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Hawksbill Creek Agreement
{{Refimprove, date=September 2009 The Hawksbill Creek Agreement named in honour of the Hawksbill Sea Turtle was an agreement signed in 1955 between the government of the Bahamas and Wallace Groves to establish a city and free trade zone on Grand Bahama Island with an aim of spurring economic development in the area. Groves was granted 50,000 acres (200 km²) of land with an option of adding 50,000 acres (200 km²). The Grand Bahama Port Authority was created to develop and administer the land and thus the city of Freeport was planned and built from scratch. To encourage investment, the agreement allowed the port authority not to pay taxes on income, capital gains, real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ..., and private property until 1985—a provis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawksbill Sea Turtle
The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is largely limited to tropical and subtropical marine and estuary ecosystems. The hawksbill's appearance is similar to that of other marine turtles. In general, it has a flattened body shape, a protective carapace, and flipper-like limbs, adapted for swimming in the open ocean. ''E. imbricata'' is easily distinguished from other sea turtles by its sharp, curving beak with prominent tomium, and the saw-like appearance of its shell margins. Hawksbill shells slightly change colors, depending on water temperature. While this turtle lives part of its life in the open ocean, it spends more time in shallow lagoons and coral reefs. The World Conservation Union, primarily as a result of human fishing practices, classifies ''E. imbricata'' as critically ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archipelago's population. The archipelagic state consists of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and northwest of the island of Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes The Bahamas' territory as encompassing of ocean space. The Bahama Islands were inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan- speaking Taíno, for many centuries. Christopher Columbus was the first European to see the islands, making his first landfall in the " New World" in 1492 wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallace Groves
Wallace Groves (–30 January 1988) was a prominent financier, who, after his release from federal prison in 1944, moved to the Bahamas and there founded and operated the free trade zone, resort, and casino development Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. Investigators of U.S. organized crime associate him with the Meyer Lansky syndicate operating offshore casinos from Miami Beach. These ties notwithstanding, he is credited with being a driving force in the development of the modern Bahamian economy. Early career Born in (or around) 1901, Groves made an early career in complex financial transactions on Wall Street. Virginia-born, he reportedly came to New York from Baltimore, where he was a bond salesman. His obituary noted that "as a young, flashy, and successful investor, he was involved in several businesses and had controlling interests in several others, including the United Cigar Store and the Whelan Drug Store chain." However, his transactions soon caught the attention of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Trade Zone
A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to customs duty. Free trade zones are generally organized around major seaports, international airports, and national frontiers—areas with many geographic advantages for trade. Definition The World Bank defines free trade zones as "small, fenced-in, duty-free areas, offering warehousing, storage, and distribution facilities for trade, transshipment, and re-export operations". Free-trade zones can also be defined as labor-intensive manufacturing centers that involve the import of raw materials or components and the export of factory products, but this is a dated definition as more and more free-trade zones focus on service industries such as software, back-office operations, research, and financial services. Synonyms Free-trade zones are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Bahama Island
Grand Bahama is the northernmost of the islands of the Bahamas, with the town of West End located east of Palm Beach, Florida. It is the third largest island in the Bahamas island chain of approximately 700 islands and 2,400 cays. The island is roughly in area and approximately long west to east and at its widest point north to south. Administratively, the island consists of the Freeport Bonded Area and the districts of East Grand Bahama and West Grand Bahama. Nearly half of the homes on the island were damaged or destroyed in early September 2019 by Hurricane Dorian. Climate Grand Bahama Island has a tropical monsoon climate, with a hot and wet season from May through October, and warm and dry season from November through April. In Freeport the summer high temperatures average , with average lows of . During the winter, the average high temperature is , and the average low is . The rainy season in the Bahamas is from May to October. The hurricane season runs from June ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economic Development
In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and objectives. The term has been used frequently in the 20th and 21st centuries, but the concept has existed in the West for far longer. " Modernization", " Westernization", and especially " industrialization" are other terms often used while discussing economic development. Historically, economic development policies focused on industrialization and infrastructure; since the 1960s, it has increasingly focused on poverty reduction. Whereas economic development is a policy intervention aiming to improve the well-being of people, economic growth is a phenomenon of market productivity and increases in GDP; economist Amartya Sen describes economic growth as but "one aspect of the process of economic development". Economists primarily focus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Bahama Port Authority
The Grand Bahama Port Authority ( GBPA or "Port Authority") is a privately held corporation that also acts as the municipal authority for Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas. The GBPA was created by the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. The GBPA is horizontally integrated with property development, municipal services, airport (world's largest privately owned airport) harbour operations, and shipyard concerns. Ownership Structure The GBPA partners with Hutchison Whampoa on the container port (through Hutchison Port Holdings) and resort area at Lucaya Lucaya is a suburb of Freeport, Bahamas, a city on the island of Grand Bahama, approximately 105 mi (160 km) east-northeast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Lucaya's primary industry is tourism. Major hotels and attractions in the resort .... The Grand Bahama Port Authority is jointly owned by the Hayward and St. George families. References External linksThe Grand Bahama Development Company Freeport, Bahamas Port au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama of the northwest Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted of pineyard with substantial areas of swamp and scrubland by the Bahamian government with a mandate to economically develop the area. Freeport has grown to become the second most populous city in the Bahamas. The main airport serving the city is the Grand Bahama International Airport, which receives domestic flights from various islands of the Bahamas as well as several international flights from the United States and Canada. Freeport is also served by domestic Bahamian ferry services to other islands. The Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) operates the free trade zone, under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement signed in August 1955 whereby the Bahamian government agreed that businesses in the Freeport area would pay no taxes before 1980, later extended to 2054. The area of the lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxes
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or national), and tax compliance refers to policy actions and individual behaviour aimed at ensuring that taxpayers are paying the right amount of tax at the right time and securing the correct tax allowances and tax reliefs. The first known taxation took place in Ancient Egypt around 3000–2800 BC. A failure to pay in a timely manner ( non-compliance), along with evasion of or resistance to taxation, is punishable by law. Taxes consist of direct or indirect taxes and may be paid in money or as its labor equivalent. Most countries have a tax system in place, in order to pay for public, common societal, or agreed national needs and for the functions of government. Some levy a flat percentage rate of taxation on personal annual income, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For example, a person's income in an economic sense may be different from their income as defined by law. An extremely important definition of income is Haig–Simons income, which defines income as ''Consumption + Change in net worth'' and is widely used in economics. For households and individuals in the United States, income is defined by tax law as a sum that includes any wage, salary, profit, interest payment, rent, or other form of earnings received in a calendar year.Case, K. & Fair, R. (2007). ''Principles of Economics''. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. p. 54. Discretionary income is often defined as gross income minus taxes and other deductions (e.g., mandatory pension contributions), and is widely used as a basis to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capital Gains
Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares. A capital gain is only possible when the selling price of the asset is greater than the original purchase price. In the event that the purchase price exceeds the sale price, a capital loss occurs. Capital gains are often subject to taxation, of which rates and exemptions may differ between countries. The history of capital gain originates at the birth of the modern economic system and its evolution has been described as complex and multidimensional by a variety of economic thinkers. The concept of capital gain may be considered comparable with other key economic concepts such as profit and rate of return, however its distinguishing feature is that individuals, not just businesses, can accrue capital gains through everyday acquisitio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Real Estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more generally) buildings or housing in general."Real estate": Oxford English Dictionary online: Retrieved September 18, 2011 In terms of law, ''real'' is in relation to land property and is different from personal property while ''estate'' means the "interest" a person has in that land property. Real estate is different from personal property, which is not permanently attached to the land, such as vehicles, boats, jewelry, furniture, tools and the rolling stock of a farm. In the United States, the transfer, owning, or acquisition of real estate can be through business corporations, individuals, nonprofit corporations, fiduciaries, or any legal entity as seen within the law of each U.S. state. History of real estate The natural right of a perso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
