But without change, we

DEMOCRATIC Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster speaks to delegates at the party’s annual conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Saturday.

Photo: Peter Morrison/AP will not vote for the prime minister’s agreement.”

Parliament has already dealt Johnson a series of setbacks and derailed his promise to take Britain out of the EU by the end of the month “come what may”.

Johnson has now pinned his hopes on an early general election, calling for one on Dec 12, but how Britain will solve its Brexit stalemate is still completely up in the air.

Less than a week before Britain is scheduled to leave the EU, ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 other nations agreed to grant the UK’s request for another extension to the Brexit deadline — but they did not settle on how long that delay should be. More talks on that are expected in the upcoming week.

Britain is scheduled to leave the 28-nation bloc on Oct 31 after its original March 29 departure date was postponed twice. The UK has asked for a threemonth extension as Johnson struggles to get lawmakers to pass the divorce deal he agreed upon with the bloc.

Meanwhile, political tensions are growing. Britain’s main opposition party said on Saturday that Johnson can’t be trusted to protect workers’ rights and environmental standards after the country leaves the EU. The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Johnson’s Conservative government plans to diverge from EU safety regulations, citing a leaked government document that says rules on workers’ rights and environmental protection leave “room for interpretation”.

“Johnson’s sell-out Brexit is a blueprint for a deregulated economy, where vital rights and protections are torn up. He has no intention of upholding our high standards after we leave the EU,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said. “You can’t trust a word Boris Johnson says.”

Johnson last week pledged to keep work and environmental rules in line with EU standards.

Yet his allies in Northern Ireland say Brexit’s impact on the United Kingdom will be the sole prism through which they will judge any Brexit deal.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said it would be “economic madness” to support Johnson’s current Brexit deal, claiming it would separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. “Going forward, the Democratic Unionist Party will look at every proposal, every legislative provision, and every amendment through one prism and one prism only: How does this best protect the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?” he asked.

He rejected those who portray the latest Brexit deal, which would see Northern Ireland align with the EU’s single market rules but remain part of the UK’s customs territory, as the “best of both worlds”.

“This is the worst of all worlds,” he told the DUP’s annual conference in Belfast. “It would be economic madness for Northern Ireland to stand by and allow ourselves to have such impediments put in the way of trade with our largest market within our own borders.”

Top police officials have voiced fears of increased violence in Northern Ireland if any barriers are erected on its now-invisible border with Ireland. To address those and other concerns, Johnson put a trade border in the Irish Sea, but his allies are upset because that treats Northern Ireland differently than other parts of the UK. Dodds directly quoted from Johnson’s speech at the same event last year, when he pledged not to erect economic barriers in the Irish Sea. “Respectfully, stick to your word, prime minister,” Dodds said, demanding a deal “that recognises Northern Ireland’s unique history and geography.”