Aah, here we go again, with Crazy Kwasi stating the obvious so he can appear to look like he's doing... anything. Or there's any form of mental activity going on behind his eyes. Everything this guy talks up is, empirically, and demonstrably, a failure: the Lucayan hasn't been sold, the "tech hub" hasn't materialised, and yes, Kwasi, things must get done and we must work hard. Glad you noticed. Very insightful.

There are homeless people and stray dogs languishing in this rotting building. It's Freeport's gravestone.

Harcourt don't own this property: all of their Bahamian assets are frozen into administration proceedings (publicly searchable), which are being snapped up by a rather horrid VC group (who will remain nameless). GBPA have tried to repossess it on the basis of unpaid service charges, and under the byelaws, but are jammed up in court: you can't just take people's private property, as much as everyone wants you to. It should have been dealt with many, many years ago, and a lot of the blame has to lie with the unfathomably incompetent Port Authority management.

What's the plan, minister? Going to buy this too? Maybe Blockchain will save it? Call Foulkes and get him to make some vague faith-filled announce that great things are on the way?

Hint: vacancy tax. make it expensive for them to keep derelict.

You cannot buy a hotel of that size for $25M, and no-one is more likely to buy it a) knowing the government is involved, and b) for the $100M+ renovation and repairs just being $25M less. But most importantly, it's not the government's place to get involved in business, or in nationalising private property - this isn't Zimbabwe or Venezuela.

If the government really wants to get serious, legislate for a (reasonable) Vacancy Tax. The only way they're going to sell this disaster of a hotel is if it will cost more in the long-term to keep it derelict than to open it.

Why can't Bahamians understand the free market?

You don't get to be protected from market forces; you have to compete to provide a BETTER and cheaper service. The laborers are cheaper, and almost certainly work harder - like the Haitians here employed by Bahamians.

There is absolutely NO justification whatsoever for a government to enforce equity quotas. That's an appallingly immoral philosophy for which the end result - taken to its eventual conclusion - ends up murderous. What are you going to do to enforce the quota? Arrest people? Take away the money they've earned? Ban more qualified or cheaper people?

Clearly the developers aren't impressed with the local market. Fix that before you suggest nanny government intervention.

This is the start of a company doing their part to kiss up to the government, in return for which, they will get a signed contract to run the Bahamian digital ID system which Bahamians won't stomach. And will result in them quietly "downscaling" it around 18 months later once they have the signature.

This company did not choose to move to Freeport. It was a condition of them getting the government contract, and saving Kwasi from not attracted a single company in a year.

These non-announcements defy belief, and just get worse and worse. The emperor is wearing clothes! OK, he's not wearing clothes, but he will be! Fine, they're not clothes, but they soon will be! Look at the emperor's new clothes!

These people don't seem to understand they are in PUBLIC service, not CEOs on stage before an enraptured audience hanging on their every word.

"He did not elaborate or disclose much,"
You think? Then why is it being reported as news?

"The government is pleased with what is going on in Freeport"
Oh really? The people of Freeport aren't.

"There is excellent news with respect to employment in Grand Bahama,"
No evidence whatsoever for this statement, and no substance.

"the island is showing a decrease in the unemployment rate as a result of the boom in the industrial sector."
There is no "boom". And there is no evidence for the above statement whatsoever.

Why aren't the press holding these people to account for the con-man speeches?

Criticising the Bahamas doesn't make you a racist any more than criticising Israel makes you an Anti-Semite. Grow up.

For goodness sake. On the same day, there is a parallel article explaining how this company have been hired by the government to produce a digital ID system. 1 single company has opened an office - 1 single company. And they obviously had to do that to get the government's business.

"When he came up with this idea - he is a visionary. When he presented the idea, a lot of us were sceptical, to be honest."

I have yet to meet a single Bahamian who doesn't think these people are completely delusional. Let's just say this again - 1 single company, and they were hired by the government. They're congratulating themselves for getting one company there which they hired?

There were about 2 women on that committee. It's absolutely extraordinary in 2018, the concept of female executives isn't even mentioned, let alone considered.

So they didn't choose to move to Freeport. Starting a new office there was a precondition of winning the ID contract. And once it's done, the "move" will assumedly be rolled back - apart from a skeleton support staff.

A project of this enormous size is basically impossible to manage even for the largest and most developed Western countries. Bearing in mind the government is unable to implement even the smallest IT project without disaster, how much is this going to cost, what protections will be available to safeguard against abuse, and who is going to be fired when it goes appallingly wrong?

OK. So time to hold people accountable. Now's the opportune moment to list out all the times the deal was "nearly done", and lay it in front of the politicians who made the claims. No progress has been made, no deal has been done, and Lucaya is on the verge of collapse.

The government needs to be out of all business, entirely. Maybe when it is, more than a few buyers might be interested. As long as they have the government breathing down their neck, and can see they will intervene continuously, it's radioactive.