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Significant Visa Program brings Australia 3 bln AU dollars investment

Xinhua, February 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Over 3 billion AU dollars (2.34 billion U.S. dollars) has been invested in Australia through the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program since the Coalition took power in 2013, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Michaelia Cash announced Wednesday.

The SIV scheme continues to grow rapidly with the average monthly applications lodged in 2014-15, already 15 percent higher than the previous year, she said.

"As the rate of lodgments increases, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection expects to see about 800 applications lodged for the 2014-15 financial year, potentially contributing 4 billion AU dollars (3.12 billion U.S. dollars) to the economy," Cash said.

"The government is committed to further success of Australia's investor visa program," she said.

"Due to the massive economic boost from the program, I am looking forward to a bigger potential boost to the Australian economy from the Premium Investor visa (PIV), which will come into effect on July 1 2015," Cash added.

The SIV requires 5 million AU dollars (3.9 million U.S. dollar) from the applicant to get Australian citizenship in four years, while the PIV scheme, to take effect on July 1, 2015, would require a minimum investment of 15 million AU dollars (11.7 million U.S. dollars) and offer an accelerated 12-month pathway to citizenship.

Cash said under the former Labor government, just 28 Significant Investor visas were granted between the introduction of the program in November 2012 and the federal election in September 2013, attracting 140 million (109.2 million U.S. dollars) in complying investments.

"Changes to complying investment policy for the SIV and PIV programs will also take effect from July 1, and include higher risk investments such as venture capital," Cash said.

Last week, the Australian government released a draft investment framework for an enhanced SIV program and design options for the PIV program as part of its broader competitiveness agenda.

Under the new framework for SIV, at least 20 percent of the applicant's 5 million AU dollars (3.9 million U.S. dollar) investment must flow into early stage, growth capital investments, through approved venture capital funds.

Furthermore, at least 30 percent, or 1.5 million AU dollars (1. 17 million U.S. dollars) of the applicant's investment must flow into emerging listed companies, through managed funds investing in small Australian stock exchange listed companies.

Under the proposed changes, government bonds would no longer be a complying investment class. Endi