I agree with everything Brent says above.

The logical next question is: why have ANY capital requirement limit? Where does $250,000 come from? It is just plucked out thin air. It is meaningless.

The capital requirement for software is literally an office and 5 computers. That can all be had for $10,000. On the other hand, I would challenge anyone to get into nanotechnology without investing at least $100m.

On the realistic side, the total amount of people who are going to come to invest in Nanotechnology or Data Storage & Warehousing is ZERO. Our only hope is that we can attract 20-30 software guys and that is about that.

I believe that's been the purpose of the bill all along, I noticed a narrative for quite some time about us not having "any programmers".

When you point out, wait a second, we do have programmers resident here today, they come with the next argument, well they don't know "this" language. And that sounds reasonable to the larger percentage of the population who won't take into account that programmers have to learn new languages all the time. However there's a vast number of languages to choose from. The only reason to pick one over the other is economic opportunity. If my current or potential employer is using Chocolate.Net...why invest the majority of your time on Sprinkle.OS?

"Unless", the govt makes a proclamation, "*to all Bahamian programmers, a new company will be opening in June with three open positions. Brush up on your Sprinkle.OS skills if you want a chance at these jobs.*"

There's a lot they could be doing other than sayng, "we don't have programmers". It's in their personal pocket interests not to do anything

They've neatly hidden the real goal among a list of irrational industry selections. There will be no massive job creation, no high paying jobs in the inner city, no employment fir single mothers. Someone "in the know" wants a quick path and no obstacles to open a software company with a few expatsin perpetuity, zero Bahamians, and they were planning this BEFORE the election.

To be fair, I have said from the beginning that employment numbers from this Bill will be very small. However, FUTURE OPPORTUNITY may be high, depending on how it is enacted and who is attracted.
Overall, you will probably agree, we are better off with it than without it. Better to have a slim hope than no hope whatsoever.

There will be no future opportunity. If they need to expand in the high paying jobs they will bring in more expats. They may hire a Bahamian maid or a messenger though

There are Bahamians around the world who have expressed an interest to the government in returning home and starting businesses in most of the areas listed above. Some of them work in silicone valley with companies like google and facebook and were at the recently concluded grand Bahama technology summit.In the other areas we have young bright university students studying in those areas presently thus the futuristic aspect of this bill .

We have bright Bahamians right here in those areas. They just had no interest in looking for them. They keep repeating "there are none" that's pretty definitive

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/front-pa…

I notice the word "billion" in the link. That's what you call an investment.

Yah man. I think your government needs to start beating the streets to get people to invest. However, know this, no one will invest without the ability to stay and watch their investment long term, without immigration stress.

And that's fine. If they're bringing a significant ethical environmentally friendly legitimate investment, no one will have an objection. If Google or FB or Microsoft set up here tomorrow, praise God. But not these rinkydink operations that will pull out in two years after they've made their money having either not employed a single Bahamian or employed Bahamians at low level positions

"*As you heard here today, the bill is restricted to the industries mentioned in the schedule, full stop,*"

Actually, "comma"....the minister has the right to adjust the schedule at ANY time, that could be the day after it passes the senate.

The story keeps changing.

It is not a very clear bill. It is a sloppy bill made no better by the inclusion of the words "Bahamians too". If it were concise or clear, whether you appreciate his input or not , Hubert Ingraham would not have raised an objection.

Soooooooo, where will they set up these aviation maintenance facilities, boutique clinics or call centres????? .......... Can a CEZ for each niche industry be set up on a Family Island????
Then this will be worthwhile for Bahamians to support and be hopeful that it will impact the WHOLE country .......... If this is only for Nassau and GB, well it is the status quo.

I'm wondering if they even have to be here physically to reap the benefits. If not, then it's a complete scam.

You have obvious not heard of eResidency -- in Estonia. I know old guy lawyers from the Caribbean who have signed up for it. https://e-resident.gov.ee/

No I haven't heard about eresidency in Estonia, but my point was not that you can't work online, there are tons of models that support that.

What I meant was, if theyre not living here, then there's no rent, no car, no gardener, no maid, no grocery purchase, no restaurant, no movies etc etc...all that "economic spinoff" talk fades into a scam

erm ok folks but who can even correctly pronounce this list of industries that someone obviously copy pasted from some website eh? the fancier the name the more scammy it gets.

my second point is that is not the way the water flows on this island. the only types of immigrants this place currently attracts are the ones fleeing poverty in their country and the occasional teacher/doctor/nurse/accountant ones( mostly spouses) that give them a flexibility to move around. who in their right mind is going to move to a small island to start a business where they need to spend at least half a million on a place to stay, pay 55% customs on a car, spend $300 a week on bread and milk at Supervalu, rent an office for over $4500 a month and trying to hire from a small pool of qualified applicants in addition to taken advantage of by many local lawyers whom you need to even buy toilet paper for your company. exchange controls, limited number of banks, no good public schools, bad roads/crazy traffic, like 5 overpriced places to eat. it's just not worth it.

Comrades! Who could've made up that but 7 months after being elected to govern - the most influential of Minnis's crown ministers would have to go public to admit that the red shirts cabinet's exclusionary of natives from competing side by side with Expat's - was a stupid idea to begin with. Seems Brent is eager to pretend the red shirts cabinet are not in business of snubbing the natives and to prove it just wants to become the head driver the Red Clowns Leadership Jitney?

"Aviation Approved Maintenance Operations, Aviation Registration and Call Centres" sticks out like a sore thumb!

If the purpose is to bring in foreign investors capital to create jobs for Bahamians then why limit it to certain industries listed??
This should be open to all areas WITH a BAHAMIAN PANEL of experts to decide which is desired and suitable.
Many Bahamian businesses can benefit from investors who can provide means for them to vertically and horizontally expand their business.
Ie scrap cars dealers may benefit from metal shredders to shread cars into smaller metallic contents, perhaps some fishermen can benefit from investors to bring costly machinery to manufacture assemble boat engines, aragonite harvesting to glass manufacture sand, solar panels etcetc. What if we have one nano technology invrstor hiring 3 persons but a boat manufacturer wanting to hire 200 workers?
Why not use the budget to market the whole range to the whole world instead of nit picking to market to a few segments and let the Bahamian Investment panel decide?

Agreed..........

Here we go again with the protectionist mumbo jumbo. open up the market please. I am still wandering about you all who say Bahamians will lose jobs. There aint any jobs to lose The bill at least give us an opportunity to create some jobs. If an investor comes in and starts a business and hires 5 Bahamians and 10 of his own what's wrong with that. That's 5 more Bahamians working who would otherwise be unemployed

Comrades! You makes me laugh considering the numbers houses have long started-up on shoeshine box outlay cash...... far less than red shirts current $250,000 Expat's investment. They been running piggybacking operations off the investments of US state lottery operations - which they're still paying out on - regardless their fancy gambling regularization licenses.We only months back even had a situation where one numbers house had refused pay off the bets on US numbers because of how the bet was unfairly advantage placed? The Bahamaland Gaming Commission - never said nothing about that matter So, will the red shirts now be allowing Expat numbers houses startups to piggyback off US and other countries lotteries. If not, why not?

That should be the sentiments of ALL right-thinking Bahamians.

Agreed. I just wish they'd do it so it looks cohesive. But maybe it's my pseudo-ADD talking

I hate Brent Symonette but I am excited about this bill.

PLP's should do little to fight this one.

Y'all would not believe what is happening behind the scenes.

Do tell...

Why after passing a bill that clearly states it's intent do we have ministers and commentators adding things to this bill that clearly are not stated in it? I guess we are trying to make a cake right after baking it. LMAO