A renown Citizenship by Investment (CBI) researcher said that Dominica’s programme will rank high in 2021, further cites low COVID-19 rates as desireable.
Plan B, a podcast about citizenship by investment produced by government advisory CS Global Partners, released a new season last week. In conversation with host Aisha Mohamed, CBI Index researcher James McKay discussed the Commonwealth of Dominica’s success in the index’s latest edition. McKay also projected that in the fifth CBI Index, due to launch later in 2021, will also see Caribbean nations, especially Dominica, rank high.
The CBI Index is an in-depth report that evaluates all the available Citizenship by Investment Programmes. It compares the programmes by ranking their overall performance and desirability and grades them based on nine ‘pillars’ ranging from freedom of movement and standard of living to family and certainty of product. This allows readers to decide which second citizenship might best suit their priorities. The index is published annually by the Financial Times’s Professional Wealth Management (PWM) magazine.
“The Caribbean nations, particularly Dominica, have typically scored highly on pillars such as the minimum investment outlay, mandatory travel residence, ease of processing, and due diligence since the beginning of the CBI Index. I just don’t see any significant changes there [in 2021]”, said McKay on the podcast.
McKay also commented on the shifting priorities of investors looking for second citizenship in the pandemic era: “On many levels, there will be a reassessment of priorities taking place as a result of the pandemic. Because suddenly, due to the unprecedented closure of borders around the world, many investors just simply found themselves grounded in their own countries.”
“The all-important issue of where you can go with your entire family with fewer restrictions on movement is of rising importance. Perhaps parts of the world that are a little bit more remote and have fewer cases of COVID-19 may increase in desirability,” he added.
Dominica has been operating its CBI Programme since 1993. Under the Programme, an investor can obtain citizenship of Dominica upon a one-time contribution to the Economic Diversification Fund, or, as of 2014, upon the purchase of an approved real estate project. Benefits of Dominican nationality include visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 75 percent of the world, increased international business opportunities, and the ability to pass citizenship to kin for generations to come.