By KYLE WALKINE
Tribune Staff Reporter
kwalkine@tribunemedia.net
FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said yesterday that he does not think the idea of high net worth expatriates gaining Bahamian citizenship in exchange for investments would work in the Bahamas as it “would not fly well” with the local populace.
Last week Queen’s Counsel Sean McWeeney urged the government to implement the investor-citizenship programme so that the country’s economy would see a growth as a result of their investment.
Mr McWeeney, seeing that it has worked in other jurisdictions, thought it would be a good idea for the government to consider in the very near future.
However, the Foreign Affairs Minister told The Tribune that at the moment he could neither encourage nor disregard the recommendation, but that he will act in the best wishes of the Bahamian people.
“My issue is that citizenship is a very emotive and emotional topic in the Bahamas,” he said.
“It’s not something that Bahamians want traded for economic reasons. My advice is that it wouldn’t fly. So I told everyone that asked that it’s not a product we can offer. The best product we can offer is permanent residence for investments over $1.5 million and I think that’s where it’s going to stay. I think what Mr McWeeney did was put the matter in the public domain for there to be discussion on the issue. But we’ll see where that goes.”
According to the minister, Mr McWeeney’s proposals are not new to the discussion table.
“The Minister of Financial Services and myself have reviewed this matter over the course of the last two years in general discussions about what kind of financial services we can offer them in this country. There are a number of ideas being talked about,” he said.
He said other countries within the region have asked the Bahamas if it would be doing the same in offering the trade-off. But he added that the government will not act without consultation with the Bahamian people.
Comments
B_I_D___ 9 years, 11 months ago
Permanent residency, even if it mean with the right to work...yes...citizenship...NO!!
SensibleGoverning2016 9 years, 11 months ago
Mitchell you are not so stupid after all. It should stay at permanent residency. Because there are much more that 350000 people in the world with 1.5 million dollars to take up citizenship in the Bahamas and then they have a say in government and the right to vote. Technically they do with or without being a citizen by paying off the politicians.
banker 9 years, 11 months ago
You don't need any sort of programme at all. Look at Peter Nygard. He bought a government and any legislation that he needs. He is a foreigner. But look at the the way they treat Bahamians. They took Rupert Roberts money and didn't do a damn thing for him.
Nope, foreigners go to the front of the line anyway. Why would they want a Bahamian passport?
Greentea 9 years, 11 months ago
Banker A Bahamian passport is one of the BEST passports to hold in the world. I travel a lot and widely and this passport is welcomed in most countries without a visa. I have watched my American friends stand in line in remote places to pay for visas at the border while I breezed through with a smile and my money in my pocket. The other reason is taxes. we don't have income tax and if you are pulling in global money and don't want to share it with da people for the benefit of all- the Bahamas is your place.
jackbnimble 9 years, 11 months ago
I agree that citizenship should not be something that can be "bought". But what of the PRs who sell their homes after obtaining it. A certain nationality has caught on to this and is using it to as a trade off for its citizens . A system should be put in place that if you sell your home, then the PR status is revoked. Citizenship should not even be on the table.
asiseeit 9 years, 11 months ago
Banker is correct, our politrickans are so crooked that the foreigner that has money will always have more say than the average Bahamian. If ignorant Bahamians could really understand what is going on in this country, the politrickans would have hell on their hands. One can only hope that the people of this country wake up. Maybe one day and then the politrickans will get what they deserve!
sheeprunner12 9 years, 11 months ago
A foreign investor has certain privileges that even a citizen doesnt have. They are in a special category by themselves....... most preferred residents
242orgetslu 9 years, 11 months ago
Across the inky-blue Gulf Stream from Florida, near the sheer edge of the Great Bahama Bank, a new island is emerging from the sea. Although it bears the appealing name Ocean Cay, this new island is not, and never will be, a palm-fringed paradise of the sort the Bahamian government promotes in travel ads. No brace of love doves would ever choose Ocean Cay for a honeymoon; no beauty in a brief bikini would waste her sweetness on such desert air. Of all the 3,000 islands and islets and cays in the Bahamas, Ocean Cay is the least lovely. It is a flat, roughly rectangular island which, when completed, will be 200 acres and will resemble a barren swatch of the Sahara. Ocean Cay does not need allure. It is being dredged up from the seabed by the Dillingham Corporation of Hawaii for an explicit purpose that will surely repel more tourists than it will attract. In simplest terms, Ocean Cay is a big sandpile on which the Dillingham Corporation will pile more sand that it will subsequently sell on the U.S. mainland. The sand that Dillingham is dredging is a specific form of calcium carbonate called aragonite, which is used primarily in the manufacture of cement and as a soil neutralizer. For the past 5,000 years or so, with the flood of the tide, waters from the deep have moved over the Bahamian shallows, usually warming them in the process so that some of the calcium carbonate in solution precipitated out. As a consequence, today along edges of the Great Bahama Bank there are broad drifts, long bars and curving barchans of pure aragonite. Limestone, the prime source of calcium carbonate, must be quarried, crushed and recrushed, and in some instances refined before it can be utilized. By contrast, the aragonite of the Bahamian shallows is loose and shifty stuff, easily sucked up by a hydraulic dredge from a depth of one or two fathoms. The largest granules in the Bahamian drifts are little more than a millimeter in diameter. Because of its fineness and purity, the Bahamian aragonite can be used, agriculturally or industrially, without much fuss and bother. It is a unique endowment. There are similar aragonite drifts scattered here and there in the warm shallows of the world, but nowhere as abundantly as in the Bahamas. In exchange for royalties, the Dillingham Corporation has exclusive rights in four Bahamian areas totaling 8,235 square miles. In these areas there are about four billion cubic yards—roughly 7.5 billion long tons—of aragonite. At rock-bottom price the whole deposit is worth more than $15 billion. An experienced dredging company like Dillingham should be able to suck up 10 million tons a year, which will net the Bahamian government an annual royalty of about $600,000.
Honestman 9 years, 11 months ago
This is one of the few times where I agree with Fred Mitchell. You should not be able to buy Citizenship of ANY country. The rights of a citizen should be conferred only to those who have demonstrated commitment / contribution to a country over an extended period of time.
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