By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business 
Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas needs to invest at least $1.8 billion in infrastructure in the short to mid-term to support economic growth, a senior accountant said yesterday, telling Tribune Business that a $500 million investment in education alone was “critical”.

Simon Townend, a Bahamas-based KPMG partner and managing director of its corporate finance arm in the Caribbean, who was a presenter at the Bahamas International Investment & Business Forum on Grand Bahama, told Tribune Business that the country needs to find the funding to “make it happen”, which he believes can be accomplished through public-private sector partnerships.

“It’s critical to any economy to have the infrastructure to support not just services to the people in the economy but to promote economic growth,” Mr Townend said.

“Investors coming into a country are going to look at the infrastructure and how it can support their investment. That translates not just to the physical infrastructure but also the regulatory government infrastructure and transparency.

“One of the things the Bahamas really needs to look at, in particular, is the education infrastructure. People will be looking for that labour pool. If they are going to set up trade and industry here, in particular, you need skilled labour. We have come a long way with vocational colleges and so on, but we need to take it to the next level.”

Mr Townend added: “There are a lot of areas that can be tapped to train Bahamians. Once you get that trained labour force in place, more investors are going to come. That’s where the Bahamas really needs to find the funding to make that happen, and I think that can be done with private sector participation. I see education as an important area, and energy as the other key big area.”

Mr Townend said that over the last 10 years, the average investment in economic infrastructure in the Caribbean has been less than 2 per cent of GDP, with the average financial spend required being 5-6 per cent until 2020 “or 7.9 per cent if we are to compete with East Asian countries.

“I think the Bahamas is above average definitely for the last five-10 years, but there still is a lot to do, particularly in the Family Islands with education and health care. The population is growing and you have to support the growing population,” said Mr Townend.

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