Insurance company Colina has won a Silver Quill Award in Publication Design for its new look 2009 Annual Report entitled Ahead of the Curve.

The Silver Quill awards are awarded annually by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Colina’s report was entered into the IABC Southern Region category, which includes 14 southern US states and four Caribbean countries.

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BAF Financial & Insurance (Bahamas) Ltd is tapping into new markets and capitalising on industry trends to ride out the financial downturn and ensure future growth.

Chief executive officer Chester Cooper explains: “We are building on our core values, finding new ways to serve our clients and attract new ones. We want to expand the reach of our offerings.

“We are going where the people are–people need to save and invest more now than ever before to enhance their quality of life and improve their stake for their children. Everybody aspires for their children to be better off than they were. We are giving them the tools to do that.”

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Upon returning to The Bahamas in 2007 after obtaining a degree in e-commerce, Damien Forsythe saw the need to establish an organization in his home country to promote the Internet as a tool for business, and increase communication within the online sector as a whole.

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The Central Bank of The Bahamas rolled out a new protective measure this month – one which seeks to strengthen the anti-money laundering, counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime, further safeguarding the jurisdiction.

The Guidelines for Assessing the Fitness and Propriety of Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) in The Bahamas have been agreed to by the Group of Financial Services Regulators.

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Industry experts say that although renewable energy would be beneficial to the Caribbean region, more needs to be done to make it viable.

According to the Caribbean Renewable Energy Survey 2010 conducted by financial services firm KPMG, 75 per cent of regional countries polled, including The Bahamas, say national governments need to take the lead in pursuing renewable energy interests, while 74 per cent believe that government subsidies are required.

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The Bahamas Hotel Association (BHA) is calling for greater energy efficiency in the hotel sector and urging the government to help businesses make energy savings through financial incentives.

Executive vice-president of the BHA, Frank Comito, says that hotels in The Bahamas use 40 per cent of the country’s electricity, and they could cut their consumption by as much as 53 per cent by adopting energy-saving practices.

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Treating waste as a valuable energy resource is a technology that should be embraced not only in The Bahamas, but also the entire Caribbean region, say environmental energy experts.

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Business leaders and entrepreneurs were told how they could “Survive and Thrive in 2010 and Beyond” during the second annual conference hosted by Visionaire Marketing.

“History has shown that some of the world’s most famous businesses, such as Microsoft, General Electric, Fortune Magazine and FedEx, were started during recessions, and if they made it, so can we,” said event organizer, Anastacia Stubbs in welcoming attendees to the all-day event held at the British Colonial Hilton. She encouraged business owners to reposition their organizations in order to ascend to the “next level.”

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A few select businesses are helping a government department iron out any kinks in a new, automated system before its official launch in the next few weeks. The Bahamas Customs Department, which is charged with collecting close to 70 per cent of the government’s revenue, has reevaluated and upgraded its methods of tax collection.

The new system will allow customs brokers, shipping and airline companies, and other importers, to submit customs declarations online via the department’s web site, or through a file transfer. The latter is for those companies with an existing computerized system for data entry so that they can simply transfer those files to customs electronically. The web site helps to create a form for those without an automated system.

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Adding his voice to a growing number of environmentalists and conservationists in the region, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has said that the “importance of achieving a sustainable energy future is critical” for the Caribbean.

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