By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Efforts to give the National Development Plan a legal footing are moving “not nearly as fast as I would like”, its steering committee chairman conceded yesterday.

Felix Stubbs, the former IBM (Bahamas) chief, told Tribune Business that “government bureaucracy” was responsible for the slow progress despite the Prime Minister repeatedly assuring him he is “very serious” about codifying the initiative in statute law via the proposed National Development Plan Bill.

Confirming that the draft Bill is still with the Attorney General’s Office, he added that the Plan’s steering committee is aiming to meet with officials from that office within the next couple of weeks to advance the progress of legislation that was pledged during the re-opening of Parliament in early October 2023.

And, disclosing that staff to run its secretariat are already being recruited, and the necessary office space sought, Mr Stubbs told this newspaper he expects work to update the original 2016 version - and finish the “20 percent” of the Plan that remains incomplete - to officially begin “within a matter of weeks”.

He added that completing the Plan is critical to prevent The Bahamas’ from developing “haphazardly”, and for the country to fulfill its true economic growth potential, with the Government’s just-released Fiscal Strategy Report placing the initiative at the top of “structural reforms” deemed essential to boosting competitiveness and investment.

“The Government acknowledges that structural reforms and economic policy initiatives are required to increase competitiveness, facilitate business transactions and foster investment,” the Fiscal Strategy Report 2025 affirmed.

Heading the list of such reforms is the need to “institutionalise the National Development planning process”. The Fiscal Strategy Report added: “The Government intends to introduce The Bahamas’ National Development Plan (NDP) Bill, which will place the NDP, which was released in 2016, on a statutory footing and provide for an oversight entity to monitor its implementation.

“The NDP, which is aligned with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, outlines a bottom-up, inclusive framework for priority development areas to ensure long-term sustainable growth targets are achieved, and includes recommendations for education, healthcare and economic development, that align with the government’s economic and social policy goals and objectives.”

Outlining the progress made to-date in achieving these objectives, Mr Stubbs told Tribune Business: “The draft legislation is still with the Attorney General’s Office and, as far as the secretariat goes, we are in the process of recruiting staff to run it as well as looking at office space for the secretariat.

“Initially, we’ve already agreed to three people coming on board. Once we get the work started, it depends on how much extra workload there is, but we anticipate at some point in time being able to bring seven-eight people on.”

Asked whether he was satisfied with forward momentum so far, Mr Stubbs replied: “It’s progressing slowly but it’s progressing; not nearly as fast as I’d like it to”. Pressed on why the initiative was not moving faster, he added: “Government bureaucracy. It appears things tend to move very slowly with government it seems.....

“Every time I speak to the Prime Minister, he gives assurances that he is very serious and committed on this. He gives instructions, but things don’t move as fast as I would like them to.” The former IBM (Bahamas) head, though, asserted that he will see the National Development Plan through to its full completion and enactment into law.

“I don’t believe in failure, so if I’m committed to something I will make sure it comes through to fruition,” he told this newspaper. Mr Stubbs said he and the steering committee have another meeting planned with the Attorney General’s Office to “answer questions” and address other issues required to move the Bill forward.

“The Attorney General’s Office has been delayed because they’ve had a lot of Bills with the Budget, and now that is behind them they can focus on this legislation again,” he added. “I’m hoping to meet with them this week or next week to sort these things out very quickly.”

Noting that much has changed since the original National Development Plan draft was issued for public consultation in 2016 under the last Christie administration, Mr Stubbs said it both needs to be updated and completed. “The Plan was 80 percent completed then, and we need to do another 20 percent for completion,” he explained. “A lot has happened since 2016; it’s almost ten years ago.

“We have to look at new conditions, and there is more work to be done to the Plan to make it more relevant. We’re just hiring the staff now to get that done. We’ve got to a lot of research, look at some of the assumptions made previously.. Are they holding, because some things have changed.

“Look at government priority changes, other issues that have come forward and were not considered when the original plan was drafted. We have anticipated that this will take six months to complete. Once we get the staff on board, depending on how much effort needs to be put into it, how quickly we get responses to the questions asked, we expect six months to be sufficient to get it completed.”

Securing necessary office space, and formally hiring staff for the Plan’s secretariat, needs to be completed before this work can begin. “Once these people come on board, the work starts,” Mr Stubbs said.

“We just have to make sure we have the staff, people involved with the plan last time, so that we have that institutional knowledge and do not have to repeat ourselves. It’s just a matter of weeks before we get officially started. We’re pretty close actually.”

The National Development Plan is a key missing tool from The Bahamas’ planning and governance arsenal. “There’s no question that if we have a Plan we can certainly enhance the progress and development of The Bahamas,” Mr Stubbs told Tribune Business. “If you don’t have a Plan you’re kind of hanging on and hoping for growth, but at least with a Plan you van plan how you want your growth to go.

“I think that if we want the economy to grow, we have to have a plan. You just don’t grow haphazardly. If you look at countries that are growing well, it’s because they have a plan and have executed that plan. We need to do the same thing.”

The National Development Plan, which was conceived and put together during the last Christie administration, was intended to be a cross-party, non-partisan and non-political effort to develop a ‘road map’ that would guide the country’s direction and progress The Bahamas towards the kind of nation its citizens desire.

It represented the first ever co-ordinated effort to plan the Bahamas’ development in a systematic manner using empirical data and analyses, and input was sought and obtained from multiple stakeholders including the private sector, civil society groups, non-profits and the general public.

Labelled ‘Vision 2040’, it aimed to break with The Bahamas’ past ad hoc approach to national growth by setting a clear path towards a more sustainable future. Its ‘road map’ was designed to feature measurable goals and objectives for the Bahamas to attain, so that its progress towards achieving its development targets can be judged according to set timelines.

Vision 2040 focused on four main policy pillars - the economy, governance, social policy and the environment, both natural and built - in its first 400-page draft. However, despite seeking to be non-partisan, the National Development Plan appeared to be shelved under the Minnis administration, with little to no progress made as first Hurricane Dorian, and then the COVID-19 pandemic, dominated its tenure in office.

However, Philip Davis KC, in his closing 2023 Budget address, promised to fulfill his administration’s election campaign promise to revive the initiative. “In our ‘Blueprint for Change’, we promised the Bahamian people that we would complete and implement the National Development Plan. We have inherited a beautiful country and we have an obligation to protect it for future generations,” he said.

“The best way to do that is through a properly organised National Development Plan. In our prior administration we spent years consulting with Bahamians from every walk of life to create the National Development Plan, a foundational and comprehensive long-term plan for the country’s development and prosperity.

“We specifically promised that we would, relaunch, complete and legislate the National Development Plan. We intend to deliver on that promise. The Government has re-appointed the National Development Plan committee, appointing a chairman to complete the plan and then prepare an implementation plan. We are currently reviewing recommendations for the steering committee to oversee the work.

“We have included civil society, the business community, labour and religious leadership on the committee,” Mr Davis added. “Additionally, the Government will appoint a secretariat to support the implementation of the work.

“We already have an initial draft legislation that will create the framework for implementation. We eagerly look forward to having a completed and updated National Development Plan, and implementation plan along with supporting legislation tabled for debate in Parliament.”

No timeframe was given for when this will happen, but The Bahamas National Development Plan Bill’s introduction was pledged during the October 4, 2023, ‘Speech from the Throne’ when Parliament re-opened.