2013 Throne Speech: A brief summary of the parliamentary agenda
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The One Bermuda Alliance Government has promised to continue to make revitalisation of the Bermuda economy its primary focus as it enters its second year in power.
The promise featured prominently in Government’s Throne Speech (777 KB PDF) which marked the beginning of a new session of the Bermuda Legislature, and in which the one year old Government set out its plans for the forthcoming parliamentary year that began in early November.
One of the chief means by which the Government aims to achieve this goal is by attracting more foreign investment by making it easier and more attractive to do business in Bermuda.
“Only by opening our doors to foreign investors, only by attracting more people to our shores, can we achieve the kind of recovery that grow jobs and incomes”, said the Governor of Bermuda George Fergusson who by tradition reads the Throne Speech.
To this end, the Speech continued: “measures to refresh the Island’s attractiveness to international business are a critical part of the Government’s economic turnaround plan”.
Some of the key measures unveiled as part of a five-year plan were:
- The establishment of a public-private partnership to help develop and diversify international business through the formation of specially designed Bermuda Development Corporation (the BDA) which will oversee an International Business Concierge to make it easier to establish operations in Bermuda.
- Revamping the Civil Aviation and Maritime administrations to make Bermuda’s aircraft and shipping registers more competitive.
- Amendments to both the Companies Act and Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act to clarify and streamline the acquisition of property in Bermuda.
- The introduction of “a commercial immigration programme” (the details of which were not spelled out in the Throne Speech) which is intended to encourage “direct inward investment”.
- Streamlining and modernizing the Hotel Concessions Act to boost tourism development by attracting “developers for new tourism resorts and products” as well as facilitating “the upgrading of existing properties”.
- The establishment of a Tourism Authority, described by the Government as “a turning point in the history if Bermuda tourism”, that is expected to commence operation in the new year with the aim of improving performance throughout the industry.
- A long-awaited national referendum on the introduction of gaming in Bermuda has been promised in the first three months of 2014.