Sandals Emerald Bay has been awarded the Six Star Diamond by the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (AAHS) after having completed renovations valued $20 million dollars. This is the first complete butler serviced resort that has been awarded this prestigious award. The resort is fitted with over 10 spa and treatment rooms and it has achieved high excellence standards in environmental practices.

Baha Mar has released plans for developing a training and apprenticeship program to commence once the government has approved the 1,000 acre site on Cable Beach for construction.

It is estimated that the resort will provide 6,500 direct jobs for Bahamians and a further 1,500 indirect jobs upon completion.

The Bahamas will need to further consider restructuring its Financial Services model due the intensified pressure by the G-20 countries for jurisdictions to further increase tax information exchange. Former Minister of State for Finance, Mr. James Smith states the global economic decline and credit situation has caused developed countries to place a greater focus in re-examining their respective tax regimes.

Further, Mr. Smith suggests that the Bahamas become proactive with the Tax I

Minister of Tourism, Mr. Vanderpool Wallace has indicated that the Bahamas has the potential of becoming a prominent competitor in the medical tourism market. There is an opportunity to provide health care services at cost competitive with the US, as the Bahamas would be in a position to cater to a segment of Americans that travel abroad as far as Asia annually for medical and dental treatment. According to statistics given in 2005, approximately some 500,000 Americans travel abroad for treatmen

The Bahamas is currently the fourth largest CARICOM exporter to Canada, approximately a value $21.1 million worth of goods in 2006 was exported to Canada. According to the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Zhirvargo Laing, currently Canadian companies holding conventions worldwide are not able to benefit from a tax perspective. The Government is in negotiations with Canada regarding the proposition similar to the established Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between the Bahamas and

Baha Mar executives state that they are in the process of concluding an agreement with two Chinese state-owned entities for the $2.6 billion re-development of Cable Beach for a period of six months in anticipation of signing a construction contract in a few weeks.

The former Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Steve Francis claims that in order for the Bahamas to maximize its potential in the global economy reformation must occur in various areas of the economy.

An area where we can begin this process is through the removal of the exchange control which hinders long-run economic development. Also, we should reduce substantially our dependency on foreign direct investment, because it is becoming an ineffective approach to generating economic acti

Prime Minister, Mr. Hubert Ingraham in his address in the House of Assembly on the government's 2008-2009 Budget expressed that the government could not continue to wait on the dispute of the principals of the Port Authority to be settled, as it continues to weigh on the economic business decline in Grand Bahama. Minister of State of Finance, Mr. Zhirvargo Laing indicated that the dispute of the principal's is not conducive to the growth and development of the island and the government is prepar

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is revising its estimate of 4% GDP growth for the Bahamas in 2008, as a result of lowered expectations due to a slow down of the U.S. economy.

This is in line with the release of the S&P  forecast of 3% growth in 2008 for the Bahamas, due to  the impact on the tourism sector which 86% of the tourists visiting the Bahamas are from North America.