KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – St. Lucia’s Opposition Leader, Allen Chastanet, says he supports citizenship by investment (CBI or CIP) and congratulated the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for committing to introducing it if elected to office.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Vincentian counterpart, Dr. Godwin Friday, Chastanet, however, raised concerns about how some CBI programs are being run in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) countries.
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis all have a CBI program, in which non-nationals are granted citizenship and a passport if they make a substantial financial contribution to the country’s socio-economic development.
These countries have lauded the contribution of CBI to their economic development, including Dominica, which is funding an international airport primarily with CBI monies.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines remain the only independent country in the OECS without such a CBI program. Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has insisted that his administration would not be involved in the program, recently suggesting that it is inherently corrupt, a view that his Antiguan counterpart, Gaston Browne, has rejected as peddling the view of developing countries that seek to rid poor nations of anything that makes them more independent economically.
Chastanet reiterated the call that he made at the meeting of the OECS Assembly on Tuesday this week for the CBI programs in the OECS to be governed by the St. Lucia-based OECS Commission.
“And again, I want to repeat myself. I’m not against the CIP program. I think it’s a great program. What I’m against is how it’s being run and the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, and the level of disrespect that is being given to the citizens of this region.”
Chastanet, who served as St. Lucia’s prime minister from 2016 to 2021, said the then Dr. Kenny Anthony St. Luccia Labour Party (SLP) government had consulted with his then-opposition United Workers Party before Castries introduced the CBI in 2015.
“And we had an internal discussion. We understood now that there was nothing to agree to. St. Lucia, like St. Vincent, is already in the CIP program. And we were in the CIP program the same day that St. Kitt-Nevis started the program in [1984],” Chastanet said.
He said that the Treaty of Basseterre, which governs the nine-member OECS grouping, grants OECS citizens certain rights in all the member states, regardless of the original country of their OECS citizenship.
“And how does that translate on the ground? The first set of Chinese that came to St. Lucia and opened up businesses came by way of becoming citizens in Dominica and coming over to St. Lucia,” Chastanet said.
“So, I want to say that we’re in the program, and I think that your party (the NDP) is right in saying, ‘Why is St. Vincent giving these benefits of the Basseterre treaty and not financially benefiting?’ And that there has to be a change.”
Chastanet, however, said that there have been “bad actors” in the CBI programs, noting that Prime Minister Gonsalves had spoken at a press conference about the negatives associated with CBI.
“I want to say that the things that he spoke about are true but have nothing to do with the program. It has to do with the people that are running the program,” Chastanet said, adding that while he has “a tremendous amount of respect” for Gonsalves, his comments are a personal indictment.
“… if he knows all those things that he said to be true, then what he should have done is amend the Basseterre Treaty to have prevented people who are obtaining economic citizenship from the other OECS countries from coming in and benefiting in St. Vincent,” Chastanet said.
“He’s not done that. And the question is, why? Because we’re talking at this point, over 200,000 people have been given economic citizenship in the four OECS countries.”
Chastanet noted that the United States had placed the four OECS countries on a visa ban list under the CBI program.
“The Europeans yesterday moved a step closer to taking away the Schengen visa access to the CIP countries,” he said, adding, “Europe, the UK, Canada, and the US want these programs to work, but they want these programs to be run properly.”
Chastanet said that running the CBI programs in the sub-region out of the OECS Secretariat would eliminate competition among the countries, noting that “the competition between the individual countries to sell passports is overwhelming, and they have not been able to contain themselves.
“And there’s been discounting, there’s been bad actors, there’s maladministration, there’s pure corruption that’s been taking place that is now causing our visa-free access of our normal citizens to be threatened,” Chastanet said.
He stated that an NDP government would need to consider whether it wants to operate its own CBI or one managed by the OECS Commission, as he suggested, emphasizing the benefits of the CBI to the OECS economies.
He noted that St. Kitts-Nevis earned so much money that it had paid off its national debt.
“It was one of the most indebted countries in the world. We’ve seen the infrastructure development in Dominica. We’ve seen hotels in Grenada. So, we know that there are some excellent parts to the CIP program,” Chastanet said.
“And I think that you’re right to say that Vincentian citizens deserve to get their piece of what is taking place,” he stated, adding that further and deeper OECS integration will require money for border control and, among other things, training of staff.
The OECS countries with CBI programs have formed a partnership and signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the operation of the programs.
Chastanet, however, said that while there are talks about a regulator, the regulator would not have access to all the contracts.
“So, it means the regulator is going to wait to find a problem versus providing oversight and direction. So, this is a significant program,” Chastanet said, adding that St. Vincent and the Grenadines had “no impact on where we are today. But the fact is, we can’t run away from where we are today”.
Chastanet complained about what he said were corrupt practices surrounding CBI in St. Lucia, insisting, “It’s not the program, it’s the actors, and we have a weak democratic system where checks and balances are failing us.
“And that’s why putting this at the OECS level will help mitigate some of the global concerns about this.
“I know that those countries want to see us have this program because we’re seeing that aid around the world is being cut, and we saw that coming,” the St. Lucian opposition leader said.
Chastanet said that with the issues confronting the CBI program, it would be easy for him, as opposition leader, to say that if voted into office, he would shut it down. St. Lucians have voted out their government in every election since 2006 and are expected to return to the polls by the end of next year.
“We’re not going to cut our nose to spite our face. The fact is that the program can work. We must address the governance issues that exist,” he said.
Meanwhile, Friday said that he was “totally in agreement” with Chastanet regarding transparency and maintaining CBI programs “at the highest level of public hygiene that we can accomplish.
“When I meet with representatives, ambassadors, and high commissioner representatives as well, those issues are raised with me, and I give the assurance that the more transparent and open and vetted the program is, the better it is for us, for all of us, because that ensures its sustainability,” Friday said.
He also reiterated that St. Vincent and the Grenadines coming into CBI later than the other OECS countries means “that we have an opportunity to benefit from the experience of different countries and to ensure that we do the best program possible.
“But it cannot be gainsaid; it cannot be underestimated, Allen, the importance that these programs have had for raising capital for countries, and nobody is going to give us a living essentially.”
He noted that agriculture, which was once a relatively prosperous industry here, now accounts for only five percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
“So, these are ways in which we are looking for opportunities to create the basis for a more effective, functioning economy, to bring greater prosperity to our country,” Friday said, telling reporters that the NDP sees CBI “not as an economic program by itself.
“It’s rather, it’s part of our comprehensive strategy where we have outlined the four pillars of the economy that we intend to focus on,” he said, mentioning agriculture, tourism, the blue economy, and the new economy.
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