Bermuda is confronted with major socio-economic problems and we should prevent them from becoming permanent features of Bermuda’s future. These problems are:1. Shrinking savings, rents, real estate values and availability of jobs.2. High cost of goods and services together with a falling demand for goods and services. As a result, a number of businesses, both large and small, have been forced to reduce in size or gone out of business entirely.3. The poor state of our infrastructure including roads transportation and the maintenance of buses, ferries and other equipment together with the maintenance of buildings.Some Bermudians are under the impression that the Government is a generator of revenue. Government is not a generator of revenue; it is a collector of revenue. Do you know how government gets its money? The answer is simple: taxes, fines or borrowing.Taxes are money collected from people from many sources: payroll tax, customs duty, land tax, stamp duty, hotel occupancy tax, passenger cabin tax (cruise ships), departure tax (airline), yacht arrival tax, local corporate services tax, betting duty and foreign currency tax.Fines are money collected from individuals as punishment for crimes committed and other infractions of the law. These can be as simple as a parking ticket or as severe as those levied in a court case.All of these taxes and fines are minuscule compared to what Government receives from International Business and what International Business contributes to local business through use of its services.Debt is when money is borrowed from institutions. Depending upon their credit risk governments can pay high fees and exorbitant interest on the borrowed funds. There may come a time when their capacity to borrow may be limited based upon the lender’s view of their ability to pay back what was borrowed.Taxes and fines can be paid locally by Bermuda dollars. Debt, especially Government debt, however must be paid back in US dollars. All transactions such as credit card payments and any overseas transactions including purchases or foreign debt payments must be paid in US dollars. Our Bermuda dollar is strictly for domestic use. The Government must therefore collect foreign exchange in order to pay off Bermuda’s national debt which is ultimately repayable in US$. How does Bermuda obtain its foreign currency exchange (US dollars)? The answer is International Business and Tourism.International Business represents 85% of Bermuda’s economy, generating foreign exchange (US$) earnings of over $1.9b in 2010.Tourism represents 4% of our GDP and generated only $384m in 2010.As we can clearly see we need to embrace and partner with International Business and its workforce as it is where we obtain the majority of our foreign exchange, the lifeblood of our economy.For our own economic survival we must eagerly accept International Business because in this globally competitive world, many jurisdictions are going all out to warmly welcome them. Some have already gone to other jurisdictions.Bermuda international companies who are worth billions of dollars are owned and managed by foreigners who employ Bermudians in such a variety of professional jobs that local companies will not be able to absorb into their enterprises. A number of these professional Bermudians might find the need to relocate overseas to find employment. International business contributes almost 85 percent of GDP and offers more highly professional jobs than our local companies.Our economy is basically a service economy. We must cater to our customers so that they know that we are open for business and make the business and social environment extremely attractive for companies to stay and other prestige companies to set up a meaningful presence in Bermuda leading to well-paid jobs for Bermudians.With the emergence of a growing virtual world, people can closely study a jurisdiction and make decisions about that jurisdiction before they meet the “movers and shakers”. No amount of media and marketing or advertising is going to have the effect it had in the past unless we offer the service our customers want and the business environment and infrastructure that the customer needs. Bermuda has to have clearly defined policies and legislation that makes us a desirable destination to do business from. After all businesses are outsourced to Bermuda and on the other hand, businesses are outsourced from Bermuda.International business’ contribution to our economy is vital and in particular the tax contributions that the Government receives. All of the money Government spends to run the Government comes from tax revenue. Some Bermudians are of the mistaken belief that Governments creates wealth. It is the private sector business, especially the international business sector, that creates wealth and when we come to that realisation, Bermuda can begin to move in the direction of economic stability leading to the creation of jobs and a solid future for all Bermudians.We must be willing to embrace change that will benefit all Bermudians and meet the needs of our foreign dollar earning and job providers, if we do not, the current conditions that we are all too aware of will only get worse.