Checkout our iOS App for a better way to browser and research.
The essence of the American economic system is free competition. Only through full and free competition can free markets, free entry into business, and opportunities for the expression and growth of personal initiative and individual judgment be assured. The initiation, preservation, and expansion of such competition is basic not only to the economic well-being of the United States Virgin Islands, but to the security and general welfare of the People of the United States Virgin Islands. The rapid economic growth of the United States Virgin Islands in the past decade has brought many benefits and a higher standard of living to the great majority of the People of the United States Virgin Islands; however, there has been a noticeable failure to provide for and promote the involvement of the indigenous population of the United States Virgin Islands in private enterprise. This failure is the result of various factors, not the least of which is the fact that loans for business purposes have not been readily and reasonably available to native Virgin Islanders. The people of these Islands have been in many instances deprived of, and often not motivated, through no primary fault of their own, to seek the managerial and technical skills that are basic to the successful and competitive operation of small business concerns in a free enterprise system. The security and well-being of the local population cannot be fully realized; and the evils of absentee ownership and of the concentration of economic power cannot be reasonably avoided, unless the actual and potential capacity of the ownership and management of small business concerns by Virgin Islanders is encouraged and rapidly developed. It is the declared policy of the Legislature that the Government of the United States Virgin Islands should aid, counsel, assist, promote and protect, insofar as possible, the economic and social interest of the indigenous population of the United States Virgin Islands through the establishment and ownership of small business concerns.
It is not the intention of the Legislature by this chapter to provide loans for the capitalization of small business concerns when such funds are reasonably available from private banks or other financial institutions, public or private; however, it is the Legislature's intention to promote and encourage such banks and financial institutions to make loans on a risk basis after giving consideration to the technical and managerial assistance to be provided to loan applicants under the provisions of this chapter.
Finally, the Legislature finds that the programs and activities established and authorized by this chapter are in the public interest; and they are intended to maintain and strengthen the over-all economy of the United States Virgin Islands and to promote the general welfare of its citizens.