by Ronald Singh , Barrister & Solicitor, Letter to the Editor
We continue to navigate the channel amidst ongoing political and constitutional squabbles that have engulfed this nation since the no-confidence motion of December 21 toppled the government whose blatant refusal to give up office and call elections have stifled and stymied the nation’s economic progress. As we grope in political darkness, we must take a wide-angled view of the economy as we seek to charter our socioeconomic developmental path. The PPP/C has taken the correct approach by maintaining that while oil windfall incomes would propel Guyana, and hopefully all Guyanese, to great economic heights, there should be a simultaneous focus on strengthening and improving the other job creation and revenue earning sectors of our economy.
At the same time, rather than sitting back and allowing the so-called Dutch disease to take control, our development pundits should be actively investigating other potential avenues for attracting revenues which can bring multiple direct and indirect benefits over both, the short and long term for Guyanese.
Sometime ago, I advocated a selective immigration scheme as a way of encouraging and sustaining our skills-base which at the same time would increase our population and improve our economies of scale to sustain local businesses. While I have not changed my position, I recognize Guyana’s potential for stealing the limelight as an oil rich economy and thereby creating a stampede of nationalities flocking our shores.
In light thereof, I now hasten to add that the introduction of a Citizenship by Investments programme could potentially, represent huge revenue earning venture with concomitant indirect benefits.
Let me begin by stating at the outset that this is not a new initiative; it has been around for a long time but mostly used by the developed economies. Around the world today, this initiative which aims at selling citizenship and passport, and real estate in some cases, for a fixed sum of money, has gained momentum in both the developed and the developing economies. Some countries refer to this programme as “donation to government fund”. In fact, in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, this programme has become the biggest revenue earner as of June this year, with US$46m. In 2018, it accounted for US$88m. Besides being a revenue earner for the local economy, such an initiative affords the purchaser a second citizenship and a passport which has visa free entry to numerous countries. Vanuatu’s passport allows entry into 129 countries.
A number of Commonwealth Caribbean economies have instituted similar programmes and their ‘citizenship and passport’ receives donations in the range of US$100,000 – US255,000 across these countries. The St. Kitts-Nevis passport allows visa free entry into 151 countries. Furthermore, in the last few years, one real estate sale has generated over US$68m and created over 300 jobs for locals.
It can be surmised from the man in the street that Guyana has been gifting away its citizenship and passport. Some commentators have opined that it can be bought for a potential ‘vote’. So rather than wasting our citizenship and passport, we should implement a similar programme and use the revenues for national projects, such as for example, housing and community related development. This would be more beneficial to the nation in identifiable concrete ways. However, we would need to enact the necessary facilitative legislation, and we can also put a cap on the total sales or donations per year. For example, if we accept only 300 per year at a cost of US$300,000 each, we would garner a total of about US$900m annually. This sum could provide about 240,000 houses at G$7.5m each to low income Guyanese families across the country. It is unforeseeable that any Guyanese would object to such a programme that gives free benefits.
Finally, it should be noted that this is only a nutshell view of the initiative. There are a number of other factors related to, and benefits that can be derived from an introduction of a citizenship by investment programme. This letter, I trust, would whet the development appetite of the populace for more. I can understand how disheartening it is for the current political cabal to let the potential oil wealth to slip through their hands. Amidst the masquerading political potpourri denigration of our once dynamic national image, we can still galvanize into action and push to stop the wasting of our citizenship and passport.
In essence, Guyanese can gain tremendously from the introduction of a citizenship by investment programme.
This article was originally published at stabroeknews.com
