Business
St. Lucia considers implementing economic citizenship program
St Lucia is giving consideration to an economic citizenship program. St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Kenny Anthony said the introduction of a citizenship by investment program would be an effort to boost inward investment.
Describing the current economic climate as “severe, debilitating and oppressive,” Anthony, who is preparing to present the 2014/15 national budget, said St. Lucia may well have to look at initiatives that it once “frowned upon.”
“This is a difficult environment perhaps calling for different responses,” he said.
“I think we cannot close our eyes because it’s an option we may have to consider and in so doing we may have to look at the experiences of other countries,” Anthony told reporters.
He said St. Lucia as a country has “huge problems on our hands,” stating that what was rejected previously will now have to be re-examined.
The news that St. Lucia is considering an economic citizenship program, which grants citizenship to individuals who invest money in a country’s development, prompted a vigorous response from Therold Prudent, the leader of the Lucian People’s Movement (LPM).
“The decision of the government of St. Lucia to entertain the idea of economic citizenship is another glaring example of how desperate it has become for foreign money,” Prudent said.
