The growing business sector in the Family Islands has found the Chamber of Commerce moving into an increasing number of those communities. Last year, the Chamber branched out into North, South and Central Andros.
This past May, officials established an affiliate Chamber of Commerce in Exuma and according to the Chamber’s Executive Director Philip Simon the next move is expected to take the organization into both Eleuthera and Long Island.
“There was tremendous interest coming in from the business community in the Family Islands to formally establish an organization that represents their needs,” Mr. Simon said.
The Chamber of Commerce is essentially a business union, representing the voice of its members – the business community. Its primary goal is to promote trade and commerce and ultimately help build better communities.
Membership is available to any legitimate company doing business in The Bahamas.
“Whether businesses are looking for advocacy, information, forums or networking, we represent them,” Mr. Simon explained.
To date, the Chamber’s parent office in New Providence has almost 400 members, the largest number of members for such an organization, according to the executive director.
But Mr. Simon was quick to point out that while this is the case, this is still not enough, considering the thousands of businesses throughout the entire country.
According to Mr. Simon, the Chamber is currently reviewing draft legislation for national disasters to determine how it would affect local businesses in the case of mandatory evacuation.
As the Chamber moves forward, Mr. Simon explained that its goal is two-fold.
“This would include a number of things like boosting their competitive, training, providing information, assisting in creating better business plans, corporate structure, corporate governance as well as different styles and approaches to doing business,” he said.
“And then of course, there is a larger picture of The Bahamas as a whole centered particularly around trade agreements.”
During its upcoming forum in February 2006, the Chamber plans to stress the impact of globalization, particularly as it relates.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
