The Government’s legislative agenda for the next year must support moves to make Bermuda more competitive — even down to how the roads look, the Chamber of Commerce president has said.

The Throne Speech is due to be delivered on Friday by the Governor, Rena Lalgie.

David Burt, the Premier, indicated in a tweet that there would be initiatives to “drive further economic growth, increase affordable housing, provide relief from inflation, improve government customer service and advance healthcare reform”.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Royal Gazette, Marico Thomas, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, said there was a time when everybody understood that tourism was where the island made its money and that “Bermuda was one of the best tourist spots in the world”.

“That is no longer what the dialogue is about Bermuda,” he added. “We are a place for international business; tourism is not first and that means we are competing heavily against other jurisdictions.

“It is necessary for everyone in Bermuda to recognise that we have to come together collectively to be more competitive to attract people to Bermuda whether they be tourists or non-Bermudians who are going to work here and stay here and help drive our economy.

“I would think that a lot of the things in the Throne Speech need to support that, so it will be the attitude towards taxation, it will be the attitude towards how our roads may look visually, whether that be the actual tarmac itself or the foliage on the side.

“All these are partially marketing tools but also partially service tools. It is the things that can support what we need to do in terms of having more tourists coming to Bermuda, hopefully more tourists flying in and hopefully more people working in Bermuda.

“So what can be changed inside of immigration, what can we change or improve inside healthcare, what can we improve inside of education … infrastructure?”

In terms of providing relief from inflation, Mr Thomas said the Government had consistently been pretty generous when it came to taxation.

“We have not seen any new taxes or anything of significance that will deter businesses or business activity.”

He said the reality was that there was “only really truthfully so much they can do” and added: “We look to the Government, but its responsibility should be to point us towards where north is and then we have to make sure that we, outside government, are doing our part supporting and also generating the ideas, and if not the activities, to make sure we get what we want as well.”

• See today’s business section for more on the interview with Marico Thomas and the Chamber of Commerce CEO Danielle Riviere.