Antigua & Barbuda has nothing to lose from the recently struck US $125 million film deal and the arrangement can create an avenue through which the country’s economy can be diversified, Minister of Culture Paul “Chet” Greene declared.
In an interview with OBSERVER media yesterday, Greene said government will not be pumping any Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) funds into the deal that it arranged, earlier this month, with the newly formed production company, Golden Island Filmworks.
“One, the notion has been given that the government is going to take US $125 million from the CIP and give it to these investors for the purpose of developing film in Antigua & Barbuda,” he said. “That is furthest from the truth. The CIP, as we know it, has three components.”
“You have the NDF (National Development Fund); you have the real estate; you have the business,” Greene added. “It is the business option, which has also been used before. This is about the fourth or the fifth project, I should advise, being used by the business option.”
Greene’s statements follow those of Junior Minister with Responsibility for Finance, Senator Lennox Weston. During last week’s meeting of the Senate, Weston, who is not a member of Cabinet, questioned the rationale behind the deal, stating that he would not follow through with such an arrangement if the buck stopped with him.
“Officially, I have not seen any credible declaration by the government, either by Cabinet or the prime minister that this is something that we are going to pursue,” Weston said. “I can tell you, in terms of Antigua’s strategic plan, if it was my decision, that would be a Nancy story.”
Greene responded by further explaining the business component of the CIP. According to the culture minister, the arrangement is for the head of the production company, Kittian-born producer Rudy Langlais to come up with half the money and he would have to seek investors to finance the other half of the deal.
“Fifty per cent of the US $125 million is what the investors are expected to bring to the table,” the minister of culture said. “Langlais and his group, that is what they have insisted that they will bring to the table to start this process; they will raise the other half with persons making investment in the production company.”