by Linda Straker
- Citizenship by Investment Unit rebranded to Investment Migration Agency of Grenada
- Tagline is “Unlocking the possibilities”
- Migration industry earned country EC$456 million in 2023
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell is hoping that the rebranding of Grenada’s Citizenship by Investment Unit (CBI) to the Investment Migration Agency of Grenada will result in more Grenadians supporting and defending this migration industry, which earned the country EC$456 million in 2023.
“Migration is a natural part of humankind’s existence, and as small islands, it is really upon us to benefit as much as we can from the migration of persons, whether temporarily or permanently,” he said at the rebranding ceremony at the Royalton Hotel on 20 March. “We see the migration investment industry as any other financial services industry that is available to mankind to be able to maximise the benefit of being a global citizen,” said Mitchell, a local CBI agent before becoming Prime Minister.
He believes that the rebranding should change Grenadian concepts of the migration industry. “If we do not get our population to own and support and defend this industry, it will be quite easy for those who wish to see its demise to do so, because if we don’t have local support for the migration industry and the benefits that this country has obtained as a result of having this programme, then it becomes much more difficult to defend,” he said.
The EU, UK and the USA have expressed concerns about the programme. They believe it poses a national security risk to their borders.
Thomas Anthony, Chief Executive Officer of CBI Unit said the rebranding is taking place 10 years after the start of the programme, because the unit needs to become more involved in the overall marketing and promotion of Grenada’s migration industry. “The CBI Unit will become more involved in the marketing and promotion of the programme by crafting and managing the Grenada CBI narrative. A marketing and promotion programme is more effective when a company has a consistent clear message and brand identity,” he said. “The current brand mark has inherent limitations in terms of how it may be used for different merchandise.” Anthony pointed out that the use of the Coat of Arms “does not stand out against competing regional countries. That being the case, it quickly became obvious that we needed a new brand consisting of a brand mark, a logo and a tagline,” he said, and announced the rebranded name “Investment Migration Agency of Grenada.”
The tagline is “Unlocking the possibilities,” and the logo will be a derivative of the nutmeg and mace — the symbol on the national flag and currently one of Grenada’s main exports.
These comments from ‘J’ should be removed or severely edited. They are crude, rude, without facts and illiterate and must surely discourage serious comment from readers. There are legitimate differences of view about selling passports but none are articulated in ‘J’s rants.
In fact, the future of CBI/IMA is not much in the hands of Grenada but in the hands of the countries a Grenadian passport eases access to: Canada, the USA, the EU and the UK primarily. All are now raising objections to these schemes and planning to suspend visa-free travel.
Most recently, the EU has said:
“Investor citizenship schemes operated by third countries [eg Grenada] listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 allow visa-free travel to the Union to third-country nationals that would otherwise be visa required. Under an investor citizenship scheme, citizenship is granted in return for pre-determined payments or investments without any genuine link to the third country concerned. While the Union respects the right of sovereign countries to decide on their own naturalisation procedures, visa-free third countries should be deterred from using visa-free access to the Union as a tool for leveraging individual investment in return for their citizenship. To prevent visa-free access to the Union being used for this purpose, it should be possible to suspend the visa exemption for a third country which chooses to operate such investor citizenship schemes, whereby citizenship is granted without any genuine link to the third country concerned.” Council of the European Union, Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 as regards the revision of the suspension mechanism, 13 March 2024. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/70736/st07687-en24.pdf
In other words, the EU has had enough of these CBI schemes that effectively allow visa-free entry to the EU by nationals of countries the EU would not otherwise allow entry for – simply because they have purchased a Grenadian passport under CBI. The EU is thus joining Canada, the USA and the UK in making it harder for Grenadians to travel to these countries. And this is likely to affect born and bred Grenadians as well as those who have purchased Grenadian citizenship.
Whilst CBI has put money into the government coffers, much of the money has gone to overseas property developers to build ill-conceived and environmentally harmful tourism projects most of which are under judicial review in the courts and for which planning consent may be cancelled. We and others have been warning about this for years:
https://coralcovegrenada.org/2022/11/09/all-is-not-well-with-citizenship-by-investment-cbi/
https://coralcovegrenada.org/2022/09/19/why-has-the-proposed-coral-cove-hotel-been-given-cbi-status/
While it still lasts, the CBI/IMA scheme should be restructured urgently. At the very least the property development element should be dropped and all proceeds from passport sales directed to government not to suspect hotel schemes that may never be completed. Serious legal cases may be brewing where passport purchasers have bought into property schemes that don’t materialise.
Coral Cove Group
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All i can say i have no evil situation in my body my views are very concerning for your country as i love your country very much and the government selling passports citizenship is putting your country in jeopardy as all i am saying when you make that kind of money first thing’s it should be done at putting a proper healthcare not hotels and just remember in a aldrich over there you do need help yes but is a proper way but selling passports excetra is the wrong thing to do because you will have all types of criminals a wrong people having into a country so that’s what i’ve a concerns about and it’s not my nation either so just think about that i’m not being horrible i am a concerned citizen of the world
So why is the world and certain countries in the world are a concerned about this so get your facts right as i always say the truth always hurts that’s why certain countries are young the world i’ll worried about it for security and dodgy people getting delivered your country with a shouldn’t deserve to that’s why the rest of the world are very concerned about it so it’s not just me
What nonsense, J. The only thing clear is that English is your second language. Is your first language Mandarin or Cantonese? If you have a legitimate complaint regarding CBI, let’s hear it. This is not the platform to air petty grievances about our elected PM.
So you are not entitled to a view or allowed to criticise an elected official these days? Do you need to be an English expert to have a view, or are you sensible if you are one? How silly!
The CBI program is less than optimal primarily because it does not have a component aimed at building up our extremely anemic human resource capacity. And additional money alone will not solve that pervasive national deficiency.
Also, I am still at a loss as to what the “rebranding” means? What is different now about it? As it stand we are selling executive soverignity to foreigners – giving them First Class privileges ( no taxes to be paid, duty-free imports etc) and essentially offering them rights not offered to our own Grenadian-born people.
What does this say about a country that makes no bones about its utter distaste for the colonial class system – when it is, at the same time, deliberately creating a new CBI-induced one itself?
And now you citizens of grenada will suffer all this money where’s it going it doesn’t sitting front of the tv and say to you all this is what i’m doing with this money this is where it’s going look at the way he said he has no responsibility what happened to the two americans who pushes everything other that carpet this young man or boy has no experience or running a country is always in an out of a country in his always out more elise in i hope you citizens of grenada is see what happening i’m not being biased or been nasty but the truth is i always say the truth hurts so what my words
What i suggest vote him out he’s going to run your country to the ground all he thinks about is himself don’t you think your country needs better i’m not say citizen but i can see this young man or boy has no idea how to run a country he’s told you lies i was in the country when he was being elected it told you lies and you are falling for it all of you hit treats you like fools wake up citizens of grenada you have a beautiful country don’t let this young man and boy run it to the ground you deserve better than this
He is indeed.
They always say the truth hurts mark my words you have a beautiful country but it is run by a person who has no idea how to run a country it told you guys when he was going to get elected and all of you citizens of grenada this person as lied to you and he will keep on mine to you wake up smell the roses as they say
It’s a shame that you got a person like that as your prime minister just think about it he was a lawyer well sort of his just that an amateur you has no idea how to run at country all the things about his getting himself elected for another for years so he can still sponge of you citizens of grenada good luck to you all
What crap. These persons you SELL a PASSPORT to are NOT MIGRANTS. The Chinese are selling Grenada PASSPORTS as a way to access the USA. NONE of the people BUYING PASSPORTS are MIGRANTS. True MIGRANTS are looking for a new home, a place to live and raise families. Most migrants are NOT MILLIONAIRES who can pay the outrageous fees you request to BUY a Grenadian passport. You want all the money but give NO THOUGHT to how the impact of all these Chinese in particular will have on the very fabric of Grenada and who you are as they change you from your heritage and culture.
You bring in millions of dollars but the quality of healthcare DOES NOT improve for the citizens. You have poorly trained medical staff that are substandard in their understanding of quality of care and CURRENT medical diagnosis and treatment.
I don’t want to live in a Grenada that consists of more foreigners than Grenadians.
I bet any money you like that my comments well i just done will be taken off this page that is not called freedom of speech now granada when someone has something to say i it’s called freedom the speech if you take my comments away that’s not call freedom a speech is it
Please avoid trolling the comments section with multiple repetitive comments under a post. Additionally, ad hominem / personal attacks will be removed.
Sorry
I share Dr. Ralph Gonsalve’s of St Vincent perspective on this issue. Selling passports is not only a security concern but also unsustainable, and it should not be practiced anywhere in the Caribbean. We have suffered too much to be selling our identity! Please find another way to raise revenue.