By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE GOVERNMENT "cannot sustain" the $50m it spends annually on renting commercial facilities, the prime minister said yesterday.

Dr Hubert Minnis, delivering his contribution to the 2018/2019 budget debate, told Parliament: "We are spending $50m annually on rented commercial facilities. We cannot sustain that and therefore we will also construct a multi-government complex to hold various ministries, Immigration, foreign affairs, passport and other agencies related to them, and we will look at the needs of other ministries so they can all be within one complex.

"Once we know which ministries are going in that complex we can design a structure to accommodate such facilities. It's only a matter of moving the $50m that we are paying outside to inside, and more improved quality facilities that Bahamian people can invest in and see their money grow."

Dr Minnis said the complex will not be maintained by the government. "We have a bad track record. It will be maintained by proper agencies," he said.

The prime minister added that public infrastructure was also a critical component of the government's growth plan, "as modern and efficient infrastructure serves as a vital foundation for more buoyant growth of the private sector".

"Such investments will include airports, bridges, docks, roads, administrative complexes and clinics that will bring productive returns on investments, and provide employment for Bahamians throughout the country," said Dr Minnis.

"The government will look to public-private partnerships in these endeavours to the extent that these are feasible and reasonable from an economic and financial point of view.

He added: "Instead of the dubious PPPs that lacked contracts and transparency and any policy framework - the ones done by the previous administration that have only served to saddle the government with expensive short-term loans - this government will instead put in place a documented and established policy framework for PPPs that will be known and understood by the public."