Grenada signs on to pact to create regional CBI authority

Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has signed on to the memorandum of understanding, MOU, that will assign or establish a competent regional authority for members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States that operate Citizenship by Investment, or CBI, programmes.

Under the CBI initiative, various regional countries provide citizenship to foreign investors in return for substantial investment in the socio-economic development of the islands.

The pact also allows for a cap on the minimum investment threshold in the CBI of US$200,000.

“The parties agree to assign or to establish a regional competent authority to set standards in accordance with international requirements and best practices, and to regulate the programmes,” the agreement states.

This regional competent authority is to be established or identified by June 30 of this year.

Last week, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said OECS member countries with a CBI programme are developing mutual legislation so as to address the concerns raised by European countries.

Skerrit said many EU countries, especially those that have agreed to suspend visa-free travel for countries whose nationals are exempt from the visa obligation when travelling to the Schengen area, have raised issues linked to the CBI.

“As you know, there are countries within the OECS who have these programmes – Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Kitts-Nevis”, and there is “the need for all of us to take certain actions to set aside the concerns which the EU in particular would have had with these programmes,” Skerrit said.

“I have actually signed this memorandum of agreement … having concluded the discussions with the other partners, and we await the others to sign on this,” Skerrit said.

Not legally binding

The agreement signed by various countries is a statement of intent and does not create legal obligations under international or domestic law.

“It does not constitute a legally binding agreement and is not enforceable in any court of law,” the agreement noted. It provides a clause for it to be amended or terminated by unanimous consent of the parties who signed the agreement, and for disputes arising from, or in connection with it to be resolved through negotiations.

In the area of regulations of agents, marketing and promotion, the MOU said that the participating countries will establish common standards to manage the communications and promotion of the CBI programmes.

“Such standards shall prohibit marketing of CBIPS for granting of ‘visa-free access’ and the use of photographs of parties’ passports in advertisements,” said the agreement, which was not signed by St Lucia.

Grenada signed the MOU on the same day it rebranded its CBI programme and converted the unit into a government agency. It previously operated as a unit of the Office of the Prime Minister.

– CMC