I guess it was well below the political radar and not very interesting to the media, but the six-page press statement that Minister of Home Affairs Michael Fahy released a few days ago was evidence of good work right down where the rubber meets the road for many Bermudians.

Particularly good news for the rest of us has to be that planning applications are increasing, and the time taken to process them is down.

The increase speaks to increasing economic activity, which is good news for those whose livelihood depends on recovery, but a streamlined applications process is evidence of really good work down at Planning.

The numbers the Minister talked about in his release are in addition to good results achieved in past years.

Planning must be high on the list of Government departments that people don’t like having to deal with because of the length of time it can take.

The improvements show that the Minister and his staff are aware of that and are trying hard to make a difference. Ordinary Bermudians will notice, I hope, and applaud the efforts they are making.

But that wasn’t the end of it. There were good results in half a dozen other areas of the Minister’s portfolio of responsibilities.

In Immigration, for example, the number of new work permits processed showed the first increase since 2008.

The Minister of Finance has repeatedly pointed to the connection between re-populating our international business sector, particularly, and economic recovery.

Higher non-Bermudian numbers mean more fresh money circulating in the economy, so this increase, from 10,825 in 2013 to 11,321 in 2014, is good news for all of us.

The new Work Permit Policy, which I know was written after extensive consultation with unions and others, came into effect on March 1, so we’ll be seeing more improvement in the future.

The Department of Workforce Development has been hard at work.

We’ve all seen that Job Board listing of vacant jobs on Cablevision’s Channel 87. There are 3,349 job candidates now listed with 502 employers taking part.

Weekly sessions are being held to help clients build a profile and upload documents such as resumes and references. So that initiative seems to have caught on with the public.

The National Training Section of this Department has done well on a number of fronts with staff:

• Providing 49 overseas scholarships and 92 local scholarships;

• Facilitating a number of National Certifications in designated trades such as welders (23), electricians (15), industrial electricians (14) and automotive service technicians (14);

• Helping five young Bermudians leave Bermuda to attend Holland College in Canada in a bid to become seafarers. The Section’s Maritime Programme is one of their most successful;

• Providing expertise and support for a Job Readiness event held at the Somerset Cricket Club in 2014. Approximately 70 people participated in the workshops which focused on interviewing skills, resume writing, training, employability skills, and a synopsis of the Employment Act;

• Presenting a series of workshops for CedarBridge Academy’s College and Career Course, for young people pursuing the City & Guilds Employability Skills Award. Ninety students participated in the sessions, which focused on Behaviour in the Workplace and Business Etiquette.

The Bermuda Economic Development Corporation also had some successes.

Twenty two new businesses opened in the three Economic Empowerment Zones, creating 60 new jobs.

In 2014, the BEDC approved five new Loan Guarantees and 11 new Micro Loans enabling $221,900 in commercial bank financing, which was used to assist three existing businesses and nine new businesses, generating 35 new jobs.

For the first 11 months of 2014, BEDC officers met with 805 people looking for business planning and management advice.

This is an increase of 19.61 per cent over the same period in the previous year.

Between January and November of 2014, the BEDC held or participated in 88 seminars, workshops, and events focused on entrepreneurship.

These events exposed some 2,529 persons, including young people, to entrepreneurship best-practice.

BEDC’s role as host organisation for the Global Entrepreneurship Week initiative continued and in 2014, saw the initiative grow significantly with more than 30 events and hundreds of entrepreneurs participating weekly over the month.

As people keep saying, there is no magic wand you can wave to make all of our economic troubles go away at once.

Success comes one little step at a time. Home Affairs seems to have taken several of those steps, and I applaud their hard work.

• Jeff Sousa is the One Bermuda Alliance MP for Warwick West