The importance of national development planning is vital to a country’s future, and The Bahamas, Prime Minister Perry Christie believes, should make the necessary preparations to effectively meet the challenges of the future.

Addressing stakeholders at the National Development Planning Conference for Small Island States at the British Colonial Hilton September 26, Christie said that he was “proud and excited” to open the discussions to move the country forward.

Stakeholders from a cross-section of businesses and organizations, including the College of The Bahamas, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, Bahamas Electricity Corp and the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission were among the attendees.

Prime Minister Christie pointed to the importance of having a national development plan and said that the College of The Bahamas as the University of The Bahamas would be the ideal forum to support and promote the plan.

“The great hope for the country is that the University of The Bahamas will come about in 2015. And the University of The Bahamas would be a custodian of values, of critical insight, of making those of us in public life more accountable for what we do, what we say and as importantly what we don’t do and we don’t say. And that a culture would develop that the academic fraternity is emboldened by our maturation and our recognition that it would provide the continuity to the right way of doing things.”

“The preparation and implementation of a national economic development plan for the Bahamas is one of the government’s initiatives to promote and secure the prosperity of the nation and its people over the next 30 years. This prosperity would be characterised by inclusive development and economic and environmental sustainability,” the Prime Minister said.

Consultant for the National Economic Development Planning Committee, Dr Nicholas Miles, added that this is a “tremendously important initiative.”

“Places that prosper, prosper for all, don’t happen by chance. For places to prosper it needs a vision, it needs a plan, it needs actions, and it needs steadfast commitment. National economic development plans express a vision for a nation, tell the world who you are, what you are about and they provide a road map to the future.”