The St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) programme is being put on the right track and our partners have expressed confidence in the approach of the new Team Unity government.
That was the essence of a report on the programme given by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris, whilst delivering a statement this morning, at the first working session of Parliament since Team Unity was elected to office on February 16th, 2015.
“The Citizenship-by-Investment Programme suffered two devastating blows in 2014. In May 2014, the US Treasury Department issued an advisory regarding our programme and advised that “illicit actors” were participating in the programme. In November 2014, the most hurtful blow was delivered when we lost our visa free access to Canada. That is our inheritance of the CBI”, said Prime Minister Harris in painting a picture of the difficulties the program faced under the previous administration.
“It is important to note that censure by the USA and Canada not only negatively affected the marketing of the programme but also negatively impacted on the financial services sector with implications for correspondent banking, other relationships and the risk assessment of our sub-region, inter alia”, Dr. Harris emphasised.
He said that the CBI was extremely important to the economic well-being of our country and the prosperity of our people and thus there was a need to recalibrate our relations “where it matter”, if we are to put the CBI programme on a sustainable growth trajectory, in the interest of the people of this country.
“I am happy to report that our engagements with the governments of the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union have been many as they have been productive. Whilst every element of those engagements cannot be put in the public domain, for security and other reasons of international diplomacy, I can report that there is a renewed level of trust, confidence and goodwill between our governments”, said Prime Minister Harris.