25 year plan....
Advocating a more structured form of government, Flipping Grand Bahama is very much in favour of the recent initiative being introduced by the Government to put in place a 25 year plan for the country.
The country has been left at the will of men making statements whether for progress of their agenda or their party but not at all in the interest of the people, for years. It is good to have more stability that envisions growth.
This week members of the National Development Plan committee were in Grand Bahama to listen to the people of this island about their thoughts for the next 25 years.
Unfortunately not enough people were aware and so it is most important the persons write in to the committee to give their thoughts.
The committee was launched in November of last year by the Prime Minister Perry Christie to students as public phase of the process for designing the plan: Vision 2040 with the intention of the plan to be completed by June 2015.
Interesting that the plan arrives in Grand Bahama in March while this is a significant year for Freeport, Grand Bahama anyway.
The Prime Minister said this country has no model of such in the Caribbean to look at but there have been other countries that have looked at 10 - 20 year plans. This means that the country would be following with a goal of success to move the country forward no matter who is in power.
However many countries do lose because they are faced with party politics that try to show up each other instead of moving steadily on. A 20 - 25 year plan will not mean that incoming parties wont be able to move things around but at least they would have a basis from which to operate.
Grand Bahama in itself need a 40 year plan to deal with the rest of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. It needs a new vision whether we keep the Hawksbill Creek Agreement or not. We need to know what the Government intends to do if the Hawksbill Creek Agreement is made nul and void and we were to become just another out island looking for funding from the Central Government.
Without the $60 - $200 million per year from Grand Bahama, what will the other islands do?
This is not to say we cannot thrive without the Hawksbill Creek Agreement as this agreement has a time limit anyway. But no independent government of this country has ever had to deal with looking after Grand Bahama as they have had to deal with the other islands. It will be rather interesting to see if we will be like Abaco who had to threaten to annex itself with another country to receive much needed help with roads and airport for the Government to take notice of them.
What are the plans?
And who is listening to them?
The country has been left at the will of men making statements whether for progress of their agenda or their party but not at all in the interest of the people, for years. It is good to have more stability that envisions growth.
This week members of the National Development Plan committee were in Grand Bahama to listen to the people of this island about their thoughts for the next 25 years.
Unfortunately not enough people were aware and so it is most important the persons write in to the committee to give their thoughts.
The committee was launched in November of last year by the Prime Minister Perry Christie to students as public phase of the process for designing the plan: Vision 2040 with the intention of the plan to be completed by June 2015.
Interesting that the plan arrives in Grand Bahama in March while this is a significant year for Freeport, Grand Bahama anyway.
The Prime Minister said this country has no model of such in the Caribbean to look at but there have been other countries that have looked at 10 - 20 year plans. This means that the country would be following with a goal of success to move the country forward no matter who is in power.
However many countries do lose because they are faced with party politics that try to show up each other instead of moving steadily on. A 20 - 25 year plan will not mean that incoming parties wont be able to move things around but at least they would have a basis from which to operate.
Grand Bahama in itself need a 40 year plan to deal with the rest of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. It needs a new vision whether we keep the Hawksbill Creek Agreement or not. We need to know what the Government intends to do if the Hawksbill Creek Agreement is made nul and void and we were to become just another out island looking for funding from the Central Government.
Without the $60 - $200 million per year from Grand Bahama, what will the other islands do?
This is not to say we cannot thrive without the Hawksbill Creek Agreement as this agreement has a time limit anyway. But no independent government of this country has ever had to deal with looking after Grand Bahama as they have had to deal with the other islands. It will be rather interesting to see if we will be like Abaco who had to threaten to annex itself with another country to receive much needed help with roads and airport for the Government to take notice of them.
What are the plans?
And who is listening to them?
 |
| Photo by Yasmin Rigby |
Comments
Post a Comment