Bob Richards hopes that, this time, people aren’t going to dismiss his advice as more scaremongering from Jeremiah the Prophet of Doom.Growing unemployment, folding businesses, wage freezes and overtime cuts all mean nobody is now unaware how badly Bermuda’s economy is suffering as they await Finance Minister Paula Cox’s first Budget as Premier.For Shadow Finance Minister Mr Richards, there’s never been a better time to present some radical solutions which can arrest the slide and ensure a brighter future for the Island.Cutting costs and putting capital projects on hold won’t be enough to stop the bleeding on Government’s current account, he says.He believes the only way to steer the ship back on course is by making Bermuda more competitive in international business circles, boosting revenue to reverse a trend of yearly Government deficits.That can be done, says the United Bermuda Party MP, by getting rid of unnecessary red tape which annoys international business and creating a more welcoming environment, even if it requires a change in mindset from top to bottom.Mr Richards believes this suggestion would go down a lot better than when his prediction of a looming economic crisis three years ago was greeted with derision from some on the Progressive Labour Party benches.“I believe we have a huge opportunity here,” Mr Richards told The Royal Gazette.“The reason it’s an opportunity now and perhaps wasn’t last year is that I believe enough people have become unemployed, enough businesses have folded, for even the most unobservant Bermudian to realise that this is a serious situation and that serious action has to be taken.“Before, they would accuse me of scare tactics, say ‘you are just being negative, Jeremiah the Prophet of Doom’.“Major businesses are going bust. That’s why we have this opportunity now. There’s universal recognition something major must be done. We just can’t tinker around the edges.“The problem that I see with Bermuda is that we have become uncompetitive as a country. Our only way out of this situation is to become competitive.“This Budget season, our focus needs to be to try to improve the overall economy and overall competitiveness.”Mr Richards said the Island is uncompetitive because it’s so expensive, but that can be overcome by making international business more efficient and convenient, quicker and friendlier.With Cayman Islands, Switzerland and Ireland all looking to take advantage, he said: “We have too much red tape on this Island. We have Government regulations coming out of the wazoo. It’s discouraging and actually chasing away our customers.“The Finance Minister wants everyone to believe all our problems here is because of the global recession. I have said repeatedly that that’s not so.“We have a lot of our own structural problems. The recession has laid those structural problems bare for all to see, whereas they were lifted up by an economic boom.“These problems have always been there but they didn’t bite until the recession came.“I have canvassed international business widely in the past couple of months. They are telling me the same thing: that there’s too much Government red tape, it takes too long to incorporate companies, we have a double vetting system, anti-money laundering has to be done twice, once by a law firm and again at Bermuda Monetary Authority. That takes extra time.“People are moving entire business units somewhere else because of Immigration. These are not processes that were necessarily put in by Progressive Labour Party Government, this goes back to the UBP Government.”Most red tape can be removed at the stroke of a pen by Government policy decisions, he said.“The government with a small ‘g’, that is the Civil Service, has an inertia of its own,” he said. “They do things in government the way they have always done it. It’s part of being government.“The politicians are supposed to look at the situation and ask how is this relevant, is it helping or hurting? We are not getting the right navigational orders from the politicians.”Mr Richards also says international business people need to be treated like customers, claiming expats are made to feel like pariahs, with Ministers making hostile comments and setting a tone followed by other Bermudians.“It’s going to take a lot of convincing of Bermudians that we have to start treating our customers like customers,” he said.“Guest workers that come here for international business are not here taking jobs from Bermudians, they are our customers.“There are thousands of less guest workers in Bermuda. It’s the spending of these guests workers in Bermuda that makes the economy tick.“What kind of foolishness is this, when we treat customers like they are a threat to us?”Mr Richards is not convinced by many of the methods some have suggested to raise Government’s revenue above its expenditure.“There’s no amount of cutting of expenditures that’s going to balance that Budget unless we fire a whole lot of people. I don’t think that’s acceptable and we won’t be recommending that,” he said.“I don’t believe you can just cut costs and balance this Budget. You can try raising taxes. But that was the wrong prescription last year and it would be this year too because raising taxes is going to depress the economy.“The only thing left is to take action to try to revive the economy itself to increase the revenue line in the Budget. If we do that, everyone wins.”And while trimming the fat would help Ms Cox meet her goal of $150 million savings, he warns against Government claiming it’s reducing spending by cancelling projects that haven’t even started, such as the Causeway.But he believes Bermuda can recover, saying: “Paula Cox and Ewart Brown assumed that the gravy train would go on forever.“They assumed the music was never going to stop. This is an opportunity to change, really, an opportunity to reset the gears. And if we don’t, we will have big problems.”