Increasing the resident population is key to improving Bermudas’ economy, according to Sir John Swan and Larry Burchall.The pair stressed that the economy was in dire straits, at a forum at City Hall yesterday. And Bermuda had to get its work permits regime right.“We need to get more people in here. Cutting off people with work permits to wash dishes or pots or to do some landscaping. That’s not going to solve our problems,” said former Premier Sir John at a City Hall forum yesterday.“We need to get more jobs created, we need to find more capital, we need to find a different line of products. We need to get the world paying attention to Bermuda again.”Sir John said that in the 1980s Bermuda was an “example” to the Caribbean. Now some Caribbean countries are setting the examples.Bermuda had to be more welcoming to capital, he said. “Capital only comes when people have the right to look after their capital, and don’t feel like they are threatened by work permit restrictions,” Sir John continued.“It might be an anathema to us but it’s a reality. They might want to have their private staff both from a point of view of business and some of their domestic staff.“Because we know some people have left Bermuda because they couldn’t get in their domestic staff.“And we might say that’s their problem but it’s not their problem. They’ve gone somewhere else where they are very comfortable.“So we have to accommodate them because they are our customers. And if you don’t accommodate a customer that walks into your store ... you’ve lost a sale, you’ve lost an income.”And basically, we’re going out of business. We are going out of business and we are going out of business fast.”Earlier, Mr Burchall had explained that the local population was barely growing and that foreign residents were key to economic growth.“The first big thing is to look realistically at the work permits,” said Sir John. “The second big thing is to look at this term limits.”He said that limiting term limits was a policy which “does not, will not and cannot work. People who have money and intellect want to know they can do things that are reasonable, not only for themselves but for their families.”Sir John explained that the 60-40 business ownership policy worked at a time when the “old guard, so called Forty Thieves were threatened by foreigners coming to Bermuda and could run over Bermuda with their capital”.Relaxing the law now was essential to stimulating the economy, he said.Expanding the city limits and building condos in Hamilton to accommodate international business was also essential, he said.And we should end discrimination against Bermudians married to foreigners and Permanent Residents when it comes to property ownership for these groups.“That will free up a lot of money that will cause the economy to be stimulated.”He stressed that Bermuda had no natural resources and said: “The only thing we can export really is our tolerance and our ideas. That’s all we have, nothing else.”He said: “Somehow we’ve got this idea that we lived for the last 60 years off the back of foreigners who have been prepared to come in here and put up with our nonsense.“And all of a sudden now we are almost acting as though, somehow or the other we’ve got this big pool of resources that we don’t need them anymore.“And, literally, by speaking in an inordinate way we have driven them out of this country. And I’m only asking that we bring them back to this country.”Bermuda must be opened up for capital, and intellect to come in, if jobs for Bermudians are to be created.Sir John is calling for a “revolution of ideas” and a “big conversation” about the economy to build a new economic model for the island.“We had the big conversation a couple of years ago about race. But we haven’t had the big conversation about the economy,” he said. “Isn’t that strange? That we should have a conversation about race but we can’t get anybody stimulated about economy?”Mr Burchall echoed that theme later, saying: “Bermudians have got to have a conversation about who we are, what we are and how we’re going to earn a living. That’s the conversation we’re going to have to have.”He added that he believed that the majority of the island’s economic woes was not a result of the global economic downturn but an “on island, local factors.”About 65 people turned up at the lunchtime forum, the first of what is planned to be a series.