Opposition Leader Godwin Friday says that the New Democratic Party (NDP) will not allow the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) to trick Vincentians this election cycle about the realities of citizenship by investment (CBI).
He said citizenship means more than national pride and should translate into a high standard of living.
“When I say you are a citizen of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it must mean more than just simply putting on a cap or a shirt with the three diamonds on it,” the opposition leader said on Monday on his party’s show on NICE Radio.
“It must mean having a decent home to live in. It must mean being able to put shoes on your children’s feet so they could go to school on a Monday morning. It must mean that young people, when they graduate from community college or from university or from high school here, that they have a chance of getting a decent job.”
Friday said citizenship must mean having “a hospital that we can trust” and having roads that people do not have to worry about damage to their vehicle every time they drive.
“What I’m saying is that citizenship can’t just be some airy-fairy kind of mystical notion that some people like to present it as. It has to deliver real things for the people who are here.”
CBI is a talking point again as Vincentians prepare to elect a new government in a general election expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
SVG had a CBI programme, which the Ralph Gonsalves-led ULP administration rescinded since coming to office in 2001.
Each of the five other independent Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States member countries has a CBI programme, but Gonsalves has maintained that it is wrong in principle and amounts to the selling of passports.
He has said that CBI is unsustainable and would attract crooks and Chinese nationals to the country.
His comments contrast the reality of the CBI programme in St. Kitts and Nevis, which has existed for 40 years, and Dominica’s programme, which is funding the construction of its international airport.
“…this ain’t go be like the last time around, when they pull the wool over people’s eyes in the last election, when they lied about the nature of the programme and drum up fears in people…’ Friday said.
He said that in the 2020 elections, the ULP used people’s lack of knowledge about the programme against the voters.
“… instead of informing them accurately about it, basically, and saying, this is a choice, and this is why we oppose, they lied about it, and they create all kinds of fear,” the opposition leader said.
He said that the ULP suggested that “terrible calamity” would be meted out to SVG if it reinstated a CBI programme.
“… it’s a complete lie. All the other countries in the region are doing similar programmes and they are prospering from it,” the opposition leader said.
As Vincentians prepare to elect a new government, Friday said he wanted to make it clear that there is a clear choice between the NDP and the ULP.
CBI doesn’t mean ‘grabby, grabby at everything that comes’
He told radio listeners that development comes when the private sector is willing to invest and “not just park your money somewhere else and wait and wait and wait until things change.
“… You want to be able to tap into foreign direct investment, because we know we are a small, poor country,” adding that to accelerate growth, the country needs to attract foreign direct investment.
The opposition leader said that efforts to attract forest investors should not be “grabby, grabby at everything that comes.
“You have to meet the criteria. We have to say, ‘Well, this investment is going to help our local private sector, not squeeze them out, not compete with them.’
“Don’t give people concessions to come and box bread out of our people mouth here. That is just stupid policy. And it may be it serves some individuals’ political interest, but it does not serve national development. And so that is how we’re going to approach things.”
Friday said that the NDP is different from the ULP.
“I am different from Ralph Gonsalves. I am somebody you can trust, because that is the way that I am made up. I don’t do things and say things just because they’re convenient and expedient. I don’t have time to waste on that. I want to be able to deliver a better standard of living for people.”
The opposition leader said citizens surrender some of their freedom to the state in exchange for security and opportunities to create a better standard of living.
“And that is the real nuts and bolts of citizenship, not some reification of citizenship or some notion that is somehow distant and ephemeral. It has to be real. You have to improve the standard of living.”
Poverty ‘is the worst thing’
Friday said that poverty “is the worst thing”.
“You see some people, the homes that they live in, the lives that they’re living, that they have to sacrifice their dignity in order to put bread on the table. That is what you would want for a citizen of St. Vincent and the Grenadines? I want better than that.
“I want our people to be able to hold their heads high and to say, ‘Yes, I’m a citizen of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Yes, I can provide for my family. Yes, I have hopes and dreams for the future, and I can do here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.’
“That is the country that we’re building, and we are putting the groundwork in place to do so. I have the team, I have the economic plan, but we also have to raise capital.”
Friday also addressed the argument that CBI will not last forever.
“But nothing lasts forever,” he countered, adding, “We does grow cotton here now? We does grow sugar here now? We don’t even grow banana here now. I hear we importing banana.”
He also noted that PetroCaribe, Venezuela’s oil initiatives with several countries, including SVG under the ULP, no longer exist.
“But while it was there, they say they got money out of it. And for what they use it, I don’t know, but they say they got money out of it
“… But of course, there was never any accountability in that programme. Never any accountability. These guys are shameless. There was never any accountability. That programme started in 2005 and there was no accountability for the entire duration of the programme.”
The opposition leader said that the government brought a law in 2016, giving the Director of Audit the authority to audit PetroCaribe.
“But they can’t go backwards. They have to go forward. They have to do it from that point henceforth. But of course, the nub is that there is no money coming in. The programme is dead. So, where you going audit? What we want is that accountability and transparency in the programme.”
CBI under NDP would be ‘completely transparent’
Friday said that a CBI programme under the NDP would be “completely transparent” and would be done through an act of Parliament.
“We’ll have a separate agency that is doing it. It ain’t coming in my desk as the prime minister to say approve this and don’t approve that. No, you have trained, skilled professionals who will be making that recommendation.”
He said that the politicians would follow the advice of these trained professionals. “Of course, we will always be the final say, because in a responsible government, that is what happens.
“But … we’re going to have a transparent system whereby applications are made, they are properly vetted.”
The opposition leader said it does not make sense to have a CBI programee is it is not being very rigorous in the vetting.
“… because all you will be doing is allowing ne’er-do-wells and all kinds of scamps to get through the programme, which will eventually destroy it.
“It’s that simple. You don’t bathe in the water that you’re going to drink. So this is something that we have to let people understand that it is a necessity that we have proper vetting that meets international standards and only capable people who meet our standards, who have the requisite capital, money to invest, will be able to get through in the programme.”
He said that while CBI programmes have existed in the region, there have been only a few cases of people who got through improperly.
“And then you have the means to fix it,” Friday said, adding that in SVG, where the government said it does not have a CBI programme, Dave Ames, a conman, was given citizenship
“Because why? Because they say he had an investment in the country. … The difference is that that was done on a one-on-one basis that was not transparent. There was no proper vetting. So that is already proven that they, in themselves, without calling it that, have been operating a similar programme without the transparency, and certainly not in the scope that we intend to do it,” the opposition leader said.