Basseterre, St. Kitts (SKNIS): The Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) intends to deepen its engagement with the public to improve information sharing and enhance transparency.
CIU Head Michael Martin said that significant changes are coming in this regard, which will help to showcase the workings of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) and the tremendous value of the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme.
“I don’t think that we presently engage with the public as much as we should, and perhaps that is why there are some misgivings or misconceptions about the whole question of Citizenship by Investment programme,” he stated on the September 27 edition of the radio and television programme InFocus. “As we overhaul the programme and the Unit that is one of the areas that we intend to address by putting in place a Communications Unit that will get the message out.”
Mr. Martin said that the local messaging will raise public awareness about the “importance of CBI, what it does for the country, and what it does for them.”
The CIU head said that mounting billboards at project sites supported by the CBI is a good way of showcasing where investments have been made. Also under consideration is the regular publication of a document outlining statistics such as the number of applicants, number of applications approved, revenue generated under CBI, and more.
“It’s all a part of being transparent and accountable,” Mr. Martin stated.
Public and private ventures benefiting from CBI support include tourism, public infrastructure, education, small business development, agriculture, health and many more.
“When you consider that CBI contributes about 35 percent of the GDP, then obviously it’s doing a lot to develop the country and develop the people,” expressed Mr Martin. “CBI (investments) are all around us and if not for CBI, we would not be where we are today.”