Hon. Smith made that call during Thursday’s sitting of the House of Assembly while giving his input on the proposed Virgin Islands Investment Act 2020.

“We cannot choose who we want to be millionaires. Anybody who have ambition who wants to make their livelihood go out there and work for what they want, you need to give them an equal opportunity, this Bill could help with that as well,” Hon. Smith said.

He continued: “When some of our young people try to do that first thing they want to say is label all our young people here, that they are drug dealers. That’s what they are trying to do; every young person that tries to make it here in the BVI, everyone. If they have a house, a car, them a drug dealer, we have to stop! We have some very intelligent, ambitious people here in the Virgin Islands that we need to support, and we need to stop labelling people.”

Change Of Mentality Needed

The Deputy Speaker said another area that needs changing is the mentality of the people of the territory.

“Sometimes we talk about we don’t want to bring in people that will get rid of mammy and daddy supermarkets, but Mr. Speaker time waits for no man and if we continue thinking that way, that mentality we are going to get left behind, but what we have to do is make sure we empower the people we have now and show them the way forward, bring them along.”

He explained that sometimes, what happens is some people would speak ill of others to investors to have them remain down, just because “they don’t like that person”.

“A lot of times what happens here in the BVI is that some people don’t want to see some people make it because they believe all the wealth only belongs to them. I am saying this from somebody who comes from nothing to somebody. I work hard to reach where I am today, " he lamented.

The At-Large-Representative added, "but when we have our own people trying to bring our own people down, that’s our downfall, and that’s why we are always going to be where we are unless we start working together and stop trying to keep each other down its going to always be a problem no matter what investors we bring in here."

Hon. Smith said the proposed bill, coupled with the Trade Commission which will fall under the Act once law, will help the territory to get more investors and open opportunities for local business persons who are bursting with ideas but don’t have the resources to acquire investors to get those ideas off the ground.