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

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

August 27, 2022

Horn of Africa drought to worsen with fifth failed rains: UN

The devastating Horn of Africa drought is set to get worse, the UN’s weather agency predicted, warning that the region was on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

The area is already going through its worst drought for 40 years and a fifth consecutive failed rainy season is now highly likely, the World Meteorological Organization said.

“The drought is set to continue,” WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told reporters in Geneva.

She said the Greater Horn of Africa Seasonal Climate Outlook Forum had issued its predictions for the October to December rainy season.

“Unfortunately, the predictions show high chances of drier than average conditions across most parts of the region,” Nullis said.

“The drought-affected areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are expected to receive significantly below normal rainfall until the end of the year.”

The October to December season contributes up to 70 percent of the annual total rainfall in the equatorial parts of the Greater Horn of Africa, particularly in eastern Kenya.

“This deficit is really going to hit hard,” Nullis said.

“The seasonal rainfalls will not be sufficient to alleviate the crisis now. We are witnessing an unfolding tragedy.”

Guleid Artan, the director of the WMO’s regional climate centre for East Africa, said in a statement: “It pains me to be the bearer of bad news, when millions of people in the region have already suffered the longest drought in 40 years.

“Sadly, our models show with a high degree of confidence that we are entering the fifth consecutive failed rainy season in the Horn of Africa.

“In Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, we are on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

August 27, 2022

Japan pledges US$30bil in African aid at Tunis summit

Japan pledged US$30 billion in aid for development in Africa Saturday, saying it wants to work more closely with the continent, with the rules-based international order under threat after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Addressing a Japan-Africa summit in Tunisia, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo would work to ensure grain shipments to Africa amid a global shortage.

“If we give up on a rules-based society and permit unilateral changes of the status quo by force, the impact of that will extend not only through Africa, but all the world,” Kishida said by videolink after testing positive for Covid-19.

Kishida said the US$30 billion would be delivered over three years, promising smaller sums for food security in coordination with the African Development Bank.

The summit has given Tunisian President Kais Saied his biggest international platform since his 2019 election and comes after he seized broad powers, formally enshrined through a constitutional referendum, a move his critics call a coup.

Speaking Friday at a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart, Tunisian Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi repeatedly emphasised Tunisia’s commitment to democracy, which has been questioned by Saied’s critics.

The summit has triggered a row between Tunisia and Morocco, which was angered by Saied’s decision to invite the Polisario movement that seeks independence for Western Sahara, a territory Rabat regards as its own.

Morocco and Tunisia have recalled their ambassadors from each other’s countries for consultations.

Rabat said the decision to invite Polisario leader Brahim Ghali was made against Japan’s wishes. Tokyo has yet to comment.

Tunisia is itself in need of financial support as it faces a looming crisis in public finances that has been worsened by the global squeeze on commodities. This week, long queues have formed at petrol stations amid a fuel shortage, while shops have started rationing some goods.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK