business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020
$4.00
$4.03
$4.03
$3.95
developer Port: Breakwater woes $580m ‘stretches to max’ threaten harbour crisis for environment By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
R
EPAIRS to Nassau Harbour’s “severely damaged” breakwaters are a national “imperative” that cannot be delayed due to the “significant threat” posed to tourism, cruise and commercial shipping. Arawak Port Development Company (APD), in a stark warning contained in its just-released 2020 annual report, said existing breaches in both breakwaters - one up to 350 feet long - were already impacting its ability to service vessels at the Nassau Container Port
• Breaches ‘significant threat’ to cruise, shipping • Alliance formed to source funds, contractor • APD alarm reveals nothing done since flagged in 2017 as well as the piloting of cruise ships pre-COVID-19. Targeting a problem that was first flagged three years ago, but about which seemingly nothing has been done, APD said it had formed an alliance with the Nassau Harbour Pilots Association (NHPA) in a bid to source financing and construction services to address the breaches prior to a Hurricane Dorian-style storm hitting Nassau. The BISX-listed commercial port operator said it had hired two US-based
companies to provide proposals for repairing the breakwaters, which guard the entrances to both Nassau Harbour and Arawak Cay, and had received a threephase road map setting out how this could be achieved. Dion Bethell, APD’s president and chief financial officer, was in a Board meeting when contacted by Tribune Business yesterday and unable to comment on how far the proposals had progressed in winning government support and approval.
However, the company’s annual report made clear the extent of the threat it believes is posed to Nassau’s tourism product and import trade, with 90 percent of physical goods brought into New Providence coming across the Arawak Cay port. “The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought forcefully home the potential negative impacts from the interconnections among maritime networks, natural disasters and international
SEE PAGE 7
Minister: ‘Friday at latest’ for domestic travel visa
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A CABINET minister yesterday said the domestic travel visa will “roll-out by Friday at the latest” as he admitted the government had “absolutely” under-estimated the COVID-19 testing regime’s complexity. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business he wished to “apologise to the Bahamian people” for any disruption caused by implementing a virus testing and tracing regime that could be “very inconvenient, very irritating and very annoying” for travellers to comply with. He argued, though, that The Bahamas had little choice but to adopt such protocols if it wished to restore its tourism industry - the country’s main source of jobs, economic activity and foreign
• ‘Apologises’ for COVID test regime disruption • And admits govt under-estimated complexity • Visa site attracts ‘spam’, card issuer scrutiny
DIONISIO D’AGUILAR exchange earnings - to at least partial health amid the global pandemic. Arguing that the testing strategy was already “yielding positive results”, as it had encouraged both Atlantis and Baha Mar to confirm December re-opening dates and
Aliv targets up to 10% revenue rise
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
ALIV’S top executive yesterday said it aims to shrug off COVID-19 by growing revenues up to ten percent after launching a product to “revolutionise” mobile post-paid services. Damian Blackburn, pictured, told Tribune Business the mobile operator, which has just celebrated its fourth anniversary, had effectively made the US and Canada “part of The Bahamas” by enabling
post-paid customers to use their existing data, voice and text allowances in those markets. While quick to point out that Aliv is not encouraging
SEE PAGE 8
Oil opponents to govt: ‘Come to your senses’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
OIL exploration opponents yesterday voiced hope that the “big deal” of support from around 80 international sources would “make the government come to its senses before it is too late”. Ramping up its campaign to persuade the government to halt the Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) plans, the Our Islands, Our Future coalition said it had received backing from “some of the
biggest names in global ocean conservation”. The group, which is spearheaded by local activists such as the Bahamas Reef Environment Education Foundation (BREEF) and Waterkeeper Bahamas, touted the names of non-profit organisations such as Oceana, Surfrider Foundation, Waterkeeper Alliance, Earthjustice, the Rainforest Action Network and Friends of the Earth in the latest letter said to have been sent to the prime minister.
SEE PAGE 9
the return to work of some 4,500 combined employees between the two properties, Mr D’Aguilar said there was still sufficient time to resolve the information technology (IT) “kinks” before visitors return en masse. He admitted that it had been “a very rough two weeks” putting the IT support network for COVID-19 testing, tracing and compliance in place, as it was “something very new and different for the Ministry of Tourism” to handle, and said: “The vaccine can’t come soon enough.” Mr D’Aguilar revealed that sending out hundreds of e-mails from a new website,
and suddenly accepting multiple credit card payments related to the Health Travel Visa, had also attracted scrutiny from those fearing it was “a centre of spam” and/or facilitating a payments scam, resulting in more problems that had to be overcome. The minister spoke out after Dr Hubert Minnis revealed that the reimposition of the 14-day quarantine for all persons travelling from New Providence to the Family Islands, just 48 hours after this was supposed to be scrapped, resulted from the domestic travel visa not being ready.
SEE PAGE 8
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE economic viability of a $580m South Abaco project has been “stretched to the maximum” to produce “the lowest density project in The Bahamas” and satisfy environmental concerns. Ra’anan “Ronnie” BenZur, the principal behind the Tyrsoz Family Holdings development, yesterday told Tribune Business he was “extremely conscious” of the issues raised by his proposed development before activists such as Sustainable South Abaco raised them publicly. Acknowledging that his project’s two sites, collectively covering around 1,100 acres, lie in an area of extreme environmental sensitivity close to the Abaco National Par, and breeding and nesting grounds for the Abaco parrot, Mr Ben-Zur reassured that it made no business sense to disrupt this since it represented “a selling proposition” to attract visitors and clientele. Speaking after the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was submitted to the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) for review, and released publicly, Mr Ben-Zur said the development will involve substantial investment to upgrade South Abaco’s airport, road and electricity infrastructure. Urging observers not to lose sight of the development’s projected $2bn economic impact over its first ten years, plus the 600 full-time and “average” 600 construction jobs it promises to provide, he added that South Abaco’s
need for employment and economic development especially post-Dorian and COVID-19 - cannot be “over-emphasised”. Declining to provide figures beyond what has already been released, Mr Ben-Zur pledged: “We are going to be very low density because of this environment. We stretched the economic flexibility to the maximum we can, but we are very comfortable with the results. We have a very powerful project that should work very well.” Asked about the environmental concerns that were raised last year, he replied: “We are extremely conscious, and were conscious of it before the concerns were raised. When I went to the site, I’m not an environmentalist, but I’m a responsible person who cares about the world. It was obvious we would decide to do it low density. “We have 1,100 acres and could put 4,000 keys there without thinking twice, but the moment I went to see it, it was obvious it was not on the cards. It is the most low density project you will find in The Bahamas. “Compare it to Albany, Baker’s Bay and the Ocean Club. We’re way less dense than they are; half of what they are or better. It’s very hard to measure, but I believe we’re at 40 percent to 60 percent of their density.” Mr Ben-Zur added that Tyrsoz Family Holdings will also be contributing significantly to environmental causes via a $1m donation to the Bahamas National Trust “for the purpose of improving and developing the Abaco National Park”
SEE PAGE 9