By Robert Andre Emmanuel
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Honoured for its unique policy towards family members, Antigua and Barbuda’s Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) took home three major awards — including Programme of the Year — during the closing ceremony of the Caribbean Investment Summit (CIS25).
On Friday, the CIU took home the Family Inclusivity Excellence Award for having the most generous and comprehensive family inclusion policy, allowing grandparents, unmarried siblings, grandchildren and spouses to receive citizenship on the island as well as the Global Reputation Award for earning the highest level of respect and recognition worldwide, maintaining the robust standards in the region.
During her acceptance speech for the Programme of the Year award, Charmaine Quinland-Donovan, CEO of Antigua and Barbuda’s CIU, expressed humility, saying the award demonstrated the value of quiet diligence.
“It really just goes to show that if you keep your head down … work in silence and let success be the noise, that really epitomizes what Antigua and Barbuda has done,” Quinland-Donovan said.
She credited her team’s commitment to integrity, reputation, and consistency for the programme’s success, emphasizing that she “can’t do this without my team. They are just awesome”.
The Caribbean Investment Summit, hosted in Antigua and Barbuda this year, brought together citizenship by investment programmes from across the region to celebrate excellence in the industry.
Other award recipients included Saint Kitts and Nevis, which won the Heritage Excellence Award for its role as the “birthplace” of citizenship by investment in the region, as well as an award for efficiency.
Dominica received the Climate Resilience Leadership Excellence Award and the Sustainable Development Impact Award, in recognition of their recovery from Hurricane Maria and their economic diversification fund that established “a global benchmark for responsible investment.”
Grenada took home awards for Strategic International Access Excellence and Innovation Excellence, with Thomas Anthony, head of Grenada’s Investment Migration Agency, accepting the awards on behalf of the country.
St Lucia won awards for Lifestyle and Quality of Life and Economic Development Integration. St Lucia will host next year’s Caribbean Investment Summit (CIS26).
The ceremony also presented a Global Excellence Award to Armand Arton, the founder of Arton Capital and pioneer of the passport index, for his transformative vision in investment migration.
Arton Capital, whose Programme Director is Ambassador Elizabeth Makhoul, was praised for channelling “more than four billion dollars in strategic investment, creating vital infrastructure through participating nations.”
“I’m really honoured and touched. This is the first award I have ever received in the industry, and that industry has been my life,” Arton said. “I want to thank everybody in this room, clients, partners, competitors for keeping us on the edge, for making this industry better.”
Organized by Open Interactive and its founder Stachio Williams, the awards ceremony was the first of its kind at the Caribbean Investment Summit and is expected to become “a staple going forward.”
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