Minister of State for Investments Khaalis Rolle said the government\u2019s work permit policy will scare away foreign investors, but suggested that the government will have to deal with the fallout the best way it can.<\/p>\n
Rolle was adamant that Bahamians should get first pick of available jobs but conceded that the economy needs foreign investment and foreign labor.<\/p>\n
When asked if he thinks the policy would scare away investors, Rolle said, \u201cIt certainly will.<\/p>\n
He also said, \u201cWe have higher unemployment in this country and I firmly believe that any job that is available should go to a Bahamian first.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in a case where there are no Bahamians available for that, we should allow work permits to be issued; that\u2019s just a fact of where we exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an emotional topic but the reality is The Bahamas can not exist without foreign direct investment and within foreign direct investment there is sometimes a need for us to use expatriate workers; that\u2019s how we were built.<\/p>\n
In March, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell announced that the government plans to cease issuing work permits for maids, housekeepers and laborers within a year.<\/p>\n
The government has also promised stricter policies for work permit approvals in other employment areas.<\/p>\n
President and Managing Director at Atlantis George Markantonis later said officials at the hotel are \u201cvery concerned\u201d by the impending policy change.<\/p>\n
He said the current foreign staff complement at the hotel is \u201ccritical\u201d to Paradise Island\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
The president of Overseas Filipino Workers International Bahamas (OFWIB) Dr. Leo Ignacio said his members are \u201calarmed\u201d over the government\u2019s new work permit policy and want clear guidelines on how the new rules will be implemented.<\/p>\n
Source: Taneka Thompson
\nThe Nassau Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Investment minister Khaalis Rolle admitted that the new work permit polices will have a negative impact on foreign investment and that while jobs should go to Bahamians first, the country can not exist without foreign investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[40,41,49,1344],"class_list":["post-35216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-government","tag-immigration","tag-law","tag-work-permits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}