needs to be resolved as quickly as possible.

It is worrying that Bermuda cannot recognise the important contributions that expatriates make. It is equally frightening that some Bermudians seem to equate international business with expatriates and fail to see that the international business sector is not a tap which can be turned on and off.

One would have thought that, having run the tourism industry into a ditch at least in part through a cavalier disregard for its importance, Bermuda would not make the same mistake again with international companies.

But the stunning lack of understanding of its importance and the notion that the non-Bermudian employees of all companies can be treated as unwelcomed guests at best and at worst, an enemy, will drive the Island's most important economic machine away. There are plenty of places which would welcome the business if Bermuda decided it was unnecessary.

One number, 80, and one word, percent, sum up the importance of international business to Bermuda.

International business contributes 80 percent, or eight out of every $10, of foreign currency that Bermuda earns.

Those same $8 out of every $10 are then spent abroad on food, clothes, gasoline, oil, medicine, construction materials, furnishings, computers and telecommunications and all the other staples of modern life that Bermuda has to import in order to survive.

Put another way, $2 out of every $10 which Bermuda receives from abroad comes from tourism. That means that if international business was to disappear, Bermuda would have just 20 percent of its current income to spend on imports.

International companies provide direct employment for some 3,000 people, according to the latest Government statistics. More than half of those employed are Bermudian. Thousands more jobs, many held by Bermudians, exist to serve the international business sector.

To be sure, many international companies have non-Bermudian executives. That should come as no surprise. To compete with the rest of the world, they need the very best employees they can find.

Even if Bermuda was blessed with the brightest possible people who had benefited from the best possible education system, it would still be difficult to find enough people to fill those jobs, in addition to leading local companies, teaching in local schools, leading the Police Service, performing operations at the hospital as surgeons and so on.

The reality is that the Bermuda economy has created 10,000 more jobs -- or one job out of every four -- than there are Bermudians to fill them.

The Employment Survey released yesterday gives some insight into the current divide between Bermudians and expatriates. Most expatriates in Bermuda are white, and whites hold disproportionately more managerial and professional positions than blacks compared to the Island's racial make-up.

It may not be surprising in that context for resentment to grow towards whites in general and expatriates in particular.

But the answer is not "foreigners out'', affirmative action or cumbersome and restrictive immigration policies.

It is far easier to improve opportunities and to give Bermudians a chance in a growing economy fuelled by successful international business and tourism, rather than in a shrinking economy in which international businesses and international expertise feel unwelcome and are headed elsewhere.