President of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) Ian Rolle said if Freeport was a standalone jurisdiction being ranked on the World Bank Group's ease of doing business index, it would place somewhere in the top 50.

In light of the country placing 121 out of 190 economies on the index, Rolle told Guardian Business that doing business in Freeport is much easier.

By way of an example, Rolle pointed out how the port authority handles investors interested in doing business in Grand Bahama.

"If a foreign investor comes to us, we can tell that foreign investor for sure our part of due diligence will happen within three weeks, and that's simply because we depend on another entity to support foreigners who come into Freeport wanting to do business.

"After the transactions with the port authority, there is no clear accountability in terms of timing where the government would say whether or not they have any issues with the foreign entity coming to do business in The Bahamas," said Rolle.

Rolle revealed that in an effort to improve The Bahamas' ranking, the GBPA is currently engaged in an in-house project.

The project will analyze one or two of the top countries that were ranked on the ease of doing business. Some of the top 10 countries are New Zealand (first), Singapore (second), Denmark (third), and Hong Kong SAR, China (fourth).

"We looked at the World Bank report and the countries that are in the top 10; we are looking at one or two of those countries in the various categories to find out what they are doing.

"Then, we are going to put a paper together and submit it to help the situation, although we have our own set of rules in regards to how we regulate the city of Freeport and the way we do business," said Rolle.

Rolle insisted that if Freeport does well, the country does well.

"We want the country to do well. So one of the things we are doing is looking at one or two of those countries in that report that are high up on the list and analyzing the processes that are in place in those countries that make it so easy to do business and we will put forward a paper," he added.

Xian Smith, Guardian Business Reporter

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