Bermuda should heed recession warnings from US Consul General Gregory Slayton, says former Premier Sir John Swan, and make life easier for international business by relaxing work permit term limits.

Sir John said with that sector providing 80 percent of Bermuda's Gross Domestic Product, it was vital Government made it comfortable.

He told The Royal Gazette: "I think people in the international business and associated businesses need to make sure that they can get the service that they require.

"It doesn't mean you should not have a policy where you look for opportunities for Bermudians, but if you send a message out you are going to terminate people irrespective and force Bermudians into jobs irrespective the answer is going to be that people feel 'well we can go somewhere else'.

"International business is almost our only or main source of income – if it has to get special privileges then we should do it.

"But we should explain to the public why we are doing it. We shouldn't just make arbitrary decisions, we should have an explanation as to how and why we are doing it."

With global meltdown likely to hit Bermuda, Sir John said Bermuda needed to embrace international business, particularly with so many alternatives locations trying to lure it away.

He said the US Consul General Gregory Slayton was a great friend of Bermuda with a lot of business experience and didn't deserve some of the attacks on his motives being launched on talk shows and elsewhere after he claimed Bermuda was in recession.

Mr. Slayton had every right to say what he did, said Sir John who added that Bermudian landlords would suffer if expats left.

He said: "In no way do his comments denigrate Bermuda.

"What it simply says is 'I am concerned', but people are haranguing him or benignly letting it go by.

"This is not his problem, this is our problem. We should pay attention to him.

"I do not take lightly an attack on the United States representative in Bermuda. I wonder why there has been this silence.

"He's a diplomat who has worked very hard to enhance our relationship with the US, and he sees on the horizon that all is not well.

"The saying goes that when America sneezes Bermuda catches a cold.

"We want to make sure we don't go from a cold to pneumonia. We want to make sure we don't go from the risk of a recession to a risk of depression.

"He was putting us on notice that his country is in deep difficulty."