The Government of Moldova, officially announced today, opening of economic citizenship program on Oct 1, 2018.
The Montenegro Economic Citizenship Program (MECP) also known as ‘Special investment scheme’ offers foreign and non-EU persons citizenship by admission through a designated investment. The scheme is capped to only 2000 applications and will run for a limited period of three years.
This comes on the same month, Moldova announcing new citizenship by investment program with minimum donation of €100,000. In Nov 2017, Montenegro announced a tender for implementation of special investor program which grants citizenship for foreigners through investment.
Minimum Investment
- €250,000 one time investment in development projects approved by the Government in an undeveloped area of Montenegro
- €450,000 development projects previously approved by the Government in the developed area of Montenegro
The Government will charge additional fee of up to €100,000 per application. So in total Montenegro CBI program costs €350,000 per application. The list of approved development projects will be announced by Government soon.
The Government expects to attract foreign investment and increase in economic activities through the scheme
Due Diligence
The Government announced they will also hire reputable Due Diligence agents specialized in checking interested applicants as well as some of the reputable audit firms/legal advisors to perform all other necessary checks of interested candidates.
Montenegro passport
Montenegrin passport is ranked 42nd in the world with visa free access to 123 countries including EU schengen states, Russia, Turkey, Singapore etc. A visa is needed to travel to United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and United States
About Montenegro
Montenegró is situated on the Balkan Peninsula, in southeastern europe with adriatic coastline and has a population of 650,000 people. The official currency is Euro and country’s GDP is $11.3 billion. Montenegro has aa picturesque coast and a mountainous northern region with over 1.6 million tourists visiting the country. Inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Montenegro in 2016 has maintaned a stable inflow trend of 687 million euros. Montenegro was ranked 49th out of the total of 188 countries in 2015 Human Development Index (HDI). Corporate income tax amounts to 9%. The tax rate on personal income is 9%. General VAT rate is 19%
Montenegro is candidate country for EU membership and could join EU by 2025. The country is not a part of Schengen area