Premier On Visits To New York & Washington
Speaking in the in the House of Assembly today [Sept 29], Premier and Minister of Finance David Burt provided an overview of his recent visits to New York and to Washington, DC.
The Premier’s full statement follows below:
Mr. Speaker
I rise today to inform this Honourable House of my recent visits to New York and to Washington, DC.
Along with the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, his Permanent Secretary and a representative of the Bermuda Business Development Agency, I visited New York from 19th through 21st September to meet with individuals and companies interested in doing Business in Bermuda. Mr. Speaker I am pleased to report that there is an excitement about the new direction in which Bermuda is heading and a keen receptiveness to our message that Bermuda is open for business and investment.
While in New York we hosted a luncheon attended by 24 guests including investment professionals, wealth managers and venture capitalists. The guests included representatives of Chinese State Companies and wealth managers of Gulf States families. Our discussions covered a wide range of areas including hospitality, technology, agriculture, energy and transportation.
We also met with leading law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Rosecliff Ventures, Wafra Investment Advisory Group Inc., Ridgewood Investment and Astor Investment Management.
Such meetings are a critical component of our efforts to grow and diversify our economy and to create jobs. In order to do so, we must increase our international profile and interest in Bermuda as a well regulated jurisdiction in which to conduct business.
The visit provided an opportunity for us to advance our agenda, including the creation of a tech hub at Southside, and encouraging the development of start-ups based in Bermuda.
You would also recall that after leading the debate on a number of bills in the morning session of our last meeting, I had to quickly leave in order to depart for Washington, DC to attend Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference events at the invitation of US Congressman, the Hon. G.K. Butterfield, a dear friend of Bermuda. The Minister of Economic Development also joined me on this visit.
The Congressional Black Caucus events presented an excellent opportunity to connect with lawmakers and influencers in Washington, DC.
We have committed to re-opening the Government of Bermuda’s Washington DC Office and this visit not only enabled us to re-new relationships but also to meet with key individuals who are well placed to assist us in that re-opening.
As was the case with the New York visit, this visit too furthers our efforts to communicate that Bermuda is open for business and investment. We are committed to growing and diversifying our economy and to the creation of jobs for the benefit of all Bermuda.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker
Well we look forward to hearing the breakdown of expenses and the “excitement” was probably politeness much like telling the chick with no fashion sense how pretty her dress is. Good luck. Who paid for the luncheon?
Why has the expense tracker for Minister travel expenses not been updated since before the election?
PS: If you really want to convince businesses that BDA is a jurisdiction in which they can domicile it probably isn’t smart that your Minister of Economic Development doesn’t state that you are actively seeking to break the airport contract with a internationally reputable firm.
How much was spent on travel, boarding, food and transportation
You said all this to say? I wanna see the trip costs.
How much did it cost? Transparency and good governance….remember?
Cost?
Transparency please. What were the costs?
Now, what could Bermuda offer China? A quarter acre field for some carrots, why bother? A new four lane highway from St Davids to Dockyard in exchange for some Bermuda sand? The whole trip and report is laughable. China has built highways in Jamaica, using their own labour, in exchange for bauxite and tolls. Hasn’t gone too well. Maybe the Premier will have China build a new airport. Bad idea because they will bring in their own labour (see above) so BIU maybe not so happy.
So embarrassing and unhelpful to Bermudians.
What did it cost?
The people he met with all wanted to SELL him services.
What a waste of money.
24 people? Of course it only takes one business to invest to make it worth it. Lunch and expenses on the taxpayer is nothing new. This has happened under both parties and is part of the process. Let us hope that this is more successful than the jaunts a former Premier took justified by tourism possibilities. Chinese tourists? I saw some on Burnaby Street a week ago. They were from Queens, NY off of a cruise ship!
Yes but the expenses were reported by the OBA. Are you holding your breath in anticipation of the cost of this trip to be reported?
So they were America tourists then.
The people they were having lunch with were lawyers and investment consultants. They wanted us to do business with them, not the other way round. They want us to spend money on their services. They are not going to invest here, and Burt should know that.
Burt pretends he did something useful, but he didn’t. This, like everying else he has done, will create no jobs in Bermuda, and no investment in Bermuda,
Excellent positive news . A great start building networks to progress our island.
China… people should look at the mess in the Bahamas that came from Chinese investment. They don’t do it for the country.. although the Bahamas did get a nice road to the Chinese hotel, all of the construction and the majority of the staff and management are Chinese.
Didn’t ONE of out previous premier’s try to chase the Chinese. Then we had an influx of them