FREEPORT, Grand Bahama, Oct. 8, 2019 — Business owners are set to benefit from economic relief assistance programs following on-going consultation with the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).
As local businesses begin recovery and restoration plans following the impact of Hurricane Dorian, the GBPA seeks to engage with licensees to assess their needs, said Deann Seymour, Chief Financial Officer and Licensing Chairman of the GBPA.
“We recognize that many of our licensees face the daunting task of rebuilding,” Seymour said. “Our commitment is to provide the necessary support for their recovery that will translate into our island’s economic sustainability and demonstrate Grand Bahama’s resilient spirit.”
The organization’s executive further acknowledged that business owners were impacted on multiple levels with physical damage to commercial and residential property, in addition to employees who lost their homes, vehicles and other resources.
“The enormity of Dorian’s impact has tremendous effects on the physical and emotional well-being of business owners,” Seymour said. “With this in mind, we thought to allow business owners a reasonable amount of time to grasp the full scope of the storm’s impact before approaching them to address their needs.”
Seymour added, “This storm impacted us significantly not only in managing material loss, but also in handling the loss of manpower, due to the challenges many employees have faced in their personal lives. This also impacts the recovery process and we saw it appropriate to allow licensees a time to assess their complete situations, so that when we engage with them, they have a better idea of their needs.”
It has been more than one month since Dorian slammed Grand Bahama and the GBPA is making a great push to connect with licensees.
“We have already begun the strategic process of connecting with business owners and we intend to make every reasonable effort to connect with our 2,800 licensees. This will be achieved through online surveys, door-to-door visits, telephone calls and business sector meetings,” Seymour said.
As the engagement process with relevant stakeholders continues, Seymour anticipates that her team will be better able to design, develop and deliver the best business relief assistance programs.
“In doing this,” Seymour said, “they will explain their business needs and goals and we will listen, develop and launch the best initiatives to support their rebuilding efforts.”
