By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation yesterday signed an agreement with the Black Innovative Alliance (BIA) to boost technology entrepreneurs and innovation in The Bahamas.

The partnership, formalised with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aims to develop programmes that will drive technical and sustainable tourism, resilience, hospitality and climate technology innovations.

Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and minister of tourism, investments and aviation, said the tie-up provides an opportunity for The Bahamas to establish an “ecosystem” that will support technology entrepreneurs in the tourism industry. He added that the success of the initiative will be felt throughout the Bahamian economy and support the Innovate 242 programme.

“This is a great opportunity for us to create an ecosystem in The Bahamas that will help to support tech innovation, tech entrepreneurs in the tech tourism space firstly, but also in a broad cross-section of our economy,” Mr Cooper said. “As you know, The Bahamas is a tourism-driven country and we thought that we ought to lead the way through encouraging innovation in tourism itself.

“If we are able to do this successfully in the tourism industry, then we would have done it successfully throughout the economy, and therefore we are delighted to be able to execute this MoU today with BIA. They’re in the space already. We are creating friendships and partnerships. We’ll be sharing best practices and, indeed, this is going to be supporting our Innovate 242 initiative.”

Ginger Moxey, minister for Grand Bahama, and who leads the Innovate 242 initiative, said the agreement with BIA is focused on ensuring The Bahamas becomes the “centre of innovation” for the Caribbean region. She added that there are plans to establish innovation incubators on New Providence, Grand Bahama and Exuma.

“Innovate 242 was established by the Government to ensure that we become the centre of innovation for the Caribbean,” Mrs Moxey said. “With that, we are going to focus on five pillars. One of them includes digital nomads. We’re going to establish incubators on islands of The Bahamas. We’re starting with three islands, which are New Providence, Grand Bahama Island and Exuma.”

The minister for Grand Bahama said Innovate 242 will establish an innovation fund and work to make Grand Bahama the “centre of sustainability”. She added: “That ties in perfectly with Black Innovation Alliance because we are focused on climate change, sustainable development and ensuring that we work together closely to achieve these things.”

Mr Cooper added that he is “excited” for the work the Davis administration has already done, and is anticipating upcoming initiatives including advancing the National Development Plan and furthering projects outlined in the Progressive Liberal Parry’s (PLP) ‘Blueprint for Change’.

Mr Cooper said the partnership with BIA will help digitise the economy and advance innovation and technology. He added: “I’m very excited about the work that we have done, the support that we continue to enjoy from the Bahamian people, and the work that we have in our near future.

“We’re going to continue to advance the National Development Plan. We’re going to continue to achieve, and work hard to achieve the results in our Blueprint for Change, and one of the things that we promised was to support creatives, to support digitising our economy, to grow new industries, to advance in innovation and technology, and I’m delighted we’re doing just that today”