The Vanuatu Government has passed amendment to the Citizenship Act aiming to make the CBI programme fully independent and free from political interference. The amendment passed with 36 votes in favour and 10 abstentions from the opposition.
New amendments will help increase transparency, ensure fairness, and protect Vanuatu’s reputation by preventing people with criminal records or those on Interpol Red Alerts from gaining citizenship. The Legislation also provides for applications to be set aside if the Financial Intelligence Unit reports adverse findings or if the Department of Immigration identifies an applicant as a ‘Red Alert’ or ‘Wanted Person’ under Interpol.
The Vanuatu Economic Citizenship Programme is one of Vanuatu’s biggest revenue sources. In the first eight months of this year alone, it collected around VU$14 billion (approximately NZ$213 million, surpassing the annual target of VU$7 billion (approximately NZ106m).
The Government has appointed 11 CIIP agents and 55 DSP agents. be required to register and follow stricter procedures. all agents to register with the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission as public companies and they will have to submit reports, according to Government
Source: RNZ / Dailypost
