The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet Minister yesterday ruled out an ‘Investor Citzenship’ programme to boost the Bahamian economy and financial services sector, saying such a reform was “not so palatable” in the current environment.

Hope Strachan, minister of financial services, said the Christie administration was instead preparing to unveil Immigration reforms centred on providing residency to foreign investors and second home buyers, rather than citizenship.

Mrs Strachan, who was addressing a Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) luncheon, said the decision was not a unilateral one but had had been reached after consulting with industry stakeholders.      

“My Ministry had completed our research and consultation with BFSB and the private sector,” she said. “There will be several significant changes to our Immigration policy initiatives for the sector which will be introduced over the course of the next few weeks.

“These will be tied to residency and not citizenship. So far, no one has indicated the stomach to deal with it on that basis.”

Mrs Strachan added: “Citizenship is very jealously guarded by Bahamians, it’s our culture, it’s who we are. 

“We have to watch how these citizenship programmes are playing out in other countries that offer them. I know that there have been some problems with some of them, and this is why I think it is not so palatable right now to the majority of Bahamians. 

“We have actually consulted with the industry on this. This is not a decision we have reached on our own. We have collaborated with industry in the matter fully, and that is the general consensus; that we do not want to touch those issues at this particular point in time.” said Mrs Strachan.

So-called ‘Investor Citizenship’ programmes have been mulled and floated in the past, most recently by Sean McWeeney, the former attorney general and key adviser to Prime Minister Perry Christie.

Such an initiative would eventually grant citizenship to a limited group of individuals, once they met certain criteria, including a high multi-million dollar investment threshold.

Those qualifying for such a programme would essentially have to invest in Bahamas-based developments and companies that created local jobs, but Mr McWeeney’s proposal drew a mixed reaction from the Bahamian private sector in mid-2014.

Investor citizenship programmes have been adopted by countries such as Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Malta, the Netherlands, the UK and Spain, either allowing direct citizenship by investment or offering routes to citizenship for wealthy investors. 

Concerns have been raised, however, over the transparency and accountability surrounding such programmes, which have also draw the attention of regulators and law enforcement agencies in nations such as the US on the grounds that citizenship is being ‘bought’.

Mrs Strachan, meanwhile, would not elaborate on the Immigration reform details, adding that she wanted to wait until there was “absolute final approval”.

“Right now we are in consultation with industry. We have an initial approval by Cabinet. Based on certain proposals that the  industry put to us, it was sent to Cabinet, and Cabinet basically went through them and determined which ones were acceptable and which ones we thought are not so acceptable,” she said.

“It is now on its way back to industry to show exactly which were actually accepted, and then we will come out with a final proposal  over the course of the next week or two.

    “We are supposed to have a meeting with BFSB and other stakeholders from the industry. Over the course of the next two to three weeks you should be hearing from us on the final proposal. Certainly, it will be an expansion of the products we currently have, which is basically tied to purchasing a home for $500,000.”