Archive for April, 2009
Cayman Islands on grey list
(CNS):
Despite the continuous mantra about onshore centres such as the City of London and the state of Delaware being less compliant with international regulations than Cayman, both the UK and the US are on the white list of countries considered to have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard set by the OECD.
What will happen now remains to be seen, but whatever new regulations are to be drawn up and implemented it will be the OECD which will manage and supervise the process.
Speaking at this morning’s press briefing, Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said regardless of and in spite of the uncertainty, the Cayman Islands Government would be relentless in its efforts to demonstrate to the global community that our country, by any reasonable analysis, is cooperative, regulated and transparent in all aspects of our financial services sector.
“The Cayman Islands is better placed out of all the jurisdictions to make any adjustments that will be needed for us to comply with whatever those global standards will be. We are ready to make adjustments,”he said.
Teens charged with forgery
(CNS): More than a year after they were arrested, four teenagers, aged between 14 and 17, have been charged with various offenses, including forgery of currency notes, possession of counterfeit notes and uttering forged currency (which is presenting forged currency for use as payment or using as legitimate currency). Police said today that the young men were arrested in 2007 during an investigation by officers from the Financial Crime Unit and will appear in court on 28 April. The RCIPS said that now that the matter was before the courts they could not provide any further comments on the case.
Anyone with information about crime taking place in the Cayman Islands should contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling crime stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligible for a reward of up to $1000, should their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.
Clothing forbidden at hotel
(BBC): A passionate German naturist has revealed his plan to open Germany’s first hotel where clothes are banned. Frieder Haferkorn, the entrepreneur behind the venture, says he is turning a conventional hotel in the Black Forest into a haven for naturists. According to the house rules, clothes are not only optional, but strictly forbidden at all times. In keeping with naturists’ belief that nudity is non-sexual, acts of a sexual nature are banned in common areas. Rule number one limits access to the hotel to followers of the nudist movement. And rule number three demands that guests be naked at all times.
GT falters in B-ball League
(CNS): Defending champions George Town Sports Club (GTSC) suffered their second consecutive defeat this past Sunday night in the Dominos Pizza Men’s League when they were humbled 83-72 by the Wolves. The first division action at the court off Eastern Avenue drew a huge crowd, which was thoroughly entertained by the level of talent and combat displayed throughout the game. Wolves took an earlier lead, but GTSC caught up and even managed at one point to overtake the Wolves. In the second quarter, Wolves tied the match, and from then it went back and forth, but in the end, Wolves’ offensive and defensive attacks proved a little too much for the unfit GTSC. (Left: GTSC’s Jonothan Mitchell leaps for the basket – photos Tara Bush)
But as most fans are aware, GTSC always starts the season deceptively slow, only to bounce back to win it all, a release from the Cayman Islands Basketball Association said. It should be noted, however, that GTSC has not suffered two consecutive matches before. Wolves, on the other hand, look impressive and hungry to win.
The top scorers for the Wolves spread the wealth around, with Gary McLaughlin earning 24 points and 15 rebounds, Dwight O’Garro with 25 points and 9 rebounds and Earl Allen had 14 points and 8 rebounds along with 4 assists.
GTSC’s top performers were Antonio Thompson with 22 point and 9 rebounds, Mike Morgan on 14 points and 17 rebounds and Jonathan Mitchell with12 points and 4 rebounds. (Right: Wolves’ Earl Allen scores from a layup)
In a League game on Sunday night, Esso Blazers defeated Colombia 76-54 in the first game. Colombia, who earned their ticket into Division I after skating through Division 2 last season with an unblemished record, are finding that playing with the big boys is not so easy.
Esso Blazers took an easy win with their big men crowding Colombia’s key players and forcing them to shoot from the outside, which proved a difficult task for them.
Top guns for Blazers were Samuel O’Garro with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Rotando Thompson also added 10 pints and 16 rebounds and Perry Levy had 11 points and 6 assists. Jonathon Corpus led with 21 points and 3 rebounds for Colombia. Norbello Livingston added 11 points and 4 rebounds and Charles Forbes 6 points and 8 rebounds.
Cayman Islands Basketball National Technical Victor “Voot” O’Garro said “No team is going to have an easy time of it this year. There are no favorites – all the teams are going full tilt for the trophy. There is a lot of talent on display and everyone wants to do their best.”
Bermuda First economic think tank formed
(The Royal Gazette): A think tank of industry chiefs and political leaders has been formed to find strategies to stave off looming economic threats. Bermuda First, which has more than 80 members including a 17-strong steering committee of local and international business heads, will devise ways to prosper in the recession. Led by ArielRe founder and CEO Don Kramer the group will look at topics including: US and European hostility to tax havens; the decline in tourism; the forecast decline in construction; high housing costs; and immigration. Mr. Kramer said work permit term limits had affected some sectors although the international business community "does not seem to have suffered". (Left Bermuda Premier Dr Ewart Brown)
White, grey and black list of tax havens to be published
(CNS): UPDATE 1:40 Thursday: G20 leaders agreed on Thursday that blacklists of tax havens should be published in the near future, a European diplomat told Reuters. "The G20 has agreed that it will be the OECD which will publish the tax haven list imminently," said the diplomat, who is attending the summit in London. There will be a white, grey and black list (of tax havens) referring to those who have signed up to OECD rules on information sharing, those who have signed up but not yet applied them and those who are in the clear."
According to the Financial Times, this morning this blacklist contained six countries. But it has halved in size as the leaders have realised that they could do without the shame. The three countries that are going to be fingered are Costa Rica, the Philippines, and Uruguay. The three countries that committed this afternoon to reaching information sharing agreements are Brunei, Guatemala and Malaysia.
G20 leaders have reached an agreement to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion and that there will be sanctions against secretive tax havens. To help countries with troubled economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will get extra resources worth up to $750bn, and the G20 has committed about $250bn to boost global trade and pledged to fight protectionism.
At the summit in London tax havens appeared to be on the top of the agenda with early reports from London suggesting there would be a blacklist. "I’m expecting that in due course there will be a list of countries," UK Treasury Minister Stephen Timms told reporters this morning. "I’m expecting there will be sanctions against countries."
A draft summit communique late on Wednesday vowed to identify locations that fail to cooperate, including tax havens, and to use sanctions against them. France demanded a blacklisting of tax havens, which earlierin the week had appeared to be a potential stumbling block at the summit.
Against a backdrop of violent demonstrations, the leaders of the world’s biggest nations discussed how to address the worldwide economic recession, and despite offshore centres not causing the economic meltdown they became one of the primary targets.
Addressing the complaint that action on tax havens is a red herring, Timms said that “these opaque financial boltholes allowed banks and others to underestimate the scale of their mounting toxic assets. …..tax havens were not the cause of the financial crisis but they played a major part.”
There are still concerns in the Cayman Islands whether it will be on the blacklist but even if the jurisdiction escapes, experts here have said there will be a number of changes to the international regulation regime which Cayman must be ready to face.
CIFSA Director James Bergstrom recently said there was a possibility that Cayman would be blacklisted at G20 but not because of any fair or objective criteria. Whether it was or was not, the likelihood of new regulations emerging was very high and there would be a need to work with the international community. “If there is a silver lining about this,” he said, “with so much attention focused on us we can now go forward and assist with regulatory change and work with the international community to take reasonable steps to deal with any real concerns.”
This morning, news from the summit talks suggested that France and Germany were demanding new concessions from the United States on financial regulation. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy joined forces, warning that they would refuse to sign any agreement that did not meet their “red lines” on tax havens, hedge fund regulation, tracing “securitised” assets sold around the world and capping bankers’ remuneration. They also said they wanted the “naming and shaming” of tax havens that refuse to go along with any tougher regulations, somthing the US has opposed.
Sarkozy suggested that Europe would not take economic direction from the US and it was America that would have to compromise. “The crisis didn’t spontaneously erupt in Europe, did it?” he said last night.
Cuba presents new challenge
(CNS): With the tourism industry already struggling in the face of the global recession, the Cayman Islands now faces a new challenge with the awakening of what Minister for Tourism Charles Clifford has called a sleeping giant. With the impending removal of the travel embargo on the country by the US, Clifford said it is a case of not “if” but rather “when” US restrictions will end and Cayman is preparing to compete, and there were opportunities for Cayman to seize in a newly opened Cuba.
“In the PPM manifesto, the government sets out its policy to continue to focus on the North American market using strategic and innovative programmes while simultaneously increasing marketing activities in other markets, such as Europe, in order to mitigate the impact of the lifting of US sanctions against Cuba, which we predicted was inevitable in as few as 4 to 8 years’ time,” Clifford stated.
He said given the latest announcement from the US White House and Congress, the projections may have been prophetic. He added that the government has been steadfastly preparing to compete. “In the past 3½ years, the Cayman Islands’ approach has been to engage the market to seek solutions which lessen the extent of our reliance upon the US as a source market,” the Minister noted.
These solutions include continuing to grow markets in Europe and Canada, pursuing twin island tourism with Cuba and researching new source markets in places such as South America, he explained. With these secondary markets already open to Cuba the focus is a way of gradually lessening Cayman’s dependence on the US market. He said the average growth in the last three years from the Canadian market has been approximately 21% and in Europe 17%.
“The DoT, with
“An important step in realising this is Cayman Airways’ plans to offer e-ticketing to travellers via Cuba which is expected to be in place within a month,” he said. “Most recently, Cayman Airways participated in air service negotiations between the UK and Cuban authorities which increased the airline’s frequency rights to Havana from 3 weekly to 7 weekly. Before this extension of rights,
"The approval to increase our scheduled frequency offers the airline greater security on this route. During these negotiations,
The implications to Cayman’s cruise product could be far more reaching than for the overnight as the cruise lines will be eager to add Cuba ports of call to their itinararies — possibly replacing Cayman. CNS has contacted the Florida Cruise Association and three of the major cruise lines that use Cayman regularly. However, none of them have yet offered any comment on their future plans regarding the neighbouring island.
Clifford, however, said Cayman could stand to benefit from the opening of Cuban ports rather that suffer,but it would be some time before Cuba was in a position to receive significant cruise numbers. He explained that during meetings with cruise lines they have said that despite the fact that Cuba has many natural ports, the infrastructure and systems will still need development.
“As such, there will be a transition period,” he said. “Ultimately, when Cuba reopens and any new major itineraries are launched, islands in close proximity to Cuba, like the Cayman Islands, stand to benefit. Cruise executives have previously advised that there are at present no plans to create a complete ‘Cuban itinerary’ akin to their ‘Alaskan itinerary’, rather the cruise lines envisioned itineraries with multiple stops in Cuba, as well as stops in neighbouring islands.”
Conolly: “It’s the people’s time”
(CNS): Developer and architect Burns Conolly, who has turned his attention from the drawing board to the political platform, said last night at his first public meeting that he is seeking a partnership with the people “to design and build” the future of Cayman. He said the most important factor in the building of a country is its people. “Somewhere along the way the politicians have seemed to have forgotten that,” he added.
He said people had been replaced in the work force, in the opportunities to move upward and in the area of good commonsense by an army of consultants, who don’t know us but go home with their pockets stuffed with millions of dollars. “In this election we are going to change that,” he added.
Conolly told the small gathering on the court house steps in George Town on Tuesday night that it was not true that independent candidates can’t make a difference. “Our country was developed and its foundation laid for good governance by men and women who were independent thinkers but who were big enough to put aside self, pride, opportunityand to work for the national good,” he said.
Making his first pitch to the people of George Town to elect him as their representative on May 20 Conolly criticised the current administration for the mismanagement of finances, over spending, and not doing enough. “I don’t have to tell you what has gone wrong in this country — you know. I don’t have to tell you about job losses — you know. I don’t have to tell you of the crisis our financial industry is facing — you know,” he said.
He spoke about the economy, tourism, creating jobs for Caymanians, immigration and education. “We have glass-fronted towers under construction that we can’t pay the bills on while our children and our teachers in our secondary system are subjected to the most appalling conditions on a daily basis,” he said.
Conolly criticised government for building expensive schools but said the first order of business should be a new primary school for George Town. “For decades this has been promised and we are still waiting. Four representatives – two in Cabinet, one of them the Minister of Education — and still no school for George Town. We don’t need an architectural masterpiece, we need good solid classrooms to replace that hodge-podge set of little trailer boxes they have provided for us.”
He also criticised the current incumbents for not doing enough to meet the challenges to Cayman’s offshore financial services sector coming from the global community. “We have bent over backwards to meet all the demands placed on us, but……the watchmen we placed at our gate fell asleep and the enemy is now on our doorstep,” he said. “It’s going to take every ounce of knowledge and perseverance to walk us through this one — and bullet-proof glass in the LA is not the answer. We need sound leadership and it’s our time, the people’s time to elect it.”
If he was part of a new government one of the first things that would need to be done would be to balance the books by public audit and find out where the country stands financially and stop non-essential spending, he added.
He said that job losses had to be addresses and noted that there were 26,000 workers from abroad here while some 1000 to 2000 Caymanians are unemployed and it was time to change that. Government, he noted, should also set an example and send home persons on contracts in the civil service and replace them with Caymanians.
Conolly saved some of his most damning criticism of the current administration for the Cayman Investment Bureau and initiative, which he said had germinated from a Chamber of Commerce committee in 2000 in which he was involved. Offices had been opened overseas in a bid to encourage investment. However, he said that the current government downgraded the Cayman Investment Bureau to a local entity with no direction. “As late as January this year, after four years in office, the leader of government business confirmed to me, and so did the director, that the Bureau did not have a policy from Cabinet identifying which businesses to attract to the Cayman Islands.”
It was time to restore the Investment Bureau, he said, to seek out investment and bring it to our shores and ensure that business is given the streamlined efficiency to move here effortlessly. He also offered his support for the creation of a major Convention Centre in Cayman as well as an International Arbitration Centre to take advantage of the legal battles now settled by arbitration as opposed to the courts. “With the broad-based legal fraternity and its supporting services, we already have the framework to welcome such a facility.”
Closing his pitch to the electorate, Conolly asked people to join him in a partnership to build a country that recognises the worth of its own people, “secure in the knowledge that we are the architects of our destiny, the major planners, developers and builders of the future Cayman Islands,” he said.
US food agency investigates pistachios for salmonella
(CNS): UPDATE — Environmental Health Officers of the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) have now said that they are investigating for the presence of any affected products in local supermarkets, shops, wholesalers, importers and distributors, both here and the
According to a release from the Food and Drug Administration the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) begani investigating Salmonella contamination in pistachio products sold by Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc, Calif. earlier this week.
The company has stopped all distribution of processed pistachios and has issued a voluntary recall involving approximately 1 million pounds of its products. Because the pistachios were used as ingredients in a variety of foods, it is likely this recall will impact many products, the FDA said.
In addition, the investigation at the company is ongoing and may lead to additional pistachio product recalls. The Cayman Islands has now also issued an alert and adivsed people to stop consuming the product.
The contamination reportedly involves multiple strains of Salmonella. Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Thus far, several illnesses have been reported by consumers that may be associated with the pistachios. It is not yet known whether any of the Salmonella strains found in the pistachio products are linked to an outbreak. The FDA is conducting genetic testing of the samples to pursue all links.
FDA is working closely with the pistachio industry and recommends that consumers avoid eating pistachio products until further information is available about the scope of affected products.
FDA will provide a searchable database of affected products at http://www.fda.gov/pistachios/ and will continue to update the public.
FDA first learned ofthe problem on March 24, when it was informed by Kraft Foods that its Back To Nature Trail Mix was found to be contaminated with Salmonella. Kraft had identified the source of the contamination to be pistachios from Setton and conducted a recall
Rugby U20 team off to Kenya
(IRB): Twenty days from now the Cayman Islands Under 20 side will create their own piece of history when they run out against USA on the opening day of the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy 2009 in Kenya. The first Cayman Islands team to qualify for an IRB 15-a-side tournament, they may not be among the favourites to succeed Uruguay as champions and earn promotion to next year’s IRB Junior World Championship, but they are nonetheless seeing the benefits of qualification. This is because their qualification has brought rugby to the attention of the wider population and encouraged more people to give the sport a try.