Politricks

“From Bermuda to Florida, Florida to Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico to the BVI. It will take me a day to get back. Part of my speech will be that something needs to be done about that,” he said. Speaking to a sold-out audience at BVI Business Outlook 2011, a conference designed to discuss the future of the VI economy, Sir John, the former premier of Bermuda, came to share his country’s experience with development and discuss global events that could impact the territory.

He said he expects that the $14 trillion United States economy will still be growing faster than China’s in the short term because it is such a large economy. As an example of foreign events that could affect how the VI does business, he listed the rise of al-Qaeda, which has caused many countries to start x-raying shipping containers, a particularly high cost for small jurisdictions.

Sir John, who is also a commercial developer, said he expects infrastructure costs for government to rise in the coming years and urged leaders to be “visionary” in tackling future problems and looking beyond traditional markets.

“We no longer can say that we are … isolated because we are here in the Americas. In fact, it would be the biggest mistake we could make to conclude that America has to be your territory. … You have to look further afield,” he said.

Sir John also suggested developing a public-private sector programme to improve infrastructure. This step is needed because the VI’s income and Gross Domestic Product are decreasing and costs are rising, he said.

No Sir John,you have it wrong,we keep out the riff raff by making it a little bit harder to get here,better quality people, like you.....keep your 737's for others

and stop preaching