Member of Parliament for Long island Loretta Butler-Turner suggested that the government hire a senior official to assist with negotiating efforts for Baha Mar.

She added that the government and the opposition should work together to ensure to ensure the opening of the project.

“The Christie administration may consider the appointment of a highly-respected senior official and special envoy to assist the country’s efforts in negotiating with various parties in China toward the resolution of the impasse at Baha Mar,” she said.

 Mrs. Butler-Turner said Baha Mar is now a national priority considering economic problems in the country and a high unemployment rate.

“The prospect of being further downgraded by international credit agencies because of the failure to open the resort, will reverberate throughout the economy and adversely affect public finances and the ability to service both annual deficits and the national debt,” the Long Island MP said.

“In addition to the public at large, thousands of Bahamian workers and their families, as well as a significant number of business people and vendors connected to the project, are eager for a resolution.”

She added that in order to come to a resolution for the resort it will require a skilled and proficient leadership by the government however, according to her views, the current Christie led administration have shown the country to be incompetent when it comes to dealing with the Cable beach resort.

“The rush to make press statements on various developments at the shuttered megaresort by Mr. Christie and others, demonstrates poor leadership more interested in scoring points than working in an intelligent manner to assist in ensuring the project’s opening as soon as possible,” she said.

“The Bahamas cannot afford to allow the largest single hotel development in its history to sit idle and unopened for much longer.”

“With fanfare and delusion, on more than one occasion the Prime Minister rushed to announce the opening of Baha Mar. He has made all manner of rash statements. He has offered confusion and delusion where clarity of purpose and thought were r equired. Clearly, Mr. Christie did not have a full grasp of the state of affairs at Baha Mar.”

Just last week Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirilian sent a letter to the president of the China Exim Bank, asking him to accept his offer so that he may complete and open the resort along with the promise to hire Bahamian employees and also ensuring that the bank does not accept a discount on its debt.

Mr. Izmilirian’s letter came after he made a follow up offer to the bank, to which he got no response.

“Following such failure and incompetence, the Christie administration, in one of the greatest blunders in modern governance, placed the resort in liquidation, a blunder that has had disastrous consequences,” she said.

“Various observers warned that liquidation would be a grave mistake. But a delusional and incompetent Prime Minister would not listen. “

At the time, various government ministers made unnecessary and ill-advised remarks which frightened potential foreign investors in respect of immigration policy and about the government’s approach to the protection of private property.

It is highly likely that the Baha Mar impasse would have been resolved had the government not acted so unwisely and precipitously. The decision to place Baha Mar in liquidation has had dire economic and foreign policy consequences.

She added that there were other approaches that could have been taken instead of the liquidation process. She added that Mr. Izmirilian should be given a fair hearing by all parties to complete the resort.

The project which is 97 per cent complete will now take $600 million to complete.

Bidders for Baha Mar are now required to show their financial status and company background along with proof of funding, audited financial statements and industry expertise.

Baha Mar went into receivership last year June after a request by the Exim Bank by the Supreme Court.