Minister of State for Investments Khaalis Rolle says while there is much to be done, a draft document of the National Development Plan (NDP) should be ready in the near future.

Although he was unable to give any specific dates of deadlines, Mr. Rolle says his team has been working tirelessly to ensure that the foundation for the plan is done in the best way possible.

“You know it’s a working, living document and as you go through the editing, you may need to do a little more work,” he said.

“So we haven’t placed any deadline on it. This is too important to not focus on getting it right.”

The plan is part of a three-part phase funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that will seek to address the core areas of sustainable development, society, the environment and the economy of The Bahamas.

The first phase is the Economic Development and Planning Unit. The second is the Transformative Governance Initiative and the planned University of The Bahamas; Government and Public Policy Institute.

“The National Development Plan is being funded primarily by a $450,000 grant provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB),” says the Vision 2040 Bahamas Website.

“The Government of The Bahamas has also allocated funding for the redeployment of public service staff to form the Vision2040 planning Secretariat, expenditures for family island travel and costs for hosting events.”

Back in January of this year, the Government of the Bahamas met with the IDB to establish an economic planning unit.

“ There has been lots of man hours, lots of work and we have a very talented local team that has been doing most of the editing work,” Mr. Rolle said.

“We are very proud of what they’ve done from the start and I think the Bahamian people proud when the final version of the document that’s going to guide our development over the next 25 years is released.”

Late last year Prime Minister Perry Christie said he was very concerned about developing a national development plan as the country has traditionally not embraced the idea.

The plan is set to be tabled when Parliament resumes in October.