‘Friendship Agreement’ coming for TCI & The Bahamas says Premier & Grand Bahama Minister

By Deandrea Hamilton

Editor

#TheBahamas, February 20, 2023 – Thirty years since he’d been to Grand Bahama Island and Washington Misick, Premier of the Turks and Caicos on an official visit to the Bahamas’ second city admitted the audience for his event was impressive.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think we can pull that crowd back on Turks and Caicos.  I was totally surprised to have such a large audience, pleasantly surprised,” said Misick responding to media questions following the over-booked meeting arranged for Bahamians of Turks and Caicos heritage.

Over 300 people were said to have filled the ballroom of the Grand Lucayan resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama.  In the invitation only meeting and a beginning for closer relations between the two countries, an official plan was laid bare.

“As the economy expands, there are needs for more people to come and we want to give our own bloodlines the first dibs on job opportunities.  But not only job opportunities, business investment, he said.

Ginger Moxey, Minister for Grand Bahama beamed at the opportunity to partner with the TCI Government on the official visit, which drew curious residents to a first of its kind initiative.

“We have such a strong bond with the Turks and Caicos and so we are delighted for him to be here and for so many Belongers to see their premier.  We have already started to talk about a Sister City relationship because the bonds already exist,” said the minister when questioned, adding, “You know Turks and Caicos Islanders were some of the ones who were responsible for the development of the City of Freeport back in 1955…they’ve brought so much value to the Grand Bahama economy and to the way we live.”

The idea that there is a deep pool of human resources in The Bahamas which could help to fill the employment needs is not a new concept; companies like Beaches Turks and Caicos, the Hartling Group and Graceway Supermarkets have all been fishing for career seekers in Grand Bahama.

The premier said, his government knows that the issue of housing for anyone who does seize the offer to come back or apply for citizenship status in the TCI, will have to be addressed.

“The process is that if you are a status holder, then you are just coming back home.  The issue is going to be finding places to live.  We have a real problem when it comes to housing,” offered Misick as he acknowledged the country’s booming tourism industry has created a conundrum.

Grand Bahama is the island in the northern Bahamas still rebounding from seasons of ferocious hurricanes including, the most treacherous in modern history, 2019’s Hurricane Dorian.  Grand Bahama is also the island which absorbed and then thrived when waves of Turks and Caicos Islanders relocated to the archipelago north of them to support the budding pine timber industry.  Back then, it was a win-win situation – good employment and embrace by The Bahamas Government and for The Bahamas, a capable and steady workforce able to grow this new area of commerce.

Turks and Caicos Islanders eventually blended in.  While some returned home, many more remained and raised their families with heaviest concentration of those with TCI heritage said to be in islands like Abaco and Grand Bahama.

Today, the Turks and Caicos is eager to tap into the tens of thousands of descendants who would qualify for citizenship under the current law, where Turks and Caicos Islands Status is a right up to the second generation.

“I think as I see the future for TCI and The Bahamas I could see where the relationship will become stronger and stronger and where the flow of talents and skills will be facilitated because of our friendship agreement which we hope to enter into.”

The Grand Bahama minister is already well placed to progress swiftly in the ideas both leaders had shared; being a former vice president of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the current International Representative for the Sister City program.

The Minister supported this notion sharing, “we have discussed the Sister City relationship which is really about business exchange, cultural exchange, tourism, humanitarian and educational exchanges.”

Both the Premier and the Minister agreed, that while the word ‘city’ was being used, the plan is more grand in scale and has the potential to formalize a familial and geographical alliance for The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.