No wonder many Bahamians can't advance beyond their dependence on government when their political associates themselves depend on government handouts?

We need to stamp out government nepotism and stop falling for political parties that promise us jobs, but not entrepreneurship. When we have a culture of ownership facilitated by similar incentives offered to "Foreign Investors", we'll be less likely to tolerate folks who suck the breast of government dry!

We are tired of "double, triple taxation" in this country. While VAT was supposed to give clarity to both businesses and consumers alike, it's only added another layer of taxation (as predicted by the pessimists)!
When you purchase an item and arrive at the border Customs produces a bill with "duty" (variable and arbitrary percentage %), "Customs processing fee" and "VAT". This means a consumer has "no idea" what they're going to pay until they get to the Customs agent.
Why can't we eliminate these excessive Customs charges? Why does our government still need these exorbitant Customs charges that VAT was supposed to fulfill? What happened to the idea of fiscal responsibility and not spending what we don't have? Why can't we reserve these "35% or greater" custom fees for items we'd prefer not to be imported into the country (like items that destroy our environment)? Yes we need reduced Corporate Taxes, but we also need reduced consumer taxation, reduction in government "Red Tape" to ease the ability to conduct business and a government that understands this!!!
Why is it that the Cost of Living is triple in New Providence (worse in our Family Islands) than in South Florida?! (Answer: See above).
Where is the leadership in the business community or "politicians" speaking on these issues? Is "fiscal responsibility" a bad phrase? I see no difference in the three political parties on this very important issue.
"..the end of the Bahamas" will certainly happen if we don't address these issues.

Where to begin?
Governments can practice whichever economic system they wish. They should however fully disclose their intentions so that local businesses and the electorate know what their policy is (or preferably "will be" prior to elections). If our Bahamian government wants to buy drugs directly from the manufacturers they have the legal right to do so. However it's probably not wise to do this given our history of government inefficiencies, although the local distributors have to be policed to ensure they are not price gorging the population (whether PHA or private entities).
It may be unfair to group the pharmaceutical wholesalers with other companies that supply the PHA with medical supplies and other services as these companies have a very bad reputation (deserved or not) with price gorging. Certainly the pharmaceutical wholesalers have been better regulated since the advent of the Prescription Drug Plan and unless they have been found to be unsavory during this relationship, they should be given the benefit of the doubt to continue to be involved in PHA drug supplies. The obvious benefits would be to maintain their high level of expertise and efficiencies, not to mention the existence of private enterprise itself and the jobs they provide within our Bahamaland.

Good to see this issue being discussed as it is a terrible blight on the Bahamas. When it comes to opening or conducting business in this country using the term "ease of doing business" is laughable at best and better described as "tragic".

Unfortunately, blaming this fact on VAT misses the point and needlessly adds a new front that threatens to politicize any process designed to fix it. The Bahamas has been a lousy jurisdiction for doing business for decades and everyone in business and law has known this, but because this inefficiency and "Red Tape" benefits certain professions rather than the businessperson the necessary changes can't be made.

We need an approach much like that of Hong Kong, where a business can be opened in "one business day"! We should approach experts from that jurisdiction (or Singapore), just like we consulted the New Zealanders about their expertise in their GST to help us develop an ease of doing business program that would be the envy of the world. However to accomplish that we'd first have to strip power from those who have held us back for these many decades, an action not likely to come from our politicians...and even less from a people hell bent on abdicating all of their rights and privileges.

Michigan state is in East Lansing, not "Ann Arbor".

What Mr. Hartnell describes in his article, quoting excerpts from the IDB's Document, is a new system to improve the functioning of the Department of Labour which does not necessarily require a new building.

I'm in agreement with the sentiment of the commentators who're implying a new building at the present site is not the most efficient way to achieve the goals stated by the IDB (and presumably shared by our government experts?). I especially like the idea of turning over the property to the University of the Bahamas (for future development).

As a recent podcast from Freakonomics Radio suggests we're all pretty bad at "maintenance of existing infrastructure...", but "Governments" are notoriously even more horrible at it than the "Private Sector"! So I agree: less government construction of buildings, but also more monitoring and transparency of government "renting" to ferret out any nepotism, political or otherwise.

Improving the work of the Dept of Labour is a noble exercise and should be applauded, too many folks, new graduates and older folks seeking new opportunities complain about their present "labour force- private sector job matching" as a complete waste of time and effort!

Can we stop the posturing?

The Bahamas needs Universal Healthcare, and the only viable and credible option is NHI...the United Healthcare Reform Alliance, a misnomer if I've ever heard of one, should stop the grand standing and get on with helping to establish a world class system!!!

The Bahamas has excellent Insurance experience, by-and-large well trained healthcare professionals and a growing lists of medical centres. We need to stop the bickering, selfishness and political posturing!

Cut the Public Service...YES!!

Most of these departments' budgets include 80% salaries and emoluments which has only given us our present poor level of service. Even when we're "paying" for government service it's a chore, as everyone whose stood face-to-face with the black one way cashier windows (or rather lean/ bend down to speak through the pay-slots) at almost all government agencies have experienced. The quality of service, even when paying for your Road Traffic licenses, Passports etc (when government is getting its revenue) is frustrating!!!

Early retirement maybe our best option, many of us think we can easily get away with 50% of of these folks as that's about how many of them actually do consistent productive work and for those many commentators who will say I'm being generous, I know that I am!!!

Dropping the cost of doing business in these islands, reduce/ eliminate Customs Duty (as promised with VAT introduction), reduce the Red Tape associated with establishing a business and reform our education and legal system would be a great place to start. Then many capable Bahamians can be hired by these private sector businesses...

Good points Mr. Moss.

Mr. Lightbourne's presentation may not have been eloquent (I didn't listen to him or read them in their entirety), but if Mr. Moss' assessment is correct it does raise important issues and we should use this opportunity to discuss them.

We could inform our population about the value of education and family planning to individuals and to the stability of our growing nation.

I see the "No" campaigners are now boasting about their perceived victory. It was a sad day for our country in my opinion, although history will be the true judge of that.

History will also have a say in how Pastor Bethel and his ilk will be judged, I'm betting as tragic figures caught in a tidal wave of change with inclusiveness and mutual respect at the heart of our human interactions, not the bigotry, misogyny, fears and hate that they radiate.