Gov’t making efforts to attract investors, Premier assures
The government is making every effort to ensure that it creates the necessary environment for investors to come to the territory, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley assured lawmakers recently.
Premier Wheatley, while speaking in the House of Assembly recently, highlighted the strides made in the tourism sector and outlined his government’s future plans to bolster investment and enhance the territory’s appeal to both overnight and cruise visitors.
According to Dr Wheatley, his government aims to continue offering incentives and streamlining processes to facilitate the investment needed to grow the economy and ensure the sustainable growth of the territory’s tourism sector.
In 2018, the BVI saw a total of 757,015 visitors, including overnight, cruise, and day trippers; showcasing the territory’s resilience post-Hurricane Irma. The following year, visitor numbers increased to 894,991, with significant growth in cruise and day trip visitors.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to a sharp decline in tourism, with total visitors dropping to 305,371. Despite these challenges, Premier Wheatley pointed to a recovery trend in 2021 and 2022, with total visitors in 2023 reaching 995,015, marking the second-best year in the territory’s history.
Premier Wheatley emphasised the importance of overnight visitors to the economy and outlined plans to convert cruise ship passengers into overnight guests. He also pointed to several key developments expected to increase accommodation capacity and attract more visitors, including the reopening of Peter Island and expansions at Nanny Cay and Lambert Wyndham.
Critically, the Premier highlighted his government’s efforts to improve airlift to the territory, pointing to the direct American Airlines flight from Miami, which he said has positively impacted tourism.
“The move that we have made with American Airlines coming directly to the BVI in itself has sent a very strong message to developers that we’re serious about development because one of the biggest challenges and biggest hindrances to the growth of our tourism sector has been airlift,” the Premier said.
Premier Wheatley underscored the significance of a proposed runway extension, which he assured lawmakers would enhance the BVI’s connectivity and further stimulate investment by providing reliable airlift for future tourists.
“I’m proud of this administration and I’m proud of the Minister of Communications and Works and the leadership role he’s played in helping us to expand our airlift,” Dr Wheatley stated.
He added: “When we extend that runway, so that we can get flights from New York and Atlanta and North Carolina, that will be the biggest factor. It’s amazing that persons want to invest in the BVI — even without that. But that would be the biggest factor that will help the persons to have the confidence in building properties in the Virgin Islands.”
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Stats with cleaning the place up !!! The BVI has become well known for being a garbage dump. Who would want to invest their money here when there are so many other places where people take pride in their surroundings .
Not if they blacklisted because of incompetent leaders who do not even know what the words good governance mean. Chuuupes.
By putting a bunch of dead VIP cronies on the Prospect board? Waste of time geriatric people damn near 70 years old!
Crony is chairman.
Over 70 years old most of them
Start by cleaning out Labour and Immigration. I have been waiting fve months for a work permit for a key management position for which we extensively interviewed and worked with Labour for applicants.
How are you going to attract investors if they can’t hire the people they need to run their businesses?
Once again you are wasting your time and our money by not concenttrating on infrastructure renewal and cleaning out the deadwood in the minitries and GSB’s.
You cannot be serious.
You have an immigration department throwing key workers off the island and denying access to new labour that is killing business.
You have a work permit system akin to indentured servitude that anyone with a conscience believes is close to evil. ( try telling the UN how you treat work permit holders as you are so fond of writing to them, see what they say )
Your labour and Gestapo like immigration departments treat outside investors like criminals. You treat investors as third class citizens having their passports confiscated and making them buy work permits to work for themselves.
Senior members of your own government believe you are wrecking the economy with your racist and discriminatory policies.
Get real.
And you allegedly have the head of immi owning a strip club and bringing in people, no problem. All while knowing such clubs are against the law. Say no more!
Members and former members of the government are involved in flesh trafficking. Maybe thats the kind of investor they want.
What country can you go into and work for yourself/start a business without a permit?
USA, UK, All of EU, ..that enough to start?
Improve the roads and other basic services (water, sewerage, communications), clean up the place (people litter everywhere!) and build the new West End Ferry Terminal.
Then you can dream about the airport extension.
The West End ferry terminal is an abortion that is designed to provide lots of rip offs the government and civil service, their families and cronies.
It needs to be stopped now and a way less expensive, more in keeping with the Caribbean , alternative be given the go ahead.
Besides failing to notice how the place looks to outsiders when they arrive, what efforts is Mr. Wheatley referring to? Convering cruise ship tourists into overnight visitors after they’ve seen what is on offer here? What incentive is there for anyone to invest here? Skilled labor pool is from outside, so comes with work permit requirements in addition to al the trade license madness. Nothing is cheap here. Again, what effortts specifically is Mr. Wheatley referring to?
Agree with What Efforts. Premier needs to be concise and spell out what is being done. What is the plan? Stages? Let’s be real.
Roads
Sewerage
Water
Power
Internet
Ports
Government services
I guess ALL THE BASICS!
He is not getting it but those ejection promises must be fulfilled. Corruption
I done realize anything important that need to happen that depending on this guy to be the driving force behind it is not going to happen. He gonna be one of those politicians that don’t have nothing to show but pictures to prove that they were there.
I read where one News Site Owner wants a Ban on all Blogs But One can learn a lot from some of these same Blogs. Most Crimes can be solved by reading the Blogs. The Premier can do better in his position by having someone read the Blogs and report back to him. All the Things that are needed to make this Territory the envy that it was are FAR from this Government’s Agenda. Sad But True.
There is NONE and the People are perishing. How Long?? ( BVI ). Not Long !!! (UK).
The truth is that this country does not welcome or make things easy for new investors. Too much red tape and slow response from trade, immigration, and labour departments.You want investors make the place look decent , fix the roads, get the sewage off of the streets, get decent reliable internet.
Clean the place up, stop demanding kickbacks and payoffs, control and the investors will show.
What investor in their right mind would put money into a place with no financial statements or rationale for its decisions eg government should pay for a race track
If I came to the Tortola on a cruise ship after seeing the condition of the place I won’t come back to stay on land, maybe I will charter a boat for a week but for sure.
Nearly a million cruise ship visitors have seen the BVI with their own eyes and describe it to their friends and relatives as the most backward islands in the Caribbean that are destroying their beautiful group of islands as fast as possible.
So good luck on attracting legal investors to the worst island colony in the Caribbean. Perhaps this BVI government should continue Fahie’s legacy of attracting the illegal or criminal investors to hasten the eventual demise of the BVI.
as things stand now. Here are the 2 main reasons why:
1. I came to the unfortunate conclusion slightly over a decade ago when I was indeed seeking to invest here that in order to do so, I would have needed to engage in a quid pro qo scheme at multiple levels in order to bring about a successful project.
And that was the impression I got from government officials. NO one will lift a finger to help you unless you were paying something under the table or they were apart of it.
I had lived abroad, and built my business abroad, and never once did I have to entertain such possibilities as I went about my business. I never did then, and I refused to do so then and now. I walked away from the table, and continued to grow my business elsewhere.
2. Labor and Immigration are major hurdles to investing. They exert too much undue influence that can affect who you can hire and even let go.
Even if one was to get beyond the quid pro qo expected of you by some, you have to contend with the fact that you may not be able to hire and fire who you feel as an employer are the most qualitied person(s) to do the job. In order words too much government interference.
If I am putting up millions of dollars to build and grow a business, I first should not have to grease any palms to get anything done. That’s illegal or should be.
Second, I don’t need government to tell me who to hire or fire when I am footing the bills as a private individuals or making it next to impossible for me to hire the most qualitied persons for the job if they happen to come from some other jurisdiction outside of the BVI.
Bottom Line: Not a friendly investment country. Risk is to high that you will be running an inefficient company at a loss because of government policies. Also, the market here is limited with a population of 30K at most. It was not worth the effort and money to be spent for me.
There are many other more largely populated countries that have better investor friendly policies than the BVI.
Not knocking anyone who tries or is even successful however. I just think considering all factors, investing in this place on a serious financial level is not for me despite I had an earlier interest.
If the Premier is serious about making efforts to invest here, apart from the other matters that needs redress as others have pointed out (infrastructure, etc), his government needs to focus on what can be done to create an investor friendly environment.
That will be difficult for him or any government, because there will always be someone who comes along and claim that the government is selling out the country, so it’s a no win situation imo.
The old airport push again. Just trying to get a big sharenoutbof a large sum of money. We have direct flights alrrady. Use the money to build anplace that is fit to live in and visit. Stop thinking about your greedy selves and your cronies.
..the kickbacks
Tell me again. Are those cruise ship numbers ACTUAL VISITORS or quoted cruise ship CAPACITY. How are we going to know the % of cruise passengers who convert to future overnighters? Is there a question on the immigration entrance form asking “Have you been here before on a cruise sip?” .
1/ Mega Yachts, get a berthing Dock for them let make a part of Berthing be a requirement to get 24 hr security while docking, Jobs.How we do this. Extend and strengthen Road Town Dock to hold the Mega Yachts and smaller Cruise ships when we have 3 ships in Port rather than have them Dock out at sea to be tender in and 3 quarts of the passenger don’t come off or shore.They Dock on The North East End and the Regular Inter Island Ferry used the
South western end. With a Board walk leading to the back of craft a life with a base..
Ferry on South West End.
The BVI Investment Act contains an appropriation clause. Why? Will this encourage inward investment?
Leaving all the local criticism aside, you have never had serious outside investment, and, won’t until such time as you become a modern civil society. Significant investors only invest in open free societies, something the BVI is not, and, in reality, is actually the total opposite, your discriminatory behavior renders you inappropriate as an investment location.
Why use this image of the Premier that makes him look spaced out and ridiculous
he is not.
Dear Investor,” Welcome to Natures Dirty Little Secrets”
The potential for true foreign investment is a no no, your behavior and policies as itemized in several comments says it all. It may take as long as three generations to purge this mentality from the territory. Otherwise current students will have to have to be hardwired to think out of the dumb box.