The Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr Keith Mitchell, believes that while the country’s citizenship by investment scheme is a good tool for the island’s development, his government was being cautious and making sure that investors are subject to stringent checks and balances.
“The citizenship by investment means what it says, you invest you get citizenship. By the investment we hope to develop serious areas of opportunity whether it is agriculture, tourism that would mean economic spinoffs. I think it is a good tool in the present circumstances to help us to develop. All we have to make sure is that the persons we give those citizenship to are people who won’t embarrass us,” PM Mitchell said.
Grenada’s CBI scheme allows investor applicants to qualify for Grenada citizenship by either investing US$ 350,000 in an approved real estate project, or by making a non-refundable donation of about US$ 200,000 to the Island Transformation Fund.
While the Caribbean nations of Dominica, St Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis also have similar investment immigration schemes in place, Mitchell says strict security measures must be the priority for all Caribbean countries.
“Grenada has not been going for numbers, we’ve been very careful. In fact, the only area of the budget that we fell short in last year and this year again is the projection for the amount we would be getting from Grenada citizenship programme because we’re being extremely careful,” he said.
PM Mitchell believes people around the world have valid and justifiable security reasons for trying to obtain another passport, and therefore they must be allowed to do so.
“You can see what is happening in all parts of the world today. People are not very happy living in some countries right now and they would want to make sure that they have another home in case they have to take flight. So we are benefiting to some extent. But I’m not enjoying it because the world is one and we are living in a global community and we can’t be happy about any serious problems or security in any country. One wants to go where there is more calm and peace and safety and the Caribbean is the better place for this,” he said.
Source: stabroeknew.com