Political Leader of the Grenada Progressive Movement slams St. Kitts and Nevis PM over CBI move
ST. GEORGES, Grenada – The political leader of the Grenada Progressive Movement says St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris lacks foresight in his decision to reduce the cost of his country’s citizenship by investment (CBI) programme by 50 percent in an effort to raise funds for his country after the passing of Hurricane Maria.
“We are all saddened by the devastation but this sends a shocking and terrible message to the international community and indeed to the rest of the Caribbean,” said Forrester in a commentary on Caribbean News Now.
“The St Kitts and Nevis prime minister needs to understand that this is a time for the region to come together as brothers and sisters to seriously look at the many challenges facing our region and to develop medium and long term strategies to be more self-sufficient and independent. His decision speaks to a problem of serious systemic deficiency, which correlates to equal systemic social problems that are now affecting our region,” wrote Forrester.
He noted that only a few months ago the islands in the OECS agreed to a protocol of jointly strengthening the region’s CBI programmes by sharing information on applicants who are refused so that they don’t hop to another island as a new applicant.
“This strategy is good and speaks to the seriousness of ‘due diligence[‘ and therefore any member who is that desperate may have the tendency to bend the rules and compromise the integrity of the entire Caribbean CBI programme,” said Forrester.
“This is why we need strong leadership in the region and strong institutions to help build capacity and integrity in the Caribbean,” Forrester, who also mentioned other regional issues in his commentary headlined: “CBI issues in St. Kitts and political malady”
