(Barbados Nation) – President of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) Ramesh Dookhoo has warned Caribbean governments about massive foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, which, if they fail, have the potential to pull the economy down with them.
Dookhoo made the comments against the backdrop of a decision by investors behind the US$ 3.5 billion Baha Mar project in the Bahamas to file for bankruptcy.
Described as the western hemisphere’s biggest resort project, Baha Mar had already hired about 2,000 Bahamians and was projected to employ a further 1,000.
The latest financial troubles in the problem-plagued project caused Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie to cut short his attendance at the Caricom Heads of Government Conference in Barbados and head back home to work on a solution.
Dookhoo, who along with CAIC treasurer Dav-Ernan Kowlessar was here for the regional heads meeting, told the Sunday Sun they had great sympathy for the Bahamian leader and his people.
“But it also tells us that we need to be cautious about a particular kind of investor coming into the Caribbean. Many times we go for the foreign direct investment and the attractiveness of what it will do to our economies. But I would urge all of our leaders to examine carefully the huge FDIs that are coming into the region.
“In Guyana, there are reviews regarding similar FDIs that are coming in and it is really sad what has happened in the Bahamas. Unfortunately, it tells us once again that we need to keep diversifying our economies,” said Dookhoo, who heads the Trinidad-based body.
Baha Mar is fuelled mainly by Chinese money and involved a 20-year US$2.4 billion loan from the China Export-Import Bank, while China State Construction and Engineering Corporation is the main contractor. The Bahamas Government is not an investor but it has provided substantial tax and other concessions to the investors.
Baha Mar features a 700-room Sheraton Hotel, a 550-room Wyndham, a 700-room Hyatt, a 300-room Morgans Resort and a 200-room Rosewood Hotel. In addition, it will include a 1 000-room casino-hotel set on 1 000 acres on the main island of New Providence. (Geralyn Edward)
