August 27, 2022

Saint Lucia Citizenship Investment Programme makes top three in the 2022 CBI Index

Castries, Aug. 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — St Lucia took third place in this year’s instalment of the CBI Index – which ranked 13 countries with operational citizenship by investment programmes.

Seen as an industry voice and reliable source for those looking to vet CBI programmes around the world, the CBI Index is published annually by the Private Wealth Management magazine, a publication of the Financial Times, and in partnership with CS Global Partners.

This year, St Lucia was ranked alongside Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Cambodia, Dominica, Egypt, Grenada, Jordan, Malta, Montenegro, St Kitts and Nevis, Turkey, and Vanuatu.

The CBI Index ranked these jurisdictions across nine pillars including Freedom of Movement, Standard of Living, Minimum Investment Outlay, Mandatory Travel or Residence, Citizenship Timeline, Ease of Processing, Due Diligence, Family and Certainty of Product.

Having recently welcomed Mc Claude Emmanuel to the position of Chief Executive Officer of its CBI unit, St Lucia was recognised its affordable minimum investment outlay, reasonable mandatory travel or residence requirements and ease of application processing.

“This recognition means a lot to us. The CBI Index is a globally recognised report that has been assessing CBI programmes for the last six years and not only will investors gain insight into our programme but it also gives us an opportunity to improve aspects of our programme to increase our scores next year,” said notes Mc Claude Emmanuel, CEO of St Lucia’s CPI Unit.

Investors can become a citizen of St Lucia in as little as 90 days by investing only a minimum of US$100,000 through its National Economic Fund, and busy entrepreneurs are not required to stay in the country for prescribed periods of time.

There weren’t many significant changes in the minimum investment outlays since the 2021 CBI Index, this was reflected in no change in the order of the final scores.

There were also no changes from the 2021 CBI Index to scores under the Mandatory Travel or Residence Pillar – Caribbean nations continue to rank highly in this area.

The country scored 87% overall.

St Lucia scored 9 out of ten for Due Diligence, Citizenship Timeline, and Family.

A very important aspect of any CBI programme is its ability to vet applicants and ensure that only honest individuals who can account for how they make a living are accepted into the programmes.

“We are on an ongoing drive to continuously enhance the due diligence processes of our programme as we are very keen to protect its integrity and value,” noted Mc Claude Emmanuel.

With ongoing geopolitical tensions, special attention is now being given to jurisdictions that offer CBI programmes. The international community is concerned that these programmes may offer boltholes for suspect characters looking to evade the law.

International respect is vital for any CBI programme to thrive, and a layer of ongoing monitoring is becoming a key pillar of reputable CBI Units such as that of St Lucia. Caribbean nations are setting global best practices when it comes to advancements in due diligence processes.

The Citizenship Timeline Pillar looks at the average time taken for citizenship to be secured by the applicant. One of the key merits of CBI programmes is their ability to provide a rapid route to second citizenship; St Lucia was awarded top points for its short turnaround times, which takes three months for citizenship to be granted from the date the Authorised Agent is notified that the application has been accepted for processing.

The CBI Index recognises that the rise of increasingly complex family relationships is driving investors to seek programmes that allow for a more diverse range of family members to be included under a primary application.

As an additional layer of nuance to its scoring system, this year’s CBI Index also draws a distinction between family members who are allowed to apply with and obtain citizenship at the same time as the main applicant and those who can apply at a later stage and because of the main applicant has already received citizenship.

Multiple family member categories were considered, with points being awarded for adult children, parents, grandparents and even siblings. Additional merit was also given to programmes with provisions for family members of the main applicant’s spouse. Additionally, the degree of flexibility within each of these categories can differ radically from programme to programme.

St Lucia scored 8 out of 10 in the Certainty of Product pillar. This pillar encompasses a range of factors that measure a programme’s certainty across five different dimensions: longevity, popularity and renown, stability, reputation, and adaptability.

Longevity measures the age of a given programme while Popularity and renown evaluate the number of applications and naturalisations under each programme per year, as well as a programme’s eminence in the industry.

The reputation of a programme was determined by the amount of negative press or the number of scandals it has been linked to, affecting investors’ broader perceptions of the countries in which they invest. Just as important, however, is evidence that programme funds are being utilised for social good. Points were awarded for a jurisdiction’s transparent use of CBI funds, for example for the development of domestic healthcare, education, tourism and other infrastructure. One of the main ways that investors can become citizens of St Lucia is through its Economic Fund which Mc Claude Emmanuel has said will “benefit all St Lucians by investing in social interventions and assisting the country to be food secure as assistance will be given to local farmers.”

Lastly, adaptability reflects a programme’s ability to rapidly respond to, and sometimes even predict, the needs of applicants and the industry.

St Lucia continues to offer a popular programme with consistently high application volumes, stability with no caps on the number of applications or specific calls to end the programme, and adaptability both in respect of changes to keep the programme functioning during Covid-19 and its swift response to the Russian invasion.

St Lucia, along with Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis scored seven out of 10 in the Freedom of Movement pillar. St Lucia has access to 15 of the 20 key business hubs assessed in the 2022 CBI Index.

Lastly, St Lucia scored six out of 10 for its decent freedom, GDP growth and GNI scores.

Download the full CBI Index here, to get further insights into the CBI industry and a full evaluation of the CBI programmes of the 12 other jurisdictions in the rankings.

PR St lucia
Saint Lucia
+1 758 458 6050
mildred.thabane@csglobalpartners.com

August 27, 2022

Chad Rebels Say Killed 10 Soldiers, Government Denies Claim

A leading Chad rebel group said Saturday it had killed 10 soldiers in the north of the country, a claim the government rejected as “fake news.”

The Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR) said troops had attacked its forces in the Wouri district in the northern Tibesti region bordering Niger and Libya.

The group, which has refused to sign a peace deal with the government, said its fighters had killed 10 soldiers and captured eight more.

Government representative Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP that some 20 rebel vehicles had entered the country over the past week, but there had been “no skirmish” with government forces.

“We have been monitoring these columns with planes and they left Chadian territory some days back,” he claimed, terming the CCMSR statement “fake news.”

The Tibesti region has seen several major rebel movements emerge since independence from France in 1960.

Since the 2012 discovery of gold there, the region’s mines have attracted panners by the thousand, as well as rebels from Chad and neighboring Sudan looking to use the precious metal as a means of funding their armed operations.

The CCMSR also Saturday accused France of overflying its positions with planes from the French-led Barkhane anti-jihadist mission and warned it would regard any bombardment as a declaration of war.

The CCMSR was formed in 2016 from a split within the Front for Change and Concorde (FACT) rebel group.

FACT launched the offensive from Libya that led to the April 2021 death of former president Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled Chad for 30 years.

Deby’s son General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno succeeded him at the head of a transitional administration of generals who were loyal to his father.

Last week, the new leader launched a national dialogue toward restoring civilian rule with free and democratic elections within 18 months.

The CCMSR is among the rebel groups that have refused to join.

The group in April pulled out of peace talks in Qatar between the ruling junta and dozens of rebel groups, insisting the authorities had a “secret agenda” to destabilize peace efforts.

Source: Voice of America

August 27, 2022

UN session on high seas biodiversity ends without agreement

UN member states ended two weeks of negotiations without a treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas, an agreement that would have addressed growing environmental and economic challenges.

“Although we did make excellent progress we still do need a little bit more time to progress towards the finish line,” said conference chair Rena Lee, adding that a plenary session had nonetheless approved resumption of the

negotiations at a future unspecified date.

After 15 years, including four prior formal sessions, negotiators have yet to reach a legally binding text to address the multitude of issues facing international waters — a zone that encompasses almost half the planet.

It will now be up to the UN general assembly to resume the fifth session at a date still to be determined.

Many had hoped the session, which began on Aug 15 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, would be the last and yield a final text on “the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction,” or BBNJ for short.

“While it’s disappointing that the treaty wasn’t finalised during the past two weeks of negotiations, we remain encouraged by the progress that was made,” said Liz Karan with the NGO Pew Charitable Trusts, calling for a new session by the end of the year.

One of the most sensitive issues in the text revolved around the sharing of possible profits from the development of genetic resources in international waters, where pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic companies hope to find miracle drugs, products or cures.

Such costly research at sea is largely the prerogative of rich nations, but developing countries do not want to be left out of potential windfall profits drawn from marine resources that belong to no one.

Similar issues of equity arise in other international negotiations, such as on climate change, in which developing nations that feel outsized harm from global warming have tried in vain to get wealthier countries to help pay to offset those impacts.

The high seas begin at the border of a nation’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) — which by international law reaches no more than 200 nautical miles from its coast — and are under no state’s jurisdiction.

Sixty percent of the world’s oceans fall under this category.

And while healthy marine ecosystems are crucial to the future of humanity, particularly to limit global warming, only 1% of international waters are protected.

One of the key pillars of an eventual BBNJ treaty is to allow the creation of marine protected areas, which many nations hope will cover 30% of the Earth’s ocean by 2030.

“Without establishing protections in this vast area, we will not be able to meet our ambitious and necessary 30 by 30 goal,” US State Department official Maxine Burkett said at an earlier press conference.

But delegations still disagree on the process for creating these protected areas, as well as on how to implement a requirement for environmental impact assessments before new activity on the high seas.

“What a missed opportunity…”, tweeted Klaudija Cremers, a researcher at the IDDRI think tank, which, like multiple other NGOs, has a seat with observer status at the negotiations.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

August 27, 2022

Central African Republic’s president orders constitution rewrite

The Central African Republic’s President Faustin Archange Touadera ordered the creation of a committee to rewrite the constitution, following fears he wants to seek a third term in office.

The 65-year-old was first elected in 2016, then re-elected in a highly controversial poll in 2020, but the current constitution does not allow him to run in any more presidential elections.

“A commission has been created to write a draft constitution for the Central African Republic,” a decree signed by the president and his prime minister said.

It is to hand the president its draft, the decree added.

The political opposition is strongly opposed to Touadera staying on.

His supporters are pressing for him to have any constitutional amendment adopted via referendum.

In parliament, it would need two-thirds of votes to be approved.

One of the world’s poorest countries, the Central African Republic has been torn apart by civil wars for much of the past nine years.

Touadera won a second term in office in December 2020 polls in which only one in three Centrafricans made it to the ballot box due to ongoing fighting.

Rebels tried to oust Touadera in late 2020 by launching an offensive on the capital Bangui, but the army managed to repel it with help from hundreds of Rwandan soldiers and Russian paramilitaries.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK