Interview with Charmaine Quinland-Donovan, CEO, CIU Antigua and Barbuda
CEO Insight: Why has citizenship investment become so important for global investors?
Charmaine Quinland-Donovan: Profit optimization, portfolio diversification, access to new markets and tapping into unique business opportunities are the outcomes global investors pursue. The early development of the investment migration industry was driven by the need for investors, particularly from jurisdictions whose travel documents did not afford ease of travel, to have access to greater mobility. However, as the industry has developed, all of the traditional investment imperatives are also operating as pull factors for many global investors. As such, they are in pursuit of much more than mobility – they are in search of options, both for their commercial interests as well as their lifestyle. Citizenship paves the way for real societal and economic integration: global investors understand, adopt to and transform the industries and economies in which they operate. There is a duality of benefit as the host countries receive direct inward investment, augment skills and competencies and foster the growth of the many ancillary activities which accompany the increased economic activity.
“The outlook is very positive – I firmly believe that the worst of the downturn is behind us,” says McKeeva Bush, Cayman Islands Prime Minister. “Investment opportunities in our real estate market are already quite lucrative. 
International investors are discovering what Bahamians have unwittingly kept as a local secret which is that The Bahamas is more than a single destination. The Bahamas is an island nation with Seven 700 islands and 2,400 cays spanning 100,000 square-miles extending southeast from Florida in the United States of America to northern Hispaniola. The Regional Group is committed to introducing The Bahamas to international investors as a multifaceted jewel of investment possibilities, ready to accommodate a full spectrum of real estate development. Professionals within the group and those sourced by the Group to provide services to the Group’s clientele have over the past two decades facilitated investments ranging from high end mixed use resort projects to private single family residential investments, usually coupled with securing immigration status for the individual investor.
James Bond loves his Dom Perignon, his Aston Martin, and his martinis shaken not stirred – but he loves the Bahamas more…