Above: St Lucia (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Lucia is continuing to consider the possibility of implementing an economic citizenship programme, an idea broached last year.

A task force set up last August recently completed a report on the feasibility of setting up what it’s calling a “Global Residence and Citizenship Programme.”

The committee was requested “to consider the question of broadening the framework under which citizenship [of St Lucia] might be offered as a part of a program of investing,” according to a statement.

It was also asked to “determine whether Saint Lucia should establish an economic program, and if so, the best model to adopt.”

In its report, the committee was of the view that such a programme “could help supplement the loss of income from some of the traditional economic activities which had been essential contributors to the growth of the St Lucian economy between the 1960s and the 1990s.”

It also said there was an “urgent need to seek alternative and novel sources of investment that can profit from current global economic arrangements; and as a result, there is some validity in adopting an economic strategy that will be of benefit to the country’s economy by making citizenship by investment programs a significant aspect of St Lucia’s development.”

St Lucia’s Cabinet is going to put the recommendations by the Task Force to the public as part of a wide public consideration “as a means of further informing Government’s approach to this issue.”

As part of that effort, the Cabinet has approved the extension of the life of the task force to review comments received on the idea.