CBI can give rise to questionable activities – Finance Minister

A Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme has the capacity to destabilize a country, said Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves.

And, he has put the CBI side by side with such frowned upon activities like sex tourism and narco-states.

“There are innumerable examples of the way corruption, organized crime and questionable acts grow around Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programmes,” Minister Gonsalves said last Thursday, February 6, 2025 at a function at the conference room of the Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Diamond.

“There are countries in this world whose own volatility makes it difficult for their people to move around.

“The countries in the Middle East, the countries in Asia, by-product of hostility, repressive governments, whatever the case may be, who have an interest in buying the passport of a stable country so that they can get around….

“…but that very act destabilizes the country whose passport they bought, and at some point, you reach a tipping point, and your own passport becomes worthless.”

He said that entities who are engaged in CBI programmes are constantly looking for the new market and passports that are untouched, “that they can latch onto and sell for as long as it lasts, and then they’ll move on again,” Gonsalves pointed out.

“So, what do we have here? he asked.

“We have people who want to buy your passport, they’re not interested in your country. People who want to sell your passport internationally, they’re not interested in your country.

People who have another passport in their pocket, so they don’t mind if this one mash up. They’re not interested in your country,” the minister said at the Invest SVG function.

“People who want to make a quick buck or a quick profit, even if it involves damaging the reputation of their own country. They’re not interested in your country. People who don’t care what tomorrow brings developmentally in your country, they’re not interested in your country. Is that who you want to trust your future and your development to?”

The Ralph Gonsalves administration has been vehemently opposed to the Citizenship by Investment Programme, noting that it will demean the sanctity of this country’s passport.

On the other hand, the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) has said if they are to form government, they would introduce a CBI programme.

“…we think that there are a lot of quick ways to make money. There are the narco-states in the world that sell drugs, What’s wrong with that? Is money.

“… they’re places you can go to have sex with people, even young people- minors. Why not do that?

“Because once you start to go down the slippery slope of anything is for sale, then everything is for sale. And the sanctity of the passport as a representation of what we are has to mean something, the idea of us as a country has to mean something” the Minister stressed.

He added that in terms of long-term economic development, CBI is a bad idea.

“We believe that by the sweat of your brow you eat bread; and we believe that St Vincent and the Grenadines does not have to give up what it is, what it is about, who its people are.

“We don’t have to give up on the idea of being a country, being a sovereign state. We don’t have to give up on the idea of being able to develop on the strength of our own people.

“So, there is a less than zero percent chance that we would ever be interested in CBI,” the finance minister noted, while pointing to entities like Invest SVG will apply the filters to potential investors.

Gonsalves said there are many good investors that the government can spend time, energy and attention on, but anyone wanting CBI is not among them.

“What is a country if you’re selling passports? You have to ask yourself that question, because a country has to have a defined geographical space, yes, but it also has to have a population that is bound together by something- by history, by language, by culture, by practice, by familial relation, by race, by ethnicity, by something, and if you have a country where half of your citizens have never been to your country, are you a country?

Chief Executive Officer at Invest SVG, Glen Beache said at last Thursday’s function that he is bombarded by calls inquiring about CBI.