By Luis De Jesus
07 Apr 2024, 00:02 AM EDT
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced this Saturday an initiative to grant 5,000 free passports to highly qualified professionals in various fields, such as science, engineering, medicine, art and philosophy, as part of an effort to attract talent to the country.
In a message on the social network X, Bukele expressed:
“We are offering 5,000 free passports to highly qualified foreign scientists, engineers, doctors, artists and philosophers.”
He highlighted that this measure represents less than 0.1% of the population and it would not be a problem to grant them the status of full citizens, including the right to vote.
The president highlighted the potential positive impact that these professionals could have on Salvadoran society and the future of the country. In addition, he assured that the government will facilitate their relocation by offering a 0% tax exemption on the transfer of families and assets, which includes equipment, software and intellectual property, the Efe news agency published.
We’re offering 5,000 free passports (equivalent to $5 billion in our passport program) to highly skilled scientists, engineers, doctors, artists, and philosophers from abroad.
This represents less than 0.1% of our population, so granting them full citizen status, including…
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 6, 2024
This announcement follows last December’s launch of the Adopting El Salvador Freedom Visa Program, aimed at attracting 1,000 investors willing to contribute $1 million in bitcoin or the stablecoin USDT per year.
The visa program adds to the Nayib Bukele government’s commitment to the use of bitcoin as legal tender, making El Salvador the first nation to officially adopt this cryptocurrency along with the US dollar.
Although more than $250 million dollars have been invested in the bitcoin project, the second anniversary of this adoption passed with limited adoption of the cryptoactive by the population and with most of the related information under secrecy.
It was expected that by 2022 the government would issue bitcoin bonds worth $1 billion to finance the construction of Bitcoin City in the east of the country, but this financial movement has not yet been carried out, which has generated uncertainty about the future of this economic initiative.
Keep reading:
• Almost 4,000 human rights violations reported during war against gangs in El Salvador
• Human rights organizations demand the end of the emergency regime in El Salvador
• El Salvador, two years under an emergency regime: Bukele’s declared war against gangs