CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Apr 22, CMC – The St. Lucia government says its objective is to build a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme with a robust and rigorous due diligence capability as it welcomed another year of good performance by the programme.
Under the CBI, foreign investors are granted citizenship of St. Lucia in return for making a substantial investment in the island’s socio-economic development.
Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre, delivering the EC$2.1 billion (One Ec dollar=US$0.37 cents) tax free budget in Parliament on Tuesday night, said that from April 24, 2025 to March 21, this year, a total of EC$65 million had been transferred to the Central Government as a result of the CBI programme and that “the rest remains in approved accounts.
“We owed 34 million from CBI bonds and owed a further 150 million from surplus operating revenue to supplement some funding for national security, healthcare, social development, and infrastructure.” Pierre said.
He told legislators that the breakdown of the spending includes EC$55 million for Infrastructure, EC$4.9 million for national security, EC$12 million to the Water and Sewerage Company Inc. (WASCO), EC$25 million for health and EC$52 million for social development.
Pierre said in keeping with the legislation governing the CBI programmme, the CBI Unit will be making a transfer to the Sovereign Welfare Fund (SWF) “once its operations are established.
“Our objective has been to build a CBI with a robust and rigorous due diligence capability as its core. A lot has happened in the last year. We have built a unit with a capacity to meet the demands for the programme with adequate staffing and enhanced training.
“We have complemented the amended legislation and regulations to safeguard and strengthen accountability and transparency. We will continue to expand our programme by accessing the option of introducing a residency by investment component, which will enhance the resilience of the programme and broaden our offerings,” Pierre said.
Je said that this financial year changes were made to the legislative and regulatory environment, noting that “an infrastructure option was made available under the CBI that allows projects in infrastructure, housing, road habilitation, and community infrastructure, and commerce”.
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