Prime Minister Perry Christie and Haiti’s President Michel Martelly are set to meet in Nassau within the coming weeks to discuss immigration and agricultural issues.

While attending the 6th Summit of all the leaders of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in Mexico the two met and agreed to have a meeting to discuss Haiti’s president making a more strenuous effort to stop illegal migration from Haiti.
The Bahamas wants the ability to collect intelligence within Haiti to stop the flow of migration traffic.

Haiti’s president on the other hand is seeking the conclusion to an agricultural accord which would allow direct import of fruits and vegetables from the republic to The Bahamas.

The follow-up meeting will take place on May 15 between the technical teams from both countries.

It is also expected that the Turks and Caicos island government will join those talks at some stage.

While in Mexico Prime Minister Christie has also asked the Mexican government to be an advocate for international financial centers such as The Bahamas.

The prime minister asked that Mexico push for The Bahamas to have a seat at the table when formulating these policies and standards, solicit our input, and appreciate that arbitrary policies that threaten our financial services industry threaten our economic viability.

“All too frequently we see multilateral organisations such as the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) develop policies and positions that under the veil of global standards are a direct assault on us small international financial centres, who in many instances have regulations and procedures in place that are more robust than member states of these very same multilateral institutions,” Mr. Christie said.

The prime minister added that The Bahamas’ economy has evolved into a services based economy and that financial services has grown into the nation’s second largest contributor to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), only after tourism.

On that note he also welcomed the investors of Mexico to consider The Bahamas as their destination of choice to invest in tourism.

“Tourism in The Bahamas has seen growth in the expansion of its resort and casino facility with diverse offerings like Atlantis Paradise Island, that offers products and services for family, business, sports and entertainment events and the soon to be opened $3 billion dollar Baha Mar Resort that will host the largest casino in the Caribbean with 3,000 rooms, making it the largest single hotel project in this region,” he said.

“I take special note and welcome the collaboration agreement in agriculture between Mexico and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture. This is of keen interest to me as in The Bahamas my government has committed to and is in the process of developing the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Institute which will be the central point for agriculture research, education and economic development in The Bahamas.”