Renardo Curry, newly elected Member of Parliament for North Abaco, was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister at Abaco, yesterday. Prime Minister Perry Christie made the announcement in the House of Assembly. Mr Curry, he said, will be stationed in Abaco year-round in the Office of the Prime Minister in the newly constructed Government complex.

“Under ordinary circumstances I would have been disinclined to increase the number of Parliamentary Secretaries. However, I am firmly of the view that the appointment of the honourable member for North Abaco as a Parliamentary Secretary is highly advisable at this point in time,” he said. “Abaco has the third largest economy in the Bahamas surpassed only by New Providence and Grand Bahama. Moreover there are unique challenges and opportunities there.

It is important, therefore, for my Government – in particular the Office of the Prime Minister — to have a permanent presence in Abaco so that the economic and social challenges to which I have referred can be systematically and directly addressed, with close attention, on a daily basis.” Mr Christie said many of the other islands with smaller economies already have a direct voice in the government, whether through ministers or parliamentary secretaries. Mr Curry said his first order of business is to “push” and promote the importance of education.

“One of the things we want to look at is ways we can better educate our workforce so they can fill qualified job positions. Education will be my number one focus starting off to ensure that our people are skilled enough to fulfil any position that may come to Abaco. We are more a tourist based economy, we have a lot of second home owners in our economy so it’s a lot of different ways our people can find jobs,” he said. Mr Curry said he is very prepared for the job and will be working closely with agencies to create opportunities for Abaconians.

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