NASSAU – Prime Minister Perry Christie has described as “historic” an agreement under which the majority economic interest in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited (BTC) has been returned to the state.
Christie said the agreement with the British telecommunications giant, Cable and Wireless (CWC) would not cost the country “one single cent.
“On the contrary, the government has been able to amicably secure the return of the majority economic interest in BTC without having to pay anything for it, and I should add, without having to make any deals to get it done either.
“In particular, there will be no extension of BTC’s monopoly and no postponement of the liberalization of the telecommunications sector,” Christie said, reiterating “we have not paid, and will not have to pay, for the re-acquired shares in any form or fashion.
“So, in financial terms, this is a win-win for the government and people of the Bahamas.”
Prime Minister Christie recalled that up until 2011, BTC was 100 per cent owned by the Bahamian people.
But he said in 2011, the then government sold a 51 per cent majority interest in BTC to CWC and that following many months of discussion “we have arrived at an agreement which will, as I have said, return the majority economic interest in BTC to the Bahamian people and on terms that will not cost the Bahamian taxpayer anything.
“I should like to take public note of the fact that the discussions that have now culminated in this historic agreement were carried out with the utmost cordiality and on a completely voluntary basis, without threat or compulsion on either side,” he added. (CMC)
