(Barbados Nation) – The latest island to offer citizenship through investment believes it is a good tool to help the islands.
Prime Minister of Grenada Dr Keith Mitchell said that while his country is undertaking the foreign exchange earning initiative, it was making sure that the investors did not embarrass the country.
“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,” he said.
Dominica, St Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis have already engaged in the enterprise but Mitchell said the checks and balances must be in place.
“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 the citizenship programme because we’re being extremely careful. Otherwise we’ve been doing well in other areas of economic activity …,” he explained.
Mitchell said there were a lot of people outside the Caribbean who would want to have another passport for all different reasons, including security.
“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 stated.
The leader insisted that the region must be protected in the programme. (AC)
