Gib will be ‘open but responsible’ with new residency criteria  

Gibraltar’s new residency criteria will be “open but responsible”, Business Minister Gemma Arias Vasquez told a dinner last night, adding details of the new regime would be published today. 

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo is scheduled to announce the new criteria alongside Mrs Arias Vasquez at a press conference at midday, after which detailed policy criteria will also be published. 

Regulations bringing the policy into effect will also follow “as soon as practicably possible”, Mrs Arias Vasquez told the annual dinner of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses.  

She did not disclose any specific details of the policy but reflected on its principles. 

“The first principle is that Gibraltar remains open,” she said. 

“We are an outward-looking, international, pro-business economy.” 

“We want talent. We want enterprise. We want investment.” 

“We want people who come to Gibraltar to work, to build, to create, to employ and to contribute.” 

“But openness must also be responsible.” 

Mrs Arias Vasquez said Gibraltar was a small place with finite land and limited housing stock, adding its public services “must be protected”. 

“Our community must be able to absorb growth in a way that is sustainable,” she said. 

The new residency framework will be based on “genuine economic contribution”. 

“It will be based on real employment, real business activity, real accommodation in Gibraltar, real compliance with tax, social insurance, licensing and registration obligations, and a real connection with our community,” she said. 

“That is the balance we are seeking to strike.” 

“Open, but responsible. Welcoming, but controlled. Pro-business, but sustainable.” 

Above all, she said the new policy aimed to be fair to people already here, to those who wished to settle here, to businesses that followed the rules and to future generations who would depend on public services the Government was seeking to protect. 

“We also need to guard against abuse,” she added. 

“Residence in Gibraltar cannot be a paper exercise that is open to abuse.” 

“It must and will be linked to contribution, compliance and presence.” 

“And it must be part of a wider approach to responsible growth.” 

Residents who contribute should have access to core services, particularly healthcare and education for their immediate family. 

“But wider social benefits must remain appropriately protected.” 

BUSINESS LAW REFORM 

Mrs Arias Vasquez also revealed that the Government will begin “substantial and genuine” consultation next week with the GFSB and the Chamber of Commerce on a new Business Act. 

The consultation document will be circulated on Monday morning by the CEO of Business, John Paul Fa, and the consultation period will run until the end of September. 

The Bill will aim to “…modernise Gibraltar’s business framework to make it clearer, to make it simpler, to make it more practical, and to make it fit for the Gibraltar that is now emerging after the treaty,” she said. 

She cited, for example, how business registration and business licensing currently sit across different legislative frameworks and created “complexity and duplication”. 

“The new Act will seek to bring those systems together [into] one framework, one clear process, one online business entry point, one renewal process, and one modern system that reflects the way business actually works today,” she said. 

Even before the new Act comes into force, the application forms for business licensing and business registration have been merged, she added. 

“The new business application form will go live with the new residency application form once the new residency legislation is commenced.” 

“The result is that all new business will apply using a single application.” 

The Act will seek to make the process as “clear and straightforward” as possible for businesses but will also consider “stronger and more practical enforcement” for those who do not follow the rules. 

Mrs Arias Vasquez also said the Chief Minister would make “important announcements” during the Budget debate on measures to support business, though she added no detail. 

The Government will be appointing a state aid expert within the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority, to provide independent regulation of its compliance with the new state aid framework while assisting to navigate how it can provide support to businesses. 

“The Government wants to help business as much as possible, and so, through the appointment of our own state aid expert, we will shortly be in a position to advise how best we can assist businesses within the legal established legal framework,” she said. 

“This will ensure that support for business can continue to be developed responsibly, transparently and in accordance with Gibraltar’s obligations under the treaty.” 

Separately, the Government expects to publish by Friday on its treaty website an extensive list of FAQs which is a consolidation of all the questions businesses had posed.  

The Government will also be arranging another Town Hall so that the Attorney General and HM Customs can brief businesses all on the technical guidance notes, including a set on Customs procedures published on Tuesday. 

HM Customs will also shortly be establishing a testing platform through which local businesses will be able to test the new forms that will be used for exporting goods from Gibraltar. 

The platform will first be tested through the Trade Facilitation Committee [TFC] established by HM Customs, though traders who are not part of the committee but who engage regularly in the export trade will also be offered access to the testing platform. 

That Committee includes some of the most frequent users of ASYCUDA, the Customs digital platform, as well as representatives of the GFSB and the Chamber of Commerce.  

“This will allow those who use the system most frequently to test the new processes, identify any practical issues and provide feedback before the platform is made more widely available,” Mrs Arias Vasquez said.