CBI Programme helping small islands to grow economies, create jobs and reduce poverty: PM Skerrit

Roseau, Dominica: In the powerful speech at the Dubai event, Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit emphasized the sustainable benefits of the CBI Programme for SIDS. He said that the programme has helped all of the small islands to grow economies, reduce poverty, create jobs, close the fiscal gap, and allow foreign direct investment in the countries.

Outlining different aspects of the programme, PM Skerrit shed light on how the Citizenship by Investment Programme transformed Dominica and paved the way for its development. In addition to that, he also expressed the ways of enhancing the programme with effective measures to enhance its reputation across the globe.

He said, ”The CBI programme is a very resilient source of foreign direct investments and this is one of the reasons why we remain true to the programme. We say so, we know so, especially after the impacts of Hurricane Maria in 2017.”

Reflecting on the hurricane days, the prime minister stated that there were no other sources of tax revenue because they had suspended the collection of tax revenue for six months after the hurricane, CBI was an important source of financial resources.

PM Skerrit continued that they would have only had resources to feed the people after the hurricane, and to help rebuild our country. But they were able to continue generating revenues from the programme, literally 48 to 72 hours after the hurricane hit Dominica.

Terming the programme as resilient, Prime Minister Skerrit said,” We understand the importance of the programme, in terms of its resilience, in terms of its impact on helping the economic growth, the creation of jobs, and creating a sense of independence to our country, by us reducing our reliance on developing partners for the support.”

How CBI benefited Dominica in its resilience growth

During his speech, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit referred to Dominica as the perfect example of the wise usage of the funds generated by Citizenship by Investment Programme. He said that the country used the programme for sustainable projects and sustainable investments.

Dominica has used the programme to fund the geothermal project, which will help transform the provision of energy and reduce the cost of energy, both for investors and for domestic consumers, thereby helping propel greater economic activity in the nation.

PM Skerrit asserted that they have used all the revenues of the programme for the construction of hotels, to create jobs and to bring in foreign direct investments, to increase tax revenues. For housing, the programme has been used to provide resilient homes to the citizens who have lost their shelters in Hurricane Maria.

“Our people are better off now than they were in 2017 by way of the resilient homes that we have constructed in our country. Infrastructure, investments in health, investments in education, to ensure that we have the best schools and the best health facilities and the equipment to provide for our citizens, ”said the prime minister.

Dominica has been using the programme to build the international airport and other infrastructural projects, and the international airport is a project that will help, and will certainly assist with the transformation of the country, according to the prime minister.

He further talked about the cable car project and added that the project will provide accessibility to tourists to several wonders of Dominica. PM Skerrit cited,” And of course, we are investing in tourism, the construction of a cable car, and other tourism investments. And we use the funds from time to time to pay off part of our national debt, you know, to create greater sustainability.”

The prime minister also mentioned their goal of becoming the world’s first climate-resilient nation and said that the CBI Programme has remained the backbone in achieving the goal. He cited,” But we will go back to this, to this strategy, because it is an extraordinary effort to put this in place, similar to we declaring that we would like to be the world’s first climate resilient nation. And we are well on our way towards achieving that objective. And we have become, a reference to the entire global community.”

He asserted that all these accomplishments have earmarked Dominica as the perfect example of resilience as whenever there is a discussion about responding to climate change, people must mention the country in their conversation.

PM Skerrit cited,” And people must be referred to Dominica’s strategy when they’re speaking. As a matter of fact, I’ve been thinking that we should have trademarked this phrase, and let me call it the royalties, every time it’s mentioned, because everywhere it goes it’s mentioned continuously by so many people.”

Changes in the CBI Programme

Along with benefits, PM Skerrit also took the opportunity to talk about the concerns related to the Citizenship by Investment Programmes and shed light on six points which were the results of the meeting with the United States Treasury Department.

He noted,” And we indicated to them, it might be better if we invite the other countries to that conversation. And so, this is how we ended up having the engagement in the United States on the six points programme in the United States. I know many of you are concerned about what the European Union may do, or will do.”

Prime Minister Dr Skerrit affirmed that Dominica has implemented a comprehensive review of the regulations governing the CBI Programme which have far-reaching positive implications. On the signing of the MoU, he expressed pleasure in entering into the agreement with the OECS countries and called it important for the programme.

He said,” I am also happy that we have gone beyond our national borders, and we have entered into this memorandum of agreement among the OECS countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, because we believe that, at the end of the day, each country can do his or her own actions, but there has to be some collective action. Recognizing that when one speaks of the CBI programme, they don’t necessarily speak of one, they speak of, there’s a grouping.”

Outlining some aspects of the MoU, PM Skerrit noted that the agreement consisted of harmonized legislation, which will remain the same in all of the countries, ensuring that the due diligence processes are the same, the application form is the same, they share information among themselves, not just by a policy decision, but legally, and putting the legal structures in place as long as it happens.

He also gave an example and said that if one person applies in Antigua and is rejected, then Antigua would have an obligation to inform every one of them, and vice versa, to ensure that no one person takes advantage of any one of the programmes.

In addition to that, an independent body would also be put in place which would assist in the auditing and the review of the programmes to ensure that they are following the good governance principles of transparency and accountability.

Emphasizing due diligence aspects, PM Skerrit added in Dominica’s case, they have to ensure that those who apply to the programme are noteworthy people, are people who can pass the test of scrutiny.

He said,” I think our due diligence process is more robust in the United States. And so, it’s important for us to understand where the UK is concerned, we continue to engage the UK, and we are very confident with the dialogue that we’re having, that we can get back to a situation of visa-free United Kingdom, but it’s important for all of us to play our part to ensure that this happens.”

Prime Minister Skerrit asserted that they would ensure the proper maintenance of high governance principles of the programme. He said that they would prefer to get 200 cases less and have 10 of the best people in the world, rather than having 200 cases more, and among these 200 cases more, they have people who should not be allowed to even apply.

Call for proper dialogue

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit also talked about several global challenges and asserted that there is a need for proper dialogue in resolving issues. He said,” If we don’t speak to each other, the problem will become worse, and so it’s important for us to speak to each other, and so this is our call to the global community that we have to, we have to speak to each other, because all of this, all of these disturbances and all of these unsettled issues are having major impacts on the way of life of people.”

He asserted that there has to be a greater culture and attitude of leaders in the world for more dialogue and better diplomacy in resolving issues. PM Skerrit cited that the dialogue and diplomacy ended World War I, and also ended World War II and many other issues around the world.

PM Skerrit mentioned that in order to tackle the issues of climate change and geopolitics, there is a need for proper collaboration and dialogue among nations across the globe.