Smith pushes to cut investment red tape

Junior Minister for Financial Services Lorna Smith has said the government is moving to reduce bureaucracy and speed up approvals in a bid to make the Virgin Islands more attractive to investors.

Speaking during a Ministry outlook update, Smith said while the territory continues to promote stability and strong regulation internationally, attention must also turn to improving processes at home.

“Right now, there is a lot of red tape. There continues to be significant bureaucracy that we would like to see reduced so that people can move quickly to invest in the territory,” Smith stated.

She said the government has already started engaging key departments to address delays. “We had a meeting with the financial services industry and these three departments to talk about how we could speed up processes, how we could reduce, as I said, the red tape that exists. The departments are trade, immigration, and labour,” Smith stated.

The minister said reforms will extend beyond financial services to the wider commercial sector. “We will continue to meet not just with the financial services sector, but our commercial sector businesses and so on together with these three departments I just mentioned to make sure that we can speed up the processes and just make it easier generally for people to do business,” Smith stated.

Smith also referenced the proposed Investment Act, which she said is expected to modernise incentives and streamline concessions previously granted under the Pioneer Services and Enterprises Ordinance. She noted that several residents are seeking Customs duty exemptions to import equipment and materials for business purposes.

“Let me make this clear: we have to find a way to accommodate the needs of the BVIslanders and their involvement in business and make sure that we don’t hold up the grant of the pioneer status or the exemption from customs duty. We have to find a way to make sure that this is done quickly, and we’re doing so now,” Smith stated.

She said a revised investment framework would also help attract new developments beyond projects already on the books, including Prospect Reef, Nanny Cay and Norman Island.

“With a new and improved investment act, we should be able to, we expect to be able to go out and encourage and invite other investors. And we will do so by offering attractive incentives to these people so that they could be encouraged to invest in the Virgin Islands,” Smith stated.

Smith added that the Premier’s economic advisory committee is expected to report soon on measures to support economic expansion. She maintained that improving efficiency across departments remains central to boosting investor confidence and strengthening the territory’s economic outlook.