OECS leaders at odds over CBI programme

(CMC) — Two leaders from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are at odds over the benefit of the controversial Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme that some regional countries use to attract foreign investments.

Under the CBI programme, foreign investors are provided with citizenship of a country in return for making a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of that country.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, has stood out as the only independent OECS country without a CBI programme. However, St Vincent’s main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in Kingstown used to cite the CBI programmes in EU nations, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Malta.

“I explained my opposition and the government’s opposition to selling passports and selling citizenship. First of all, it’s wrong in principle,” Gonsalves said, reiterating that citizenship is the highest office in the country.

“The highest office in the land can’t be for sale. And the passport is the outward sign of the inward grace of citizenship, and that too, is not a commodity for sale,” Gonsalves said, noting that the CBI is “reckless, not sustainable, because … the countries you’d want to go — Canada, Britain, United States and Europe — they’re going to be closing their doors on it”.

“All the signs are there, and it’s reckless to run your government on passport money and citizenship money.”

But his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart, Gaston Browne, has taken umbrage at Gonsalves’ statement, rejecting his suggestion that the CBI could result in visa restrictions for countries that operate the programmes.

“I don’t know why Ralph believes that the CBI countries will lose visa-free access, and that St Vincent and the Grenadines will be able to retain visa-free access,” Browne said on his weekly radio show. “At the end of the day, we’re operating within the same space, and as I said before, the same stick that beats the wild goat is the same one that going beat the tame.”

The Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, who, along with Gonsalves, met with the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in Washington on Tuesday, said that OECS countries should be supporting each other.

“They may use CBI to stop our visa-free access, but they’ll use some other reason to stop visa-free access to St Vincent and the Grenadines. So, it is not appropriate for Ralph to be trashing us with the hope that we lose our visa-free access.”

Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Dominica, St Kitts-Nevis, and St Lucia each have a CBI programme. While St Vincent and the Grenadines had a CBI programme, Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration rescinded after it came to office in 2001.

Since then, Gonsalves has remained firmly opposed to CBI, and the NDP has promised that should it win the next general election, widely expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline, it will reinstate the CBI.

Browne said that CBI helps Caribbean countries to meet their developmental needs amid a hostile global environment, telling radio listeners, “these international institutions and these large countries don’t care about us”.

We’re on the fringes of global development. And if we don’t try and have a little carve out somewhere in order to protect the living standards of our people, we’re going to see a denigration in the living standards.”

The Antigua and Barbuda prime minister said that he supported CBI even when he was in opposition, and it was not a popular policy.

“And by standing on the truth and telling the people of Antigua and Barbuda that CBI will raise the necessary revenues to help us to literally salvage our financial situation, who you think benefited the most from it?” he said, adding that St John’s CBI programme is now into its 11th year.

“It pays to stand on the truth. And I’ll say this to you: any country in the Caribbean who feel that they want to raise additional revenue and they want to engage in any immigration investment programme, investment immigration programmes are not legitimately corrupt.”

Responding “constructively” to Gonsalves’ statements, Browne said: “First of all, I felt that Ralph’s statement was unfortunate, and for somebody who I admire, especially his language skills when it comes to good language, Ralph is not short of good language, and I think this was a deliberate and provocative attack on member states within the OECS, his colleagues.”

“And, as small, vulnerable countries, we always encourage leaders to stand in solidarity with each other, recognising that the same stick that beats the wild goat is the same one that will beat the tame.”

Browne said nonetheless he was shocked that Gonsalves “could be so reckless with his language to treat all of us with the same broad brush” and that he could not admit or deny any corruption in any other CBI programme.

“And I want to say to Ralph definitively that the accusations that he made of corruption in these programmes, which would have included Antigua and Barbuda, certainly don’t apply to our country.”

Browne said St John’s runs a legitimate investment immigration programme that is no different than the EB-5 visa programme in the United States, under which people who invest can become permanent residents, a pathway to citizenship.

“It’s no different than the one in Canada. It’s no different than those in the European Union,” Browne said.

“I also want to say to Ralph that we have not published a single application without appropriate due diligence, which includes international due diligence agencies and regional institutions, global institutions, including INTERPOL (the International Criminal Police Organization) and the Trinidad-based Caricom (Caribbean Community) Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) here within the Caribbean region, or JRCC (The Joint Regional Communications Centre) for that matter.”

He said that certainly in the case of Antigua and Barbuda, it is not true that CBI applications are processed without due diligence and so on.

“And even if, Ralph, you are speculating that there may be corruption in other programmes, I do not appreciate you literally treating us with a broad brush and to implicate one of the best-run investment immigration programmes in the world — the Antiguan and Barbudan programme– with the type of adjectives and mismanagement and corruption that you’re talking about,” Browne said.

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