EASTERN CARIBBEAN STATES, ADDICTED TO CBI REVENUES TO PAY THEIR BLOATED GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, DESPERATELY SEEK TO KEEP THEIR CORRUPT PROGRAMS ALIVE, TO AVOID INSOLVENCY

When the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Timothy Antoine, disclosed that 75% of the non-tax revenue of the five EC states with CBI & CIP programs is coming from their Citizenship by Investment passport sales, he admitted that these states are, in essence, addicted to the administrative costs that passport applicants must advance to process their applications.

Why is this money so necessary? All these countries have, outside of a small amount of tourism, little in the way of revenue-generating business; there basically no industry, very little agriculture, and what many experts refer to as dysfunctional economies, which must import almost everything consumers require.

These states cannot survive on indefinitely taking out loans, which they are unable to repay; look at Antigua's situation. Its debt service is swallowing a huge portion of the government's budget, because its defaulted loans carry greatly increased interest rates.

Each of these tiny jurisdictions carries an excessive number of government employees, a necessity in an economy where good jobs are hard to find, and the burdens of international diplomacy, with embassies and consulates to be funded, are costly for countries whose populations are less than those of even small cities abroad. While there is basically no ethnic, linguistic, historical or cultural difference between each small EC state, they zealously maintain that they are different and unique, when forming some sort of of federation would greatly trim their governmental budgets. These Micro-states do not need all those non-productive ministries and departments.

Now you know why the desperate Prime Ministers of the CBI states are trying, at the eleventh hour, to save their hopelessly corrupt CBI programs. They need the money to pay their bureaucrats. Depending on CBI money, they have ignored their obligation to develop diverse economies, create jobs, and move forward.

What will happen when the legal Tsunami which approaches comes ashore? We cannot say. Perhaps the people of those states will now finally wake up and go after all the corrupt payments to their leaders, and the billions illegally diverted abroad by Chinese companies. Will they do so?