Government announced two major policy changes on Friday, which while late and limited, should do something to improve the economic mood.The first is an incentive for a limited number of non-Bermudian “job creators” to enable them to get ten-year work permits and to open up the possibility of their gaining permanent resident certificates. The second initiative is a review by National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief into landholding policies. Both of these decisions will be seen at best as modifications of past policies that have hurt the economy and slowed any chance of recovery. They appear to be a recognition, at last, of the poor state of the economy, and that international business cannot be taken for granted.In the first instance, the incentive for job creators recognises that the policy of six-year term limits and the effective cessation of the grant of permanent residents certificates has been a disincentive to businesses wishing to have a substantial physical presence in Bermuda and that it has been a contributing factor in the movement of some companies establishing their holding companies elsewhere and of moving senior executives off-Island.More broadly, the strength of the Bermuda international business sector has been its ability to innovate. That can best occur when the leaders of these companies are in Bermuda and are creating a marketplace of ideas and competition. To be sure, Bermuda continues to have a strong underwriting market, but that is not the same as having the leadership of the companies on the Island. There is a further aspect to this. If the leaders of these businesses are not in Bermuda, they have less interest in the wellbeing and success of the Island. It is just another office, or location on the map. So given the well publicized departures of some executives and the relocation of some companies to other domiciles, this move is welcome, although long overdue.Similarly, Mr Perinchief’s land review recognizes that the restrictions on property ownership for permanent residents certificates are too onerous. The suggestion that restrictions on foreign property ownership may be eased is also welcome in the current environment as is the likelihood that Bermudians will be able to sell their property to non-Bermudians again. The previous policy, enacted by the Progressive Labour Party government, was well-intentioned in the sense that it aimed to protect Bermudians’ ownership of Bermuda land, but the policy put in place had the consequence and this was well flagged and warned of at the time of devaluing Bermudians’ property and depressing the real estate market as a whole.Mr Perinchief also stated that he would keep an open mind to perhaps the worst policy of all, the one which restricts Bermudians married to non-Bermudians from owning more than one property and requiring that they get a licence to own a property at all. This is fundamentally wrong because it discriminates against Bermudians who choose to marry non-Bermudians. But the apparently onerous process of getting a licence to buy property at all has also done great damage to them.This policy does not directly damage the economy, or deter international business. But it is bad policy all the same. However, having substantially modified Government positions in two other areas, Premier Paula Cox and her colleagues may feel this is too much to swallow at one time. These initiatives may be calculated to satisfy swing voters, but they are sufficient reversals of policy that they will unsettle the PLP’s base. By the same token, whenever a Government does change policies in this way, it throws its earlier judgment into question, especially when the warnings against these policies have been made for years. No doubt the Opposition will see this as a policy U-turn and will attempt to exploit it as such.But for all of that, these are welcome decisions, albeit overdue, and show Government finally is doing something to reverse the serious decline in Bermuda’s economic fortunes.