STATEMENT BY SENATOR FRED MITCHELL
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
LABOUR AND IMMIGRATION
21 MARCH 2002

    This is to respond to Zhivargo Laing, the Minister of Economic development.  In responding to a statement made by the PLP that the Government is misleading the country on the state of the economy, Mr. Laing denies that position in today’s Tribune.

    The Progressive Liberal Party maintains that there are incontrovertible facts that point in the direction of an economy that is simply not growing as the Prime Minister suggested in Grand Bahama or as Minister Laing is asserting in his response.

    On the matter of the external reserves for example, the Minister is simply being disingenuous when he seeks to relate the figure of today’s $349 million US reserves to the figure of $279 million US in 1992 dollars.  He missed the point entirely. The fact is that the dollar needs of today are greater than the dollar needs of 1992 not only because of increases in the cost of living but from additional factors such as increases in the size of the population.

    The fact is that the $349 million US today pays the same ten weeks of imports minus oil imports that $157 million US bought in February 1992. We have checked and rechecked this with the Central Bank of The Bahamas.  So we stand by our assertion that under the FNM administration there has been absolutely no progress in the area of our external reserves.

    We also stand by our assertion that this is a sad indictment, because for example when the FNM came to power, the amount of external reserves at the Central Bank of The Bahamas was about nine times the level of external reserves at the Central Bank of Barbados. Today the Central Bank of Barbados has about twice as much as the Central Bank of The Bahamas in external reserves.

    There are many reasons for this, but the summary position is that it’s a reflection of the mismanagement and incompetence of this FNM government. It is clear evidence that the FNM simply failed to take proper advantage of the fact that throughout its tenure in office the world economic conditions were so favourable as to have provided a unique opportunity to have accomplished so much.

    In fact the Minister rather than attempting to further mislead the public would do well to reflect on the truth of what the Governor of the Central Bank said to the Society of Financial Analysts: “ We have not taken advantage of that period of time (1992-2000)  to invest in The Bahamas and in those things which could position us well to compete seriously going forward.”

    And as the Minister reflects he should also know that there is just an abundance of evidence to show that the Governor of the Central Bank is correct in his analysis.  A simple example is the truth that less houses were built in The Bahamas in 1999 that were built in 1991.