El Salvador President To Bring Bill Granting Citizenship To Foreign Investors

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Sunday he would submit to Congress several economic measures to attract foreign investments, including granting citizenship to foreigners in a bid to generate jobs and uplift the country's economy.

Among the measures to be submitted are pushing for Web3 development and cryptocurrency-related initiatives. Bukele, a known supporter of Bitcoin, posted a tweet last week describing the Central American country as a "land of #Bitcoin freedom."

In addition, the El Salvador leader said the reforms would cut red tape, reduce bureaucracy, establish tax incentives and provide citizenship in exchange for investments. The reforms will also introduce new securities laws and stability contracts.

Bukele had offered citizenship to foreigners who would invest in Bitcoin-related opportunities in his country as early as last year.

Bloomberg reported that El Salvador invested some 1,801 Bitcoins last month after Bukele said he bought $15 million worth of the asset using government funds. This raises El Salvador's Bitcoin holdings to roughly $70 million.

Bukele is planning to issue $1 billion in Bitcoin bonds in March to raise funding to develop a "Bitcoin City" and buy additional Bitcoin assets. This was announced on Twitter by Monica Taher, the head of technological and economic international affairs at the National Trade and Investments Secretariat.

El Salvador was the first country to make Bitcoin a legal tender in September last year. This decision has drawn criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to the cryptocurrency's financial volatility.

Last week, Bukele chastised three U.S. senators on Twitter for sponsoring legislation on El Salvador from adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender.

As per data from Coinmarket Cap, Bitcoin was trading at $39,229.57, up 0.95% in the last 24 hours, at 3 p.m. EST.