The Committee for the Privatisation of The Bahamas Telecommunications Company Ltd ("BTC") announced on Wednesday that the privatisation of BTC continues to progress with significant interest from prospective parties.

Upon review of the pre-qualification packages submitted in August, the government of The Bahamas has narrowed down the list of interested parties and has invited a select group of potential buyers to participate in the due-diligence phase of the privatisation process.

The due-diligence phase will provide potential buyers with the opportunity to review business, financial and legal information, as well as meet with key executives prior to submitting an economic bid. Due diligence will be conducted over the next several weeks and the deadline for bids is currently expected to be the end of November.

Those who have been invited to this phase were selected by the government based on information submitted evidencing their suitability in accordance with the required pre-qualification criteria. To comply with non-disclosure agreements, the identity of parties invited to participate in the due diligence phase cannot be disclosed prior to the close of the transaction.

Barbados' deposit-taking firms get new reserve ease

THE Central Bank of Barbados has announced a modification to its
monetary policy.

From October 15, the foreign exchange reserve requirement on deposit-taking financial institutions will be reduced from four per cent to two per cent.

This is the second reduction since the foreign exchange reserve requirement was introduced in December 2005 in order to give the bank access to a higher proportion of the foreign exchange held by the commercial banks at that time.

The foreign exchange requirement was previously reduced in June this year from six per cent to four per cent.

LIAT on course for fleet upgrade

Regional airline LIAT is on course to get some new planes that will come with a price tag of about US$54 million. That's what the airline's shareholder governments - Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines - are aiming for, according to Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves. He made the announcement as the three leaders held talks in Barbados where the two-day convocation on the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Single Market and Economy took place.

The Vincentian leader said the aim is to replace LIAT's three 37-seater aircrafts with newer ones. In addition to those planes, the carrier also operates a fleet of 18 Dash-8 aircraft.

"We need some new aircrafts. The three (Dash-8) 100s, which we own, we'd like to replace them with 300s," he said.

Recently, the Chinese expressed an interest in providing LIAT with planes and Gonsalves said that offer was under consideration and discussions would also be held with Brazilian aircraft suppliers and the Dash-8 suppliers, Bombadier, as LIAT looks for "the best commercial deal".

But he said the Chinese are anxious to get a foothold in this market.

"They have given us a model for an aircraft which they would like to sell us," Prime Minister Gonsalves said. "They will have generous commercial terms which they grant you."

He said there were also other ways to source funding for the purchase of new aircrafts for LIAT.

"We had gotten planes already from Canada through the Export Development Corporation and we got those planes at really good prices and we were able to deal with our debt," Gonsalves said. "Some of it was forgiven."

During the discussions among the three leaders, the issue of LIAT's dispute with pilots was also raised.

No settlement between the airline's management and the Leeward Island Airline Pilots Association has been reached, despite a September deadline given by shareholder governments.

But Gonsalves was optimistic that the dispute would reach resolution by the end of this month, with the new deadline set.

"We are going to sort this thing out. There is a procedure and we just have to give the process time to work," the St Vincent and the Grenadines leader said.