By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

REAFFIRMING its commitment to a majority Bahamian workforce, a senior Baha Mar executive yesterday the $2.6 billion resort development would position the Bahamas for economic growth and activity over the next 20 years.
 Vaughn Roberts, senior vice-president of finance and corporate alliances at Baha Mar, expressed confidence that it would be able to fill its 5,000 full-time positions.

Mr Roberts told the Rotary Club of West Nassau that the majority of those jobs would be at entry level positions.

“The bigger challenge around labour is to be able to sustain the training and the development, and also to sustain the service standard that you will open with,” Mr Roberts said.
 “Of the 5,000 people that will have jobs at Baha Mar, 98 per cent will be Bahamians. There is an arrangement in our Heads of Agreement that we will be entitled to 200 work permits to stablise operations.

“The majority of our workforce will be Bahamians. This is really an investment in the Bahamas and the Bahamian people.”

Mr Roberts added that Baha Mar has spent the past two years building a data base of potential employees, with 3,400 persons having been screened and submitted applications to date.

Speaking on the resort’s potential economic impact, Mr Roberts said: “Over a 20-year period after we open we will pay in payroll dollars, directly and indirectly, $12 billion to Bahamians.

“That’s about $33,000 per capita, and the equivalent of about 12,000 full-time jobs, directly and indirectly. In terms of visitor spending to Baha Mar we project, over a 20-year period, it will be $25.3 billion.”