Bowe: Dissolution of Parliament provides clean slate to change trajectory

Regardless of which political party wins at the polls next month, Chief Executive Officer of the Fidelity Group Gowon Bowe said yesterday that a new economic mandate is needed.

Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis announced yesterday during a national address that a general election will be held on September 16, citing the need for a new mandate for the country.

Under the Minnis administration, two major shocks – Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic – have resulted in the nation’s debt ballooning to nearly $10 billion.

Bowe said an early election allows the Bahamian electorate to start with a blank canvas, where the picture painted by the parties vying for their support demonstrates that they are about the future of the Bahamian economy and not about the political party.

“The dissolution of Parliament provides a clean slate, whether it is an incumbent government or a new government that comes in, to really change the trajectory of the country that it has been on for the last three decades. We have not run a fiscal surplus since Independence, we have not had a national development plan – although one had been commenced in 2014/2015 – but it didn’t get completed before the changing of government and I think we should be looking forward to which administration or which party vying for the next administration is setting forth a plan to demonstrate that we are not going to be looking for the next election cycle but for the future of The Bahamas,” he told Guardian Business.

“That will require us looking at a 25- to 30-year plan that will look at us having very candid and upfront discussions about where we are fiscally and then, ultimately, decisions will have to be made, like what are the plans that relate to taxation, what are the plans that relate to expenditure control, what are the plans for capital development, for private sector partnerships in order to advance the agenda.”

The election also comes as rating agencies like Moody’s finalize their assessments of the Bahamian economy and prepare to issue a rating, which impacts the country’s ability to borrow at favorable rates.

Bowe said it is imperative that political parties present a proper plan as the eyes of the world are watching.

“I think it will probably be the end of August when Moody’s will issue a statement and a final rating goes to their review board later on. S&P (Standard and Poor’s) will be doing the same. I only draw on that because our message as a country needs to be that we have political stability, an orderly transition and let’s hold that to be true,” he said.

“All of them have commented, whether politically correctly or not, that the country needs to have a very clear plan and I think that there is no clearer message that The Bahamas needs a national development plan that has the four pillars. It must have the economic pillar, the social pillar, speaking about our health, education and family structure; the national environment pillar that deals with our lands, our fees and our policies as it relates to how those get used; and governance. So, the four pillars of a national development plan that will look out beyond an election cycle and help us to avoid the volatility we experience every five years.”

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