29 June 2018
St Helena’s Investment Policy was approved at Executive Council on Tuesday, 26 June 2018.
The Investment Policy was a refresh of the 2011 policy. Minor changes were made to the context to align it to St Helena’s Sustainable Economic Development Plan (SEDP) 2018-28. It was refreshed in order to provide the aims and principles which will steer a new Investment Strategy for St Helena.
Each year, around £40 million leaves St Helena, mostly to pay for imported goods. One of the ways to bring new money to the Island and retain money locally is to facilitate investment opportunities for residents and non-residents on St Helena.
The Investment Policy is part of a suite of documents to facilitate private investment to start-up and expand business on St Helena. A new Investment Strategy will provide the detail on how SHG proposes to incentivise investment.
Once the Investment Strategy and Land Development Control Plan are finalised, Enterprise St Helena will then update the Investor Prospectus. Like the current version, this will be aimed at an investor reader and will include information such as property development and investment opportunities.
Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, Councillor Lawson Henry, said:
“The content of the Investment Policy drafted in 2011 was still relevant, and we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, so we made a few changes to the context and put this forward for approval. This approval now allows us to develop a new Investment Strategy. A draft is being prepared and will come to the Economic Development Committee in August for discussion in open session.”
Government Economist, Nicole Shamier, added:
“Not all investments are equal. Investments which help to achieve import substitution, export promotion and domestic production are better than ones which don’t. Investors which have a small footprint on St Helena yet employ a number of people are better than ones which require large landholdings yet employ few. Investors which attract a significant amount of new money to the Island and keep their profits on St Helena are better than ones which don’t. We are really excited that the Investment Policy has been agreed and we can now develop targeted incentives to encourage the best types of investment on St Helena.”
The Investment Policy is available on the St Helena Government website at: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/publications/
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29 June 2018