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The listening exercises in Business Spotlight Übungsheft (p. 5) are based on the article “Defending paradise” (Names & News, p. 9). Here, we provide you with the audio file and transcript.
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Defending paradise
How can a small Caribbean island protect itself from extreme weather events without go into debtsich verschuldengoing into debt or waiting for rich nations to pay for climate measures? Dominica has a radical idea. It offers wealthy people (many of them from China or the Middle East) the chance to purchase Dominican citizenship. This makes travel to Western countries easier and allows better access to the global banking system.
This citizenship-by-investment programme has grown rapidly since Hurricane Maria devastate sth.etw. verwüstendevastated the island in 2017. Today, it is Dominica’s primary source of national revenueSteueraufkommennational revenue — larger than the country’s entire domesticinländischdomestic tax baseSteuerbemessungsgrundlage; hier: Steueraufkommentax base. The money is invested in hospitals, for example, or rent-free housingmietfreies Wohnenrent-free housing for people whose homes were destroyed.
There are, of course, concerns about transparency and security. Even at a minimum of $200,000, a Dominican passport is relatively affordable. And while few of its new citizens choose to live there, there’s the question of what this might do to a country of just 75,000 people.