St Vincent’s Opposition Leader has expressed deep skepticism and ridicule regarding the government’s initiative to establish a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) unit.
Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves argued that while the government created a department in the Prime Minister’s office for this purpose, it currently has “no staff, no budget”.
He mocked the financial expectations set out in the estimates, noting that the government listed only “$10 as projected revenue” for the program.
The Opposition leader stated that the “NDP government wants to sell passports, but he doesn’t know how to do it”.
The Leader suggested that the government intends to “outsource” the program because, despite talking about it for 25 years, they still do not have the planners required to run it.
Gonsalves declared that “the end of CBI is nigh” and characterised the government’s pursuit of this revenue stream as “looking for a mirage”
In December, the island’s Prime Minister, Godwin Friday, said the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program as a critical economic pillar for the country’s future, particularly given the current financial constraints.
Friday noted that because St. Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the last countries in the OECS to implement a CBI program, the administration has the unique opportunity to study what other countries have done and adopt “best practices” from their experiences.