Category: Myskn

Economy

Saint Kitts and Nevis is a twin-island federation whose economy is characterized by its dominant tourism, agriculture, and light manufacturing industries.^[1] Sugar was the primary export from the 1940s on, but rising production costs, low world market prices, and the government’s efforts to reduce dependence on it have led to a growing diversification of the agricultural sector. In 2005, the government decided to close down the state-owned sugar company, which had experienced losses and was a significant contributor to the fiscal deficit.

St. Kitts and Nevis are heavily dependent upon tourism to drive its economy, a sector that has expanded significantly since the 1970s. In 2009 there were 587,479 arrivals to Saint Kitt’s compared to 379,473 in 2007, an increase of just under 40% in a two-year period, however the tourist sector decreased during the Global financial crisis and has only recently returned to pre-crash levels. In recent years the government has sought to diversify the economy via agriculture, tourism, export-oriented manufacturing, and offshore banking.

In July 2015, St Kitts & Nevis and the Republic of Ireland signed a tax agreement to “promote international co-operation in tax matters through exchange of information.” The agreement was developed by the OECD Global Forum Working Group on Effective Exchange of Information, which consisted of representatives from OECD member countries and 11 other countries in the Caribbean and other parts of the world.

Transport

Further information: Transport in Saint Kitts and NevisRobert L. Bradshaw International Airport on St KittsVance W. Amory International Airport on Nevis

Saint Kitts and Nevis has two international airports. The larger one is Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport on the island of Saint Kitts with service outside to the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. The other airport, Vance W. Amory International Airport, is located on the island of Nevis and has flights to other parts of the Caribbean.

The St. Kitts Scenic Railway is the last remaining running railroad in the Lesser Antilles.

Economic citizenship by investment

St. Kitts allows foreigners to obtain the status of St. Kitts citizen by means of a government-sponsored investment programme called Citizenship-by-Investment. Established in 1984, St. Kitts’ citizenship programme is the oldest prevailing economic citizenship programme of this kind in the world. However, while the programme is the oldest in the world, it only catapulted in 2006 when Henley & Partners, a global citizenship advisory firm, became involved in the restructuring of the programme to incorporate donations to the country’s sugar industry.

Citizenship-by-Investment Programmes have been criticised by some researchers due to the risks of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. According to the official website of St. Kitts’ Citizenship-by-Investment Programme, they offer multiple benefits: “When you acquire citizenship under St. Kitts & Nevis citizenship programme, you and your family enjoy full citizenship for life, which can be passed on to future generations by descent. As citizens of St. Kitts & Nevis, you and your family are issued with passports which allow visa-free travel to more than 140 countries and territories worldwide, including all of the EU. Of course you have the right to take up residence in St. Kitts & Nevis as well as in most of the CARICOM member countries at any time and for any length of time”.

Each candidate must go through several legal steps and make a qualifying investment into the country and should complete certain legal requirements to qualify for citizenship under the investment program. There is a minimum investment that has to be made by the applicant, in either an approved real estate or in the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (a public charity), to qualify for the economic citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis.

According to Henley & Partners, the requirements are as follows:

• An investment in designated real estate with a minimum value of US$400,000, plus the payment of government fees and other fees and taxes.
• A contribution to the Sugar Industry Diversification Fund of at least US$250,000, inclusive of all government fees but exclusive of due diligence fees which are the same for the real estate option.

According to Imperial & Legal, from 1 April 2018 St Kitts and Nevis government implemented a new investment option – Contribution to Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF). To qualify for citizenship of St Kitts & Nevis, applicants who choose to invest in SGF will need to make a one-off non-refundable contribution of $150,000 plus due diligence fees.

Culture

Main article: Culture of St. Kitts and NevisSee also: Music of Saint Kitts and Nevis, J’ouvert, and Saint Kitts Creole

Languages

English is the sole official language. Saint Kitts Creole is also widely spoken.

Music and festivals

The Mongoose Play, a popular production of folk theatre and music

Saint Kitts and Nevis are known for a number of musical celebrations including Carnival (18 December to 3 January on Saint Kitts). The last week in June features the St Kitts Music Festival, while the week-long Culturama on Nevis lasts from the end of July into early August.

Additional festivals on the island of Saint Kitts include Inner City Fest, in February in Molineaux; Green Valley Festival, usually around Whit Monday in the village of Cayon; Easterama, around Easter in the village of Sandy Point; Fest-Tab, in July or August in the village of Tabernacle; and La festival de Capisterre, around Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis (19 September), in the Capisterre region. These celebrations typically feature parades, street dances and salsa, jazz, soca, calypso, and steelpan music.

The 1985 film Missing in Action 2: The Beginning was filmed in Saint Kitts.

Sports

See also: Cricket in the West Indies and Rugby union in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Cricket is common in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Top players can be selected for the West Indies cricket team. The late Runako Morton was from Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis was the smallest country to host 2007 Cricket World Cup matches.

Rugby and netball are also common in Saint Kitts and Nevis as well.

The St. Kitts and Nevis national football team, also known as the “Sugar Boyz”, has experienced some international success in recent years, progressing to the semi-final round of qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the CONCACAF region. Led by Glence Glasgow, they defeated the US Virgin Islands and Barbados before they were outmatched by Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Despite not representing the country, Marcus Rashford is of descent.

The St. Kitts and Nevis Billiard Federation, SKNBF, is the governing body for cue sports across the two islands. The SKNBF is a member of the Caribbean Billiards Union (CBU) with the SKNBF President Ste Williams holding the post of CBU Vice-President.

Kim Collins is the country’s foremost track and field athlete. He has won gold medals in the 100 metres at both the World Championships in Athletics and Commonwealth Games, and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics he was the country’s first athlete to reach an Olympic final. He and three other athletes represented St. Kitts and Nevis at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The four by one hundred metre relay team won a bronze medal in the 2011 world championships.

American writer and former figure skater and triathlete Kathryn Bertine were granted dual citizenship in an attempt to make the 2008 Summer Olympics representing St. Kitts and Nevis in women’s cycling. Her story was chronicled online at ESPN.com as a part of its E-Ticket feature entitled “So You Wanna Be An Olympian?” She ultimately failed to earn the necessary points for Olympic qualification.

St. Kitts and Nevis had two athletes ride in the time trial at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships: Reginald Douglas and James Weekes.

Population

The population of Saint Kitts and Nevis is around 53,000 (July 2019 est.) and has remained relatively constant for many years. At the end of the nineteenth century, there were 42,600 residents, the number slowly rising to a little over 50,000 by the mid-twentieth century. Between 1960 and 1990, the population dropped from 50,000 to 40,000, before rising again to its current level. Approximately three-quarters of the population live in Saint Kitts, with 15,500 of these living in the capital, Basseterre. Other large settlements include Cayon (population 3,000) and Sandy Point Town (3,000), both on Saint Kitts, and Gingerland (2,500), and Charlestown (1,900), both on Nevis.

The population is primarily Afro-Caribbean (92.5%), with significant minorities of European (2.1%) and Indian (1.5%) descent (2001 estimate).

As of 2018, there were 52,441 inhabitants; their average life expectancy is 76.9 years. Emigration has historically been very high, so high that the total estimated population in 2007 was little changed from that in 1961.

Emigration from St. Kitts and Nevis to the United States:

1986–1990: 3,513
1991–1995: 2,730
1996–2000: 2,101
2001–2005: 1,756
2006–2010: 1,817

Religion

Most inhabitants (82%) are Christians, mainly Anglicans and other Protestants denominations, with a smaller population of Catholics.

Roman Catholics are pastorally served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint John’s–Basseterre, while the Anglicans by the Diocese of the North East Caribbean and Aruba.

Administrative divisions
The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is divided into fourteen parishes: Nine divisions on Saint Kitts and five on Nevis.

Christ Church Nichola Town (SK)
Saint Anne Sandy Point (SK)
Saint George Basseterre (SK)
Saint John Capisterre (SK)
Saint Mary Cayon (SK)
Saint Paul Capisterre (SK)
Saint Peter Basseterre (SK)
Saint Thomas Middle Island (SK)
Trinity Palmetto Point (SK)

Nevis
Saint George Gingerland (N)
Saint James Windward (N)
Saint John Figtree (N)
Saint Paul Charlestown (N)
Saint Thomas Lowland (N)

Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country in the West Indies. Located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population. The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Elizabeth II as Queen and head of state. It is the only federation in the Caribbean.

The capital city is Basseterre, located on the larger island of Saint Kitts. Basseterre is also the main port for both passenger entry (via cruise ships) and cargo. The smaller island of Nevis lies approximately 3 km (2 mi) to the southeast of Saint Kitts, across a shallow channel called The Narrows.

The British dependency on Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, which was then known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla. However, Anguilla chose to secede from the union and remains a British overseas territory.[1] To the north-northwest lie the islands of Sint Eustatius, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten, and Anguilla. To the east and northeast are Antigua and Barbuda, and to the southeast is the small uninhabited island of Redonda (part of Antigua and Barbuda) and the island of Montserrat.

Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be colonized by Europeans. Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean, and thus has also been titled “The Mother Colony of the West Indies”.[9] It is also the most recent British territory in the Caribbean to become independent, gaining independence in 1983.

Etymology

Clouds covering Nevis Peak
Saint Kitts was named Liamuiga, which roughly translates as ‘fertile land’, by the Kalinago, who originally inhabited the island.[10] The name is preserved via St. Kitts’s tallest peak, Mount Liamuiga. Nevis’s pre-Columbian name was Oualie, meaning “land of beautiful waters”.[citation needed]

It is thought that Christopher Columbus, the first European to see the islands in 1493, named the larger island San Cristóbal, after Saint Christopher, his patron saint and that of travellers. New studies suggest that Columbus named the island Sant Yago (Saint James), and that the name San Cristóbal was in fact given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba, 32 km (20 mi) northwest. It seems that San Cristóbal came to be applied to the island of St. Kitts only as of the result of a mapping error.[citation needed] No matter the origin of the name, the island was well documented as San Cristóbal by the 17th century.[1] The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, and dubbed it St. Christopher’s Island. In the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit(t); hence, the island came to be informally referred to as Saint Kitt’s Island, later further shortened to Saint Kitts.[1]

Columbus gave Nevis the name San Martín.[10] The current name Nevis is derived from a Spanish name Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, meaning ‘Our Lady of the Snows’.[1] It is not known who chose this name for the island, but it is a reference to the story of a 4th-century Catholic miracle: a summertime snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome.[11] It is thought that the white clouds which usually wreathe the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of the story of a miraculous snowfall in a hot climate.[1] The island of Nevis, upon first British settlement, was referred to as Dulcina, a name meaning ‘sweet one’ in Spanish.[citation needed] Eventually, the original Spanish name was restored and used in the shortened form, Nevis.

Today the Constitution refers to the state as both Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Christopher and Nevis, but the former is the one most commonly used, however, the latter is generally used for diplomatic relations.

Foreign relations

Further information: Foreign relations of Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Kitts and Nevis has no major international disputes. Saint Kitts and Nevis is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and the Organisation of American States (OAS).^[1]

St. Kitts & Nevis entered the OAS system on 16 September 1984.^[35]

Agreements that impact financial relationships

Double Taxation Relief (CARICOM) Treaty 1994

At a CARICOM Meeting, representative of St. Kitts and Nevis, Kennedy Simmons signed The Double Taxation Relief (CARICOM) Treaty 1994 on 6 July 1994.

The representatives of seven CARICOM countries signed similar agreements at Sherbourne Conference Centre, St. Michael, Barbados. ^{The countries whose representatives signed the treaties in Barbados were: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent,} and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. This treaty covered taxes, residence, tax jurisdictions, capital gains, business profits, interest, dividends, royalties, and other areas.

FATCA

On 30 June 2014, St. Kitts and Nevis signed a Model 1 agreement with the United States of America in relation to the ^{Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA.  On} 28 April 2016, the status of the agreement went to “In Force”.