Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Nassau David Allen highlighted potential economic and investment opportunities in The Bahamas that are available to the South Florida business community.
Tomorrow, a "Doing Business with The Bahamas" forum in Ft. Lauderdale will be led by the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) in partnership with the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers' Confederation (BCCEC). More than 180 companies from the South Florida community are expected to attend.
Allen pointed out that there is a significant amount of business that happens between The Bahamas and South Florida.
"There is definitely a fair amount of companies in South Florida that are interested in The Bahamas as a potential market or partner depending on their specific business," Allen told Guardian Business yesterday.
Minister of State for Investments Khaalis Rolle said the forum would allow The Bahamas to strengthen its ties and encourage collaboration with the private sector in South Florida. Rolle will attend the forum as an anchor speaker.
"I plan to bring a greater awareness to the many untapped industries available in The Bahamas, which is targeted for foreign direct investments (FDIs)," he said.
Allen noted that FDIs can open doors in multiple directions.
"There may also be some opportunities for Bahamian companies to invest in the other direction, which is something that the United States would definitely welcome. We are aware of one Bahamian business that is distributing products in the South Florida area, and I know of a couple other companies that have expressed interest in doing something similar in the future," he said.
Allen also spoke about the types of products and services Florida investors can look for in The Bahamas.
"The biggest market here in The Bahamas is the commodities and agricultural products, so that is the type of things that you import. There are other products that may be coming through South Florida. Some are innovative and may not be currently available in The Bahamas.
"By creating new partnerships or new distribution networks, perhaps we can take advantage of those relationships to make things more available or more cost effective for Bahamians to purchase here," said Allen.
Outside of the commodities market, he said, there are Florida-based companies that might be interested in coming to The Bahamas to provide services.
"There are many numbers of sectors that could be of interest. I know that through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) The Bahamas is getting ready to do a number of water projects. There are U.S. companies, including companies from Florida, that are quite interested in some of those water projects.
"The energy sector here is actually quite interesting to many U.S. companies including companies in Florida. They were talking both on the energy reform side and providing services to, say, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) company," said Allen.
Xian Smith, Guardian Business Reporter
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