By TRIBUNE REPORTER

A US-based billionaire is behind a proposed North Andros “free trade zone” that aims to create up to 10,000 construction jobs over the project’s lifetime, it was revealed last night.

Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, inventor of a world-renowned cancer drug, is heading a group that plans to invest $200m-$250m over the first two phases of a development targeted at the Morgan’s Bluff area.

The proposal for the North Andros Green Free Trade Zone is currently being worked up in preparation for a formal submission to the Minnis administration and its investment agencies, with sources close to developments indicating this could potentially happen within “a few weeks”.

The project is focused on “value-added” manufacturing involving the creation of finished products from aragonite and other Bahamian natural resources, rather than simply exporting the raw material. Besides creating more employment for Bahamians, Dr Soon-Shiong and his team feel this will generate higher margins and bring in greater foreign currency earnings.

Besides an airport and seaport, the project’s other components include eco-tourism and medical tourism based on a medical research centre and clinic. Dr Soon-Shiong, who is based in Los Angeles, is heavily involved in the global healthcare sector through three foundations, visiting professorships at universities and his NantWorks network of health and technology start-ups.

One contact, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the project: “It was just a proposal sent to the Government. There was not a formal application yet. It was sent in to say: ‘This guy, and his group, are looking to do a project in The Bahamas’. He had his people send it in to say that was the framework we are looking at.

“The project is based around manufacturing, and creating a new airport and seaport in North Andros, and obviously healthcare. The whole idea is to manufacture product here and export it. The reason I’m pushing this project is because of the state we’re in. We need a capital injection, and a project that can be done locally, and an injection of foreign money to create jobs.”

Describing the scale of the project and its investment as “massive”, with 750-plus full-time jobs planned, the source said details leaked into the public domain had either been altered or were incorrect. They denied that the North Andros Green Free Trade Zone would compete with Freeport and the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, although there would be similarities in terms of the tax concessions sought.

The source also said talk of it requiring 500,000 acres was incorrect, as “90 percent of that acreage is out of the project. It’s not even close”.

Dr Soon-Shiong is a part owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, and is the owner and executive chairman of the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune newspapers.