Dominica: Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit- The Prime Minister of Dominica, during the press conference casted light on the challenges which Dominica is facing with the movement of funds from the Citizenship by Investment Programme through international banks to the source.
While presenting clarification to the set challenges, the Prime Minister justified that such an issue is not just in the specified area and is the issue all over the world. However, it is within the entire Caribbean Community space with no Corresponding Banking Services.
And, it is very difficult for countries like Dominica as these are in the developing states, on top is the disaster prone country that is similar with regards to climate change.
“If you do have correspondent banks, you are unable to trade with the rest of the world, you are unable to trade if US currency, unable to trade if Euros, unable to trade if pounds, unable to trade any currency and therefore it is important that all of us should speak on the matter,” added the Prime Minister.
Considerably, PM Skerrit shared a strict stance on acquiring Citizenship at a lower price. He added that the citizenship that is given under the required prices would be revoked. While speaking in the press conference, he casted light on the recent increase in the minimum thresholds for the applicants to qualify for the Citizenship of Dominica.
Emphasizing on the contributions decided after the five OECS nations with the purpose of promoting credibility and transparency, Dominica issued its new regulations which stated the thresholds to be $2,00,000.
The Prime Minister while delivering made it clear that any individual who engages in acquiring citizenship is required to advise themselves of the legal prices in terms of SRO, which are evidently mentioned on the official government’s website.
And, significantly asserted that if any of the evidence comes forward for the acquiring of citizenship at the lower price than the legal fees, the citizenship will be immediately revoked.
Taking the focus towards Due Diligence, the Prime Minister outlined that under this procedure, interviews are conducted on an applicant to be clear with the authenticity. And, there will be the mandatory question in this which will deal with the fact that how much they have paid for the citizenship.
