Willock proposes Citizen by Investment; Lottery as possible revenue streams
Government stated in its recovery proposal released to the media via the Government website in late December 2017 that it needed some $720M over the next five years to assist the Territory in its recovery efforts following the floods of August 2017 and 2 Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, of September 2017.
Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL) has been on a whirlwind tour seeking loans for the recovery process, but not before conforming to strict borrowing guidelines set out by the United Kingdom in exchange for guarantees.
According to Mr Willock, in a statement released to local media houses on January 14, 2018, the hard truth is, during the recovery process, the Territory will have to borrow close to a billion dollars in loans. This debt, he added, is in addition to what was already borrowed before the hurricanes of 2017.
The former Permanent Secretary added that in order for the Virgin Islands (VI) to repay those loans and not leave its people worried about themselves or the future generation, there must be an increase in revenue coming to the government.
More Revenue needed
“If there is no revenue coming in, it means that we will default on those loans and history has shown what has happened before, and none of us want to go back.”
Mr Willock, who has not publicly declared his intentions for running for office in the next general elections but has been gaining popularity as a potential candidate for weighing in on critical debates on issues affecting the Territory and always equipped with possible solutions, said what is needed in these very challenging times are thoughtful and wise leadership and the next government or even anyone running for public office, should come with solutions, as it’s a time for courage and confidence.
4 possible revenue streams
Four revenue initiatives for discussions, consideration, debate and decisions were also proposed by Mr Willock, and it did not include taxing the people or raising work permit and immigration fees as the current government is always keen to do.
One of the initiatives is a national lottery system, similar to what the US Virgin Islands (USVI) has and can be found in many large cities around the world. “The income from this must be committed to education and social services.”
Mr Willock said Government should also consider a citizen by investment programme. “Now I know the pros and cons to this, but there are enough examples and best practices of how to do this right, even considering the St Kitts-Nevis model of which I have good knowledge. The revenue generated will be committed to roads and general infrastructure.”
A third proposal for revenue is the creation of small manufacturing operations on the sister islands. “Take for example, the Virgin Islands imports tons and tons of salt yearly, but we have a natural salt pond. Why can’t we make the salt on salt island work for us? Small manufacturing will create jobs, leading to persons paying taxes and contributing to generating government revenue to pay not only our post hurricanes recovery loans, but reducing our national debt, which is as of today, approximately $200 Million Dollars.”
The fourth revenue initiative proposed by Mr Willock is hotels collaborating with other international brands for additional and improved services. “Now that most of our major hotels on the sister islands like Virgin Gorda, some Cays and on Tortola have been damaged and destroyed by the hurricanes, what about facilitating our hotels lining up with some major brands, like the Marriott, Ritz Carlton and Hyatt to improve our tourism product and marketing?
“What about helping to encourage a Best Western at Maria’s By the Sea, or a Marriot Court Yard by Castle Maria?”
Mr Willock explained that Government can approach the current owners with some of these ideas, but in the end, locals who entertain any such considerations, must in the driver’s seat, maintaining their ownership positions. “With collaborations like these, we can produce more capital investments, create more jobs and improve our tourism diversity.”
According to the young and vibrant political aspirant, Government’s idea of job creation is to stack the civil service and statutory bodies with more workers; however, his view of growing an economy and making its recovery solid and sustainable is to expand the private sector and create employment opportunities there, “and foster both local and foreign Investments and Entrepreneurs.”
See link to audio for revenue statement by Mr Julian Willock:
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36 Responses to “Willock proposes Citizen by Investment; Lottery as possible revenue streams”
Yep easy as that. Get Marriott to flag your property and then tell them its all yours now and you will take it from here. There is no free lunch when it comes to business whether youre local or not!
Willock has started a conversation.
Citizens by Investments - Don't we have this already, it is called the Alien Land Holding Licence. Unfortunately, ours is a lot more cumbersome and not as generous. In any event, CbI is an option for independent countries.
Gambling - should be expanded to include a "gaming zone" at the cruise pier so that cruise ships would consider overnighting in the VI. Not all passengers will gamble on board and some will come ashore and explore the nightlife. The money will be made in the restaurants, bars, taxis, and other establishment that cater to the tourist, not in the gambling.
Light manufacturing - costs such as labour and electricity will probably make this uncompetitive. But if we build enough skills in areas where it make sense (boat repairs and maintenance, after all we are the sailing capital of the world), there may be opportunity.
Branding - We just need more hotel rooms and of quality, whatever the brand name.
Here are some for you, Mr Willock that are doable
Look at the FIFA field and horsetrack for sport tourism. We have McMaster and Malone, some of the top athletes. Privatise the horsetrack. Let somebody who knows what they are doing, run it.
Develop our history and our heritage. We had slavery, we overcame. A bird sanctuary was recommended for these islands, we turned them into prosperous country. There is great history.
Privatise the greenhouses. Let somebody who knows what they are doing, run them.
Privatise the fishing complex. Let somebody who knows what they are doing, run it.
Privatise the port. Let somebody who knows what they are doing, run it.
Privatise the hospital. Let somebody who knows what they are doing, run it.
We should not encourage gambling instead residents should be encouraged to save and invest
I know bald head and his cronies have been chanting a lie for the past eight years to divide the territory and guilt Virgin Islanders into asking for something that cannot be given but there’s a reason we have almost not control over who is and isn’t a Virgin Islander.
Again I ask, how can we sell something that isn’t legally ours to give away?
Now here my take on his proposals: lottery, investment citizenship, light manufacturing, hotel collaboration. True, many locales have lotteries but the jury is still out on their contribution to and impact on the community. Our westerly neighbor, USVI, has a larger population(103,000) and has a lottery, yet it is struggling economically. The BVI has a population of approx 30,000 and the question is what willl it cost to operate a national lottery and how much money will it contribute to the government coffers. It is about the numbers. Citizenship investment produces short term cash flow. How many citizenships can we sell? How much money will flow into the Treasury annually? What is potential diplomacy risk? Will the UK be on board? How will the social fabric be impacted? Did not one of our regional sister countries had some problems with a northern neighbor in regards to economic citizenship?
Light manufacturing could be a boost to the economy? Will the manufactured products be for home consumption or for exports? How would the locally manufactured products compete with imported products. True, Salt Island, my ancestral home land, has a salt pond, and could be a source of local salt. What is the annual cost of salt import? How much will salt from Salt Island reduce the import bill? How many people will be employed in the local production? How much will the production plant cost to operate annually? Will the selling point be organic salt (if there is such a thing)? Local hotels collaborating with international brands needs further exploration. Futhermore, all the proposals need further exploration.
No doubt the BVI has much needs and will need to borrow a ton of money to address those needs. The loans may be higher than the annual GDP; the ratio of debt may exceed 100%. This is not an ideal position to be in. The ratio should be much lower. The borrowed money should be expended on critical and prioritized needs capital projects. Residents will have to decide if they want to expend $250M of scarce resources on extending TBLIA.
1) take a small island away from here and make it gambling which most tourists love
2) a state lottery is what is wanted here too
3) legalize marijuana which most tourists come here looking for, and stop arresting our youths..make revenue!
4) put public toilets on every beach and allow vendors on all. Tourists enjoy local foods and ask for it.
5) stop being phoney christians and make the BVI a great destination for travelers
6) allow residents at a town meeting say what they feel will work here since we talk to tourists all the time.
7) Don’t forget us struggling residents who need income to get our lives back on track. We need all of the above!!!
Not sure if the lottery is any different to casino gambling, the Citizen program could jeopardize our US visa waiver privilege, Small island manufacturing will not be competitive with large scale and automated manufacturing, the hotel brand licensing is no different to franchising and could kill our small villa industry.
Better to revive organic agriculture/fishing with farm land leasing and modern fisheries complexes. Also spread out the cruise tourism industry with new docks at select locations on the main islands. Or maybe the cruise ship passengers can dock at one location and transfer to dedicated excursions/day trips by local Speedy's type catamarans to the other islands.
While CBI may seems like a good idea, it is a short term solution to the cash deficit with long term ramifications.
Ask anyone of the Caribbean nations that have implemented the program and currently operate same. For example, without the proper checks and balances in place, SKB had to recall a large number of the passports because they were negligent in performing the required DD and inserting the correct place of birth/nationality for some of the persons they issued these passports too, not to mention that they issued them for persons who were from sanctioned countries. They fall out was just that the people of that federation almost got visa restricted for travel by places like Britain and Canada.
Further to that, some thought was required before make this particular proposal, since citizenship is an independent country's sovereign right to grant. Key word: independent. Are we?
For the people that ran with this idea or any of the others for that matter....your duty.. when someone puts an idea before you..is to ask why? How? when? WHY?!
Your duty is to be reasonable and logical, not run with an idea because it is sensational and fantastical.
Think people.