PM Harris underscores success stories of 4th annual Caribbean Investment Summit

During his monthly press conference on July 02, Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris reflected on the hosting of the fourth annual Caribbean Investment Summit (CIS) and highlighted a number of success stories.

The fourth annual CIS was held in St. Kitts and Nevis for a second year from June 20-21, attracting some 415 delegates and several speakers from around the world. Attendees hailed from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, and all participating countries in CBI programmes.

"The world came to St. Kitts and Nevis. The world recognized that we have been offering them a unique product for the past 35 years. The world recognized that our Citizenship by Investment Programme is still the oldest and the best programme. So, they came. They came not to conquer, they came to learn, and they learnt much about our country," said Prime Minister Harris.

Dr. Harris said that the responses from participants were tremendous.

"The feedback from them has been extremely positive about our country and people. The participants have commented positively on the high quality presentations and panels on such topics as due diligence, which we consistently rank highly and among the best on, as well as marketing, OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] and EU [European Union] issues and local banking constraints," said the prime minister, who is also the Minister of Finance. "They discussed closer collaboration among key industry stakeholders as a major topic of interest, while regulating the Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Programmes and codified professional standards for industry practitioners were readily discussed and agreed in principle."

Prime Minister Harris said that local developers were highly impressed with the international agent's interest in the development of St. Kitts and Nevis.

"Local developers were particularly enthused by the interest shown by visiting international marketing agents. These are the critical people who sell the products. The agents in turn were amazed at the high quality infrastructure on the islands and the progress being made on the major projects in the Federation," he said, while naming Galaxy's Ramada, Nevis' Hamilton Beach Resorts, T-Loft's Pirate Bay by the Wyndham, and Golden Rock Commercial Park as some of the developments mentioned.

Equally important, Prime Minister Harris said that the Caribbean Investment Summit contributed greatly to the tourism industry.

"The impact of the visit has been tremendous. Hotel rooms [were] booked and I am advised and verily believe that approximately 495 room nights were booked at our local hotels, with taxi men benefiting from the transportation of these visitors to and from the major events," he added.