The Dominica government Tuesday strongly defended its citizenship by investment (CBI) programme saying it has played a significant role in the socio-economic development of the island since it was first introduced here several decades ago.
Finance Minister Dr. Irving McIntyre, presenting the EC$1.15 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) national budget to Parliament on Tuesday, said that there must be an acknowledgment of the CBI contributions to Dominica as well as the ‘prudent and visible use of those funds.
‘The CBI has not been an abstract entry in the national accounts, finance resilient, housing, health care, education, agriculture, small business development, roads, climate resilient infrastructure and projects that are creating the platform for future sustained growth.
‘For the household its contribution is therefore visible in assets and services that family use. In the jobs, they have secured and economic benefits their families have received in a better quality of life In reconstruction that did not have to be financed for heavier taxation and in national capacity,’ McIntyre told legislators.
He said that the CBI, through which citizenship is granted to foreign nationals in return for making a substantial investment in Dominica’s socio-economic development, has also supported the productive economy.
McIntyre said hat since the Roosevelt Skerrit government reconstructed the programme in 2014, thousands of business owners, farmers, and fishers have received direct and indirect benefits .
He said investment through the approved real estate route help finance hotels and other projects within the tourism sector creating construction and hospitality opportunities.
‘It helped Dominica respond when disasters could have reversed a generation of progress,’ McIntyre said, recalling the passage of Hurricane Maria on September 18, 2017, inflicting damages and loss estimated at 226 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
The Finance Minister said that in the weeks and months that followed, accumulated CBI resources were mobilised to bridge urgent financing gaps. He said while grants and other external support were being assembled, those resources help government restore essential services and rebuild public infrastructure.
He said thousands of Dominicans in every community received CBI grants to restore their homes and others receive new houses from government.
McIntyre said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed that the sharp increase in resilient public investment after Hurricane Maria was financed mainly from the CBI revenue and that the World Bank has similarly reported that accumulated CBI reserves were drawn down to finance reconstruction and recovery activities.
He said that this resource did not replace the value of the support of international partners, but it gave Dominica the capacity to act immediately and to direct resources to national priorities.
‘The programme gave a small country room to act when the scale of our need exceeded the space available for ordinary revenue and …it allowed Dominica to move with urgency when delay would have imposed a greater human and economic cost ‘.
He said that there would be no apology for homes built for Dominican families, for health facilities, for schools, for roads, resilient communities or for building hotels and advancing the island’s development or for lawfully mobilising resources to protect its people.
But he acknowledged that confidence in the programme and its benefits must never become complacent and that the value of Dominican citizenship must be guided with seriousness.
‘New diligence must remain rigorous. Administration must continue to be sound. Oversight must continue to be strong. Information sharing and international cooperation must continue,’ McIntyre said, noting that the integrity of the programme is not separate from its economic value.’
McIntyre said that international rules affecting investor citizenship programmes and visa-free mobility are changing and that Dominica’s response ‘must be clear.
‘We will continue to engage constructively with all our partners. We will listen to their concerns, adjust our systems where required and continue to uphold high standards.’
He said the European Union has revised its visa suspension framework putting further pressure on investor citizenship programmes.
‘We do not dismiss that development or answer it with hostility. We will answer through constructive dialogue,’ he said, adding that Dominica will approach these discussions as a responsible partner, prepared to cooperate, uphold high standards and protect the legitimate development interests of the Dominican people.
‘That is the position from which we move forward confident in the contribution of CBI … protecting its integrity and equally determined that no single programme will carry the full weight of our future.’
The Finance Minister said that the assets CBI must continue to build the local economy, produce jobs and that strengthening the country’s independence ‘does not mean turning away from CBI.
‘It means ensuring that Dominica has options. It means that if one revenue source weakens several productive sectors can continue to support jobs public service and also the income’.
McIntyre said that from the outset the government’s purpose was clear to convert CBI revenues into lasting national assets and productive capacity
‘Those resources help build the infrastructure, resilience and social foundation on which the next stage of development can stand,’ he said, adding that ‘this means turning infrastructure into enterprise, enterprise into employment and employment into stronger household incomes while attracting visitors and more investments, increasing exports and generating new sources of national income that circulate through communities across Dominica’.