PM Harris Announces Digitalisation of St Kitts and Nevis' CBI Programme for Safer Due Diligence and Efficient Processing

10/10/2019 06:00

LONDON, Oct. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- St Kitts and Nevis is incorporating digitalisation into its economy, Prime Minister Timothy Harris said on Tuesday during a 'National Consultation on the Economy.' Touching on the importance of investing more in a digital economy, PM Harris mentioned introducing an e-Governance service to the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Unit, charged with managing the country's famous CBI Programme.

The Prime Minister announced that the Unit is already applying modern technologies to improve application processing which means that eligible investors hoping to obtain second citizenship from St Kitts and Nevis may get approved faster. The new approach also strengthens the Programme's due diligence with a more elaborate approach to "the preservation of integrity in the process from application submission to archiving," PM Harris explained.

In addition to this, he noted that "the services at the Citizenship by Investment Unit have been enhanced with the upgrading of the Citizenship Application Management System, which has led to marked improvements in the efficiency of the process [and] confidentiality of client information." Last year, the government announced introducing digital fingerprinting as an extra security layer for pre-selecting CBI applicants.

The public sector is not the only one to benefit from the 'Government's Digital Strategy,' whose implementation details are yet to be revealed. It is expected to help businesses on the small twin islands reach more customers. Premier Harris suggested that the digitalisation reform may also include, amongst others, the expansion of the fiber optic infrastructure and the introduction of the digital Eastern Caribbean Dollar. "We have the expertise and experience of several entities to put forward the case for our seizing the opportunities for modernisation, efficiency and effectiveness by embracing the digital economy," he clarified.

In the past few years, the Harris administration created a balanced ecosystem between attracting investments via the CBI Programme, redirecting them towards socio-economic advancement for the benefit of native citizens, and, stemming from that, improving CBI processes for upcoming economic citizens. The Sustainable Growth Fund, introduced last year by PM Harris as the most straightforward route under the CBI Programme, is especially focused on attracting foreign capital that helps various public and private sector projects receive sufficient funding. It has since grown to be investors' preferred speedier route to second citizenship, especially when applying jointly as a family.

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