Antigua and Barbuda is to take advantage of its growing close ties with the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by opening an embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister Lionel Max Hurst said there are
several advantages to such a move. “When this embassy is established, the Antigua
and Barbuda government will be able to utilize that presence, not only to stimulate
investment into the country but also to do like some other Caribbean countries,
which have Citizenship By Investment programmes, have done, which is to utilize
Saudi Arabia as a base for selling citizenship to people in that region,” he stated.
Hurst noted that many individuals live in Saudi Arabia or other neighbouring
countries who need a second passport, and having an embassy in Riyadh will help
to facilitate this. Antigua and Barbuda wants to use the embassy to position itself to
maximize on the flow of resources from this wealthy oil-producing state.
This comes as Hurst reports on a ZOOM meeting held on Wednesday, between the
Cabinet and Sheik Rafik of Saudi Arabia who is interested in providing seed
money for a Caribbean Development Fund. It is expected that the Antigua and
Barbuda Investment Authority will be a major functionary in extracting capital
from the Development Fund.
Hurst said the amount of money that Sheik Rafik intends to invest in the country
has not yet been determined, but some of that money will go towards expanding
the UWI FIC as well as Antigua and Barbuda Institute for Continuing Learning
(ABICE).
He indicated that the government also wants to explore the possibility of using
some of these funds to go into hotel developments.
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