By the Caribbean Journal staff
The government of the Bahamas is looking to chart a new course for the future of Grand Bahama as a technology hub.
“A new day is on the horizon for Grand Bahama,” Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told attendees at last week’s first-ever Grand Bahama Tech Summit.
The summit, held at the Grand Lucayan Resort, aimed to launch the foundation for establishing the island as a tech hub, with a list of speakers from tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and others.
“Through this first ever Grand Bahama Technology Summit, we are starting on the path to realize this goal,” Minnis said.
Minnis said Grand Bahama was “uniquely suited” to being a center for science, technology and innovation, given its proximity to the United States (it’s just 68 miles from Florida) and modern infrastructure.
That’s without mentioning that the Bahamas has no income tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax, or wealth tax, certainly an incentive that would help draw large tech firms to the island.
“Grand Bahama is already becoming a manufacturing center for cutting-edge technology, as exemplified in the recent soft opening of Carnival Corporation’s Ocean Medallion Project. Grand Bahama will now be the place where industry meets technology. In many ways, it is a new beginning,” he said.
