SAN JUAN – The prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Timothy Harris, has called on Caribbean territories to coordinate their approach to citizenship by investment programs.

“As the country that has led this, long before anyone else contemplated this, I still make the case that even in this critical area, new area for growth, new area for job creation, that we need to have a regional plan and a regional effort or else we will have a march to the bottom,” Harris said.

The prime minister made those comments during a two-day meeting of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States in Roseau, Dominica.

St. Kitts, with the oldest citizenship by investment program in the region, can advise its Caribbean neighbors on the best practices to avoid a “bartering of the patrimony” and other pitfalls, Harris said.

St. Kitts and Nevis launched its program in 1984. Since then, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and Turks and Caicos have followed suit.

The OECS comprises Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Montserrat.

Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands are associate members.