The St Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment program is one of the oldest and popular CBI programs in the World since 1984.
During the 2018 Budget speech, the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis revealed the following about CBI programme and its contribution to the industry.
“Our platinum Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme continues to be an important contributor to Non-Tax Revenue and contributes significantly to the buoyancy of construction and allied industries”, said PM Harris during his 2018 Budget speech.
- The current account widened in 2016 as a direct result of the importation of goods to develop the large number of planned Private Sector investment projects, some of which are associated with the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme.
- Non-Tax Revenue was derived from fees associated with the CBI Programme which contributed significantly to the overall 2016 fiscal performance. Non-Tax Revenue, which is expected to be driven by CBI fees, is projected to be $223.2 million for 2018.
- Construction Sector has been one of the main pillars of economic development in the domestic economy for several years contributing an average of 16.3% to GDP over the period 2012-2016. As mentioned earlier, in the first half of 2017,Construction grew by 8.8%, a direct result of the injection of a significant amount of resources to construct several multimillion dollar condo, villa and hotel developments. Some of these developments were the Park Hyatt St. Kitts which opened for business just last month, Koi Resort, Helden Estate, T-Loft/Radisson, and Kings Pavilion Hotel all of which have been facilitated through the CBI Programme.
- Park Hyatt St. Kitts which has successfully increased our room capacity by an additional 126 luxury rooms. We have made history here, Mr. Speaker, with the opening of the first Park Hyatt in the Caribbean. This hotel has raised the profile of our country as a premier tourist destination in a highly competitive global travel market. During the construction phase, employment peaked at over 800 persons against a modest seventy- seven (77) in 2014. Now that the hotel is operational, the benefits will be sustained through the direct employment of approximately 320 persons of which a solid 93% are citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis.
- The Tourism Sector contracted by 4.3% during the first of half of 2017 as a result of the downturn in stay over arrivals. A pickup in the performance of the Sector is foreseen with the recent opening of the Park Hyatt St. Kitts and the addition of flights by Delta and United Airlines during the peak tourist season. Cruise tourism remained on a positive trajectory evidenced by a growth rate of 14.4% during the first six (6) months of this year.
Source: https://sknis.kn/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2018-Budget-Address-1.pdf
