Bush entices business back with work-permits promise
(CNS): Offering to make it easier for firms in the financial services sector to recruit the staff they needed, Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush told representatives from the fund industry on Friday that he would be reviewing Cayman’s immigration system and policies. Speaking at Cayman Fund Focus conference, sponsored by local law firm Campbells, Bush, who was the keynote lunchtime speaker, said he was going to do what he could to attract the staff that had been lost back to the Cayman Islands with changes to the immigration regime.
“I am well aware that there is a growing practice of outsourcing mid-office staff to other jurisdictions by some of our local firms,” Bush said, adding that it was the nature of our immigration regime which had contributed greatly to companies making that decision. “Our government wishes to do what is necessary to have those staff members relocated back to the Cayman Islands.”
The LoGB said that the people the industry employs contribute greatly to the local economy. He said that government would work hard to make sure Caymanians were trained and got employment in the fund industry but he knew that when a business faced increased demand for its services they need the ability to recruit in the most efficient manner the staff they need. "And that is what my government isgoing to help with,” he said.
Immigration was never easy to tackle, he observed, but his government intend to fix the problem so the fund industry could grow. “It is time for action in this area … changes will be made within the next few weeks which will make it easier for fund administrators and other financial services firms to recruit their staff members,” Bush added.
He suggested that, while it was a two-way street and the government needed the continued support from the sector to train and recruit Caymanians, he would deliver on his commitment to relieve the challenges the industry faced with staff to grow their business.
Starting this week, he said, he would be meeting with individual firms to better understand the decision to employ staff in other countries and work out the issues and to see there was the incentive to relocate staff, and by extension business.
He said he also wanted to work towards attracting fund mangers to Cayman as part of the overall strategy of developing Cayman into an International Business Centre, which would secure a more sustainable future and effect how the financial services industry was viewed internationally. “We need the assistance and feed back from this sector, specifically on how we can attract fund managers and other investment professionals to the Cayman Islands.”
He said that it was possible people in the audience may have believed that the government should have introduced a tax but he did not think so, and said he still felt the country could get what it needed by growing its financial business.
“Having the right immigration policy, support from government, building its people who have a presence here — that will give us the revenue,” he said.
Bush said that his people would benefit with better schools, roads and infrastructure and it was the thing to do.
He also spoke about other future plans with the private sector to help grow Cayman, and said that there were a significant number of projects that were in the pipeline that would give the economy a boost of up to $2 billion. Bush also said that he was in talks with an exclusive boutique hotel which was looking to make Cayman its third location.
“There is tremendous interest in the islands,” he said, and while the country faced challenges there were opportunities and it was his job to provide the policy support to benefit from direct investment.
Category: Business
From a non-professional’s point of view one problem seems to be that government is coming out with too many "solutions" from too little knowledge and appears to be using a ouiji board for some very important decisions. These are appearing rapidly and frequently. If I were looking at the island from a distance from a business standpoint I’d begin to wonder what the h**l is going on.
When you were a child one of the first things you learned was to "fess up". Because it would only get worse. It usually did!
Work permits and the infamous roll-over policy were two of those things that government cooked up to appease the local population. Because regardless of the consequences that’s where the votes resided. Cayman was at one time a desirable place to re-locate and there wasn’t any fear these draconian measures would prevent others from wanting to arrive here as others were "dis-embarked". With this in mind it was sold to the public as a means to protect local employment. But if we were honest with ourselves it never has worked quite that way. Or properly. Work permits have been abused in some of the worst ways imaginable and the roll-over continues to disrupt a good portion of the population as well as businesses. Both therefore have to be reviewed and corrected but instead now policies are being "altered" and "modified" each day instead of acknowledging the original mistakes. I haven’t formed an opinionat all but that is like taking the shutters off one side of the house… and moving them to the other as the eye of the storm passes. And worse not knowing what’s coming next has been fractious for our entire community. Our constant bickering must make that obvious to each one of us. (Who’s going to take the blame next??) These forums have proved invaluable for this discussion in at least we know none of us – expats or Caymanians – are satisified with the status quo as we see it. We need to get out in front of this "decision making" process. And we need valid attempts to find >common ground< because we have too much to lose.
Thanks for letting me express this.
If less permits are issued less revenue will be received from Permits, so now that you have less expects which is reflected in the "loss" of revenue dueto less work permits issued.
This is not a reason to increase the price of work permits and as far as promises is concerned the goverment is not setting an example to the rest of the island with its budget.
Pirates week is being funded in part by Goverment, where is the money coming for, if the goverment does not have money? How can you continue to spend what you do not have by having a festival and just spending more..
This does not make sense at all. Why doe goverment employees not contribute towards their own helathcare like most private sector employees. Their is 6 million in revenue, each employee, about 3000 contribute 200 US on average and goverment saves 6 million.
Goverment is not setting an example, talk is cheap, We need to see some action from the goverment leading by example.
Hey Mr. Bush, If your so sure that taking more money from the hard working people and giving more to the non performing civil service is not going to hurt how about you doing the same thing that your asking private business to do. If it fails they fail and lose everything. Would you stand up and say that if it fails you will give Cayman back all the wealth you took from it? Would you be willing to risk everything ,house(s), car(s), land,bank accounts (even the secret ones) and future job opportunities on Cayman? Lets see how you like risking your own lifeswork on your business ethics. Come on Mr. Bush if you want to lead then lead from the front! Put your money and life where your mouth has put the other 80% of Those living on Cayman. Show everyone here that you stand for more then just yourself! Or Keep on proving what a patheticly cowardly leader you are. When this all fails do you really think you can hide behind your goverment paid tribe? I doubt it.
You and your croonies are not crooks. Just because you guys are stealing Cayman money. You are the King and therefore its yours anyway. Go King Bush! Now can I work for you? I can be reached at iamnotapirate.ky
Caymanians – if this man is messing with Immigration again, I hope once for a change you all pull your heads out of you bum and go marching in the streets (peacefully) letting him know that you put him where he is now and you can take him back out, making him know that you have enough of him messing with your childrens future.
UDP followers, if one of you every whines about not being able to get a job or a promotion or training etc, I hope somebody beats you naked ass good. Apparently you were asking for it, so I am hope you got what you wished for.
If your leaders did relax immigration to make it easier to recruit top tier staff, it would make minimal differences to local Caymanian jobs. Sure there will be a few that will get fired, but it would only be those that only got their jobs because they were Caymanian despite lacking the skills, experience and work rate to succeed in the job. Those people will be replaced with better staff.
The difference would be the inflow of expatriate workers and their funds fuelling the local economy. They would not be taking jobs from Caymanians, they would bring their job here. They would either work for company X in Cayman or the same company X at the London office. We might as well have them in Cayman so they can contribute to our societies and on a bigger scale to and help train and develop young Caymanians in the workplace.
The racists will say that it puts extra strain on the roads, schools, more crime etc etc but in truth their tax (or should that be fees) dollars will be more than paying for their share of the roads and infrastructure. They will also pay to support the families of you and your narrow minded cronies.
"The racists will say that it puts extra strain on the roads, schools, more crime etc etc but in truth their tax (or should that be fees) dollars will be more than paying for their share of the roads and infrastructure".
It is a simple fact there will be extra strain on our infrastructure and obviously the fees currently paid do not pay for these. That is why we are in a financial crisis. There is nothing remotely racist about that statement.
It is nonsense to say that this proposal would have no impact on the employment of Caymanians.
What’s Mac going to do about the first 20 jobs going to england from the M law firm on the island ? The first 20 computer jobswon’t be the last.
There is nothing he can do, and you are right, the 20 jobs mentioned won’t be the first. From "M" or other company’s following suit….
The answer to the M thing is.. Maybe immigration got wise to the fact that there were Caymanians that could replace Mr M at M but were not even able to obtain an interview just a standard rejection letter…
Here in the U.S., a lot of the IT jobs have left this country as well. I would say, it’s time for the Caymanians to support each other. Try and start a small home-based business. Afterall, must firms/businesses started off this way.
I was just making a comment on the financial industry, because it is indeed complex. Unless you can go out and solicit and receive big institutional investors, it will be tough. Yes, firms do have leads you can use, but, that’s even more difficult because the client doesn’t know you.
So, here, I’ve decided to use a few terms to give an example of what you’re dealing with in funds.
1) bond yields are quoted in basis points, 100 basis points = 1% of yield. A change of 9.25% to 9.75% has move 50 basis points.***a point in bond prices means $10 for $1000 bond, for stocks, one point = $1.00.
with bonds, there’s 12b-1 fees, TSA’s = Tax sheltered annuity/acct, hedgeratios – Beta = anticipated volatility of the portfolio compared to volatility of the index used to hedge the portfolio so an example
number of contracts = Beta x Portfolio Value
___________________
Index Value
= 1.4 x $25,000,000
_______________
$19,000 = 1842
There are spreads, vertical spreads, diagonal spreads, bull/bear spreads
Strike prices, straddle, options puts & calls, CMO’s = collateralized mortgage obligations, CAPS = capped options, MBS = mortgage backed securities, corporate securities, limited partnerships, municipal bonds, government agency issues, treasuries, rule of 72, back-end load, closed-end fund, market order, limit order, stop order…….
Again, this industry is no joke – You also need to learn about taxes, how this will affect your client. In addition, most clients will refrain from getting involved, because they have to disclose their assets almost like if they are applying for a loan, and so will you as a fund employee.
Hope this helps, as far as giving just a sample of this industry.
"Here in the U.S., a lot of the IT jobs have left this country as well. I would say, it’s time for the Caymanians to support each other. Try and start a small home-based business."
IT jobs are easy to export. You can get top professionals in India to work for $10 US per hour, and they work 24 hours a day to service the clients in the Western hemisphere. I once had them make a small business web site (the business is not in Cayman) with a couple dozen pages, client log-in for privileged access, rolling firm news column, photos and graphics and all the bells and whistles. It cost $450 USD. That would have cost $10,000 and taken months if I did it on this side of the planet. They did it in 3 days, delivering completed revisions by email to me every morning (they are about 12 hours ahead) for review and further instructions, and implemented the further instructions while I slept for re-delivery the next morning. After 3 days, it was perfect.
This is what you are competing with.
As an FS industry participant I agree that the work is incredibly complex, but that’s why (a) the part of it that is done here requires rocket scientists that typically were educated elsewhere, and (b) what you might not be aware of is that the vast majority of the rocket scientist work is not done here in Cayman. The funds areincorporated or structured here per the specific directions of the on-shore rocket scientists, the funds are kept and managed in New York or London, and very little of even the administration work is done in Cayman. If you have a rocket scientist willing to come here and perform that work on-island and share the knowledge and create a few jobs, you should be quite nice to that person. If you suggest to them that they should go home and practice their profession there then they probably will, taking the support jobs and that chance for Cayman’s economic growth with them.
Small business? OK, if that’s what you have available, but keep the big picture in sight: Cayman’s economy runs on having external money flow into the Islands, so that Caymanians can spend that external-sourced money importing what is needed from off-island. Caymanians doing business with themselves is good for the local economy, and we all need to do business locally as much as possible, but to the extent that you want to eat a banana that came from somewhere else you will need (generally) money that flowed into the Island from somewhere else. This is not strictly true for a single banana, but on a big-picture level it is true. If all the money flows out for foreign bananas and no money flows in for services Cayman provides, soon the Island’s money supply is literally all gone and we’re done. The sale of our services to the outside world is our most delicate financial link. Take good care of that.
Agreed! The talent is coming for Asia. Here in the U.S., all the math/accounting classes in the colleges and universities are taught by guys from India. Wow, some of the guys are like the rocket scientists you described.
Another tip, apparently, some of the young adults and teenagers have a "hackers convention," in Las Vegas Nevada every year. These young adults come from around the world. They reserve conference rooms in some of the big casino hotels. Apparently, these young adults are so good, big corporations as well as FBI send personnel to attend for information, update their own skills, and help with computer security programs.
This is how good they are, a few years ago, they reserved one of the hotels. Well, security didn’t believe them and started hassling them. As a joke to them, not to the casino, in a matter of minutes the young adults hacked into the casino security system, hacked into the bingo games – calling numbers/letters that didn’t exist, and then the television programming – meaning the people who were looking at television all of a sudden were watching porn.
They have a convention every year in Las Vegas. They are not always looking for great pay, more they are just looking for recognition. Some are hired to be computer security experts, or used to try to crack security leaks in programs. Since some are not old enough to work, they are just looking for recognition, and likes the competition.
How did you source the company to do the work in creating a web site I am very interested?
Dude, give it a rest, this ain’t that kind of party. Cayman is not a retail centre. The people Bush is talking about won’t be on the phone flogging investments, won’t need sales assistants, and invented the funds that you are so eager to educate us about. Administration, paperwork, accounting, maybe some other stuff will get done here, sales are up to the hotdogs back in the big office.
OMG! I am a female! Do I have to be a male to know about investments?
Yes.
Get back in to the kitchen.
Joke, OK!
Well those jobs were lost from Cayman because of the random operation of the key employee system which resulted in the loss of Caymanian jobs. Better security of tenure for staff is needed.
I heard it wasn’t quite so random, but that it was a matter of deliberate choice by the Immigration Department.
I heard that Immigration wouldn’t let a central worker (meaning a key guy) have the required permit or status so as to let them stay and keep doing their job, so that person and all the jobs that went with that department were forced to go off-island to work from somewhere else. Makes sense. If the person generating (or leading) the work is gone, the work won’t get done here anymore, and everyone in the department will need to go look for another job.
Immigration needs to think long and hard about the consequences of their decisions. They can wipe out 20 Caymanian jobs just by tossing out a department’s key employee.
No surprise really – chop of the head and the body dies. Toss out the department head and the department will shut down.
Good forward thinking Immigration. Way to take care of the Caymanian work force.
Immigration need to realise that attracting jobs for people who provide services to companies outside of Cayman is crucial for the growth of the economy and the generation of Caymanian jobs.
Perhaps not the issue in the case being discussed but businesses need to realise that if their employee does not qualify for key employee designation, or is disqualified because of mis-truths on applications, or is undesireable because of a refusal to even attempt to relate to and train local persons then they will not be granted key employee designation.
I agree that expats have an obligation to train Caymanians and be nice to people generally but even if they can’t or won’t train others, it might still not be in the best interests of the Island to pitch them off the Island.
Which do you want, to stand on "correctness" and have 20 more unemployed Caymanians, or to have 20 employed Caymanians with at least an opportunity to learn something on the job while they still collect paychecks and feed their families? Were I one of the 20, the choice would be simple.
It’s not like jobs are hanging from trees so as to justify wasting them.
Depends on how many Caymanians are in this department. If they are all expat workers then there’s 20 foreign workers leaving the country and no Caymanians hired or fired. But then there will be 20 condos not rented, 20 lots of shopping not done this week, 20 more cars for sale (without the extra duty) and the list goes on.
I seem to be waving goodbye to friends every month right now because of redundancies but these positions won’t be filled by Caymanians, the position just won’t exist anymore. The private sector is contracting so I doubt that this is the last story we’ll read on relocating staff out of Cayman.
Thank you. Noone considers the loss impact. I for one have laid off one expat and will not be replacing him. If need comes to do so later, I will seek out a responsible, hard working, ethical, timely, well dressed, honest, Caymanian without a chip on their shoulder!!!
Fortunately, the economy doesn’t seem to be looking up quite yet for me to have to tackle THAT task…
What if Qualified Caymanians apply for a position and the employer not only sends them pro-forma denials which give false reasons, refuses to interview, and then misleads immigration as to the qualities or even existence of Caymanian applicants – is that "standing on correctness" or is that an "offence". Do you understand the difference – or should it only be an offence when a Jamaican labourer misleads immigration.
Come on people we are now in a new century of technology and virtual office. How many of you ate the moment work in an office where you have management running departments in deferent parts of the world, like Dubai, Hong Kong, Dublin, etc.? If you really think about it this is all in effect right at this moment. If your big firm is not doing that right now then your behind and you eill not keep up with growth. So this excuse for key employee to keep jobs here is a bunch of crap!!!
I’d also like to add, it costs a lot of money to work in this field. You pay for fingerprints. You will go through a thorough background investigation. If you have a criminal record, most of all, if you have a record of theft of funds, you won’t be hired. You have to be bonded.
The exam books costs hundreds of dollars, and it could cost hundreds-thousands of dollars for the books and the cost of exams. Tests used to be at NASD testing centers. These are upfront costs, not reimbursed. Yes, you pay for the license, but, the employer retains the license. In essence, you never get the license.
One last note, to show this is a very complex field, remember Martha Stewart, she didn’t work in the field. But, because she used insider information, she was sent to prison.
Martha Stewart was sent to prison because she lied to a Federal Investigator, and NOT for using inside information.
Maybe those tests aren’t so tough after all.
Okay, then go get em’ tiger!
You can try to debate me on this issue, which is fine! However, most people who get annual statements from the banks which shows financial statements don’t have a clue – cash flow, income, balance sheets….
Again, the FBI got involved because it was dealing with the securities she made a profit on. Insider trading – she had knowledge about the company that only insiders knew, which also filtered down to the broker (account exec/manager) When you deal with security violations, the investigators are the SEC, FBI.
Again, if you believe the tests are not so tough, go get em’
“Our government wishes to do what is necessary to have those staff members relocated back to the Cayman Islands.”
This is about as vague a statement as a leader can make.
Please remember if you grant loads of permits to "get the industry back" and security of tenure becomes an issue down the road that means you get back to granting loads of status, which has proven not to be a good solution for the country.
It would be interesting to know if and how the leader intends to change the Law to "do what is necessary" or if he will delegate to Boards.
Teaching our own people to "fish" and making sure we get the opportunity to do so is more important than bringing others in and then demanding a larger portion of their "fish" every four years.
What will be his next move? DUH! The financial services sector will be exempt from the rollover provision.
McKeeva better stay as far away from anything to do with immigration.It is his handling of blanket status to people that helped to put Cayman in the state it is in. STAY AWAY MAC.
What link is there between the handing out of status grants and the current state of Cayman? None. Wanton overspending by the previous government and the worldwide recession are the cause of the problems. Blaming it on foreigners, even ones that are no longer foreigners, is pathetic and cowardly.
It is not the fault (generally) of foreigners but the status grants have in fact cost the country significantly and permanently. Don’t believe me? Go on. Make an FOI request. "How many dollars has the Cayman Islands Government spent feeding, educating, clothing, medicating, prosecuting etc. persons who were amongst the 3,000 status grant recipients, and their dependants.
Say there are (conservatively) 1,000 children in this category. Cost of child in Government School (old ones – the new ones will raise the number dramatically) CI$15,000 each per year = $15,000 x 1,000 = 15 million CI$ each year = CI$90 million in 6 years since grants.
That is one factor only. Think a little more.
and the other 2,000 status grant holders (even accepting your random number of 1,000 people that need supporting) are here with their families, owning, running and working in business which would close down without them. they are paying rent, buying houses, buying cars, groceries, buying burger king, buying beer in your local bar, volunteering, helping out at church, paying to have their car licensed and their garbage collected, sending money through money transfers, buying and using cellphones, eating out at restaurants, buying school supplies, need I go on….?
how do you think the economy will survive without the economic activity of this group of people?
how will YOUR job and income be affected.
please have a think about it?
My income has already been affected. By virtue of the grants I was displaced from promotion prospects that I was qualified for – in one case by someone who had not been here for 5 years and I had to move jobs. You misread my e-mail. I did not suggest the 1,000 were part of the 3,000. I suggested the 1,000 were part of the 6,000 or 7,000 who have acquired permanent rights through the 3,000.
You should check with the affordable housing trust and find out the nationalities (10 years ago) of the hundreds now awaiting Government housing. You should check the nationalities (10 years ago) of hundreds of those unable to pay their medical bills.
They owned and ran and worked in businesses before they were granted status (although many of the grants may have been unlawful and therefore void – not my interpretation but that of Mr. Pannick – Government’s own lawyer)
The economy would do fine without them having been granted status as they were. They would mostly still be here but would be paying their own way. Those that could afford it would have been granted status by now anyway and would be contributing – and those that could not would be likely rolled over – with some allowance for those who had been here for more than 15 years.
They would be deserving and welcomed into the Caymanian fold.
Instead we now have an angry, frustrated, and divided community – stop defending the indefensible. Even the UDP is privately acknowledging the way the grants were handled was a terrible mistake.
So this is all derived from the chip on your shoulder because you blame someone else for your career difficulties. That is often the way that narrow minded nationalism starts.
I have recovered quite nicely thank you. Others have not been quite so fortunate.
can you not see that we have an angry, frustrated and divided community because of the nationalistic and divisive comments such as yours?
I am relying on facts to help describe what is happening. They are not Nationalistic – they are the truth. What do you base your position on?r
And…………this "angry, frustrated and divided community" has nothing to do with McKeeva Bush & the UDP’s propaganda during the campaign, about certain Caymanians hating foreigners, & McKeeva Bushs continual begging of Jamaicans to hate certain Caymanians?
The hatred in this island has a lot to do with McKeeva Bush & the UDP. How can anyone, for political gain or otherwise, encourage foreigners to hate their own people? The hatred starts at the top, & then it is a simple "follow thy leader" & what we end up with is an "angry, frustrated and divided community"!! Hatred then turns to threats & crimes, & this is what we are now witnessing! Please put the blame where it belongs. Blame McKeeva Bush & the UDP, not the person who wrote the posting above.
oh, you forgot to mention sending all their money back home, yes, to their real home that they love. If we think for a moment that the majority of them love Cayman, please wake up. They are here only for themselves, to better themselves & their family, not to better us or help us. Just look & see, & check out the amount of $’s they send back to their real home.
please have a think about this!
You ask what link is there between the handing out of status & the current state of Cayman? Are you serious? You must either be one of the recipients of the status GIVE AWAYS, or you must be one of those very blind udp followers!
I could give you many, many links between the grants & our current state, but I will limit it to the following most important ones:
3000 status grants were given away, of which most went to people who had never been on our islands, people who had just visited the islands, people who had just started living on the islands for a few months, & some who had just been living here for 1 or 2 years. This naturally causes hatred amongst the people, especially the thousands of deserving people who have lived here for 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 & more years! These strangers to our islands need work! Get the picture now? These new Caymanians will be in need of work, & hundreds will be without. The hundreds that do get work will be taking jobs from Caymanians who have been here for many years. In other words, because of these give away grants, thousands will be without work!
Because of these thousands of give away grants, hundreds of new children to the island will need to be admitted to school. It has made it difficult for Caymanian children to get into school. We are being outnumbered by foreign nationalities in our own country, this is a fact! No other country in the world is outnumbered by foreigners, so why should we be?
When people cannot find legitimate work, they will find illegal means to make a living. This leads to crime, & I believe that even you will have noticed the increase in serious crimes as of late, or are you so blinded in your support of the udp that you have not noticed that? There is less work for more people because of the status give aways, & a hungry man is an angry man so those people without work will look ways to not go hungry, it is only logical! Do you get the drift?
No single act in our history has hurt our islands like the 3000 status grants has, & it will continue to hurt because they will not go away. The problems will get worse over time, & if you can’t see that, well then I have to accept that you are most definitely one of those blind udp followers!
The logic here is atrocious. Many of the recipients would have status by now anyway. Many brought business here to Cayman and continue to do so. Your job approachs assumes a zero sum game of the economy. Economies don’t work that way. And the marginal cost of additional children attending school is limited. And last week posters were moaning about status grant recipients leaving Cayman. It is all in your head and the head of petty nationalists like you.
The logic is not atrocious. If you can follow the logic then there is nothing inherently wrong with it. If you disagree with the conclusions that her or she has reached from following that logic then that is a different matter.
I am a nationalist, and there is nothing "petty" about being a nationalist as far as I am concerned. I am also the poster of the message "Read the papers" at 07:31 above.
I do not disagree that there was need for 3000 people to be given status. Perhaps the number should have been 5000, who knows, but I do know that the reason for the 3000 was not because they were the most deserving but because the people in power wanted to exercise that power and that is what I vehemently disagree with. Once again we see that same attitude displayed in the money set aside in the "slush fund".
I know of "big" UDP supporters, i.e. the ones putting up cash and appliances, who got status for their gardeners and maids. This was not requested out of any compassion for their domestic helpers, but solely because they would then decide when they would be sent back home and they didn’t want the hassle of applying for permits every year knowing full well the the same government might not be in power. Those poor "helpers" still believe that their status can be taken away at any time.
I also know of "white collar" criminals who were refused status by the Immigration Board, based on evidence presented to the Board, that were granted this irrevocable status. Politcal favours do not discriminate based on social, economic, or ethnic backgrounds for sure.
There has always been a Board in place to review and grant Cayman Status to deserving individuals. All the government of the day has to do is set the quotas.
As a petty nationalist, I will never again vote for anyone associated with the great "status giveaway" of 2003, nor will I vote for anyone who tries to defend it, or is NOT willing to denounce it as a reprehensible act.
I can see it is a waste of time to try & explain to you, you will never get it, & you will never care! How can anyone not feel pain when they think about the 3000 status grants?How can anyone not feel that this single act has hurt Cayman & will continue to do so?
How can a person receive status after 9 years, or even 12 years? It is not right. A person who was in Cayman for only 2 years when those grants were thrown away in 2003, or had been here for only a few months, or people who were not living in Cayman at the time, or even worse, people who had NEVER even visited Cayman, how on earth could these people have status by now, merely 6 years later? Please explain that.
Of course they were a few scattered amongst the 3000 that fully qualified, but thousands did not, & for you to pass it off so simply as to say that they would have status by now, shows a lack of understanding & care. I hope that you are not a Caymanian because I’d hate to think that a Caymanian could care so little for Cayman, except for Mr. Bush of course but we know why he was behind those grants!
Read the papers and look carefully at the surnames of young adults convicted of crimes in the last two years, then look to see if those same surnames can be found on the Macdinejad 2003 list.
What is far more disturbing is when the court report reads that he was previously given probation because his mother needed him at home to take care of his siblings while she worked.
This was the major cause of overcrowding in the public schools. At the "high" end of the 2003 list we see names that were involved in the so-called "white collar" crimes. Now these same people stand ready to "assist" in moving government assets into the private sector.
If you have to wait for any more "links" then I’m afraid that there will be nothing left after you have been convinced.
You better start shouting loud if you want him to stay away from anything to do with immigration. It may be a little too late, but as we all know he has started giving away permanent residency, & it will will continue on the quiet until he & the UDP have given away 9000 to their foreign supporters (you know, the ones that followed them up & down to all their campaign meetings). When those 9000 are granted & added to the thousands (status’) the UDP have already given away, we Caymanians will have no say in our country, & no say in the running of our country. We will be run by foreigners who are now (?????) "Caymanians." Come to think of it, we are already being run by foreigners (the UDP supporters!)
I would like to know how this is suppose to work. Working in the fund industry is not easy! First, let me say, I am in the U.S. Now, here’s why I have doubt about training Caymanians for these positions. Or should I say, this is easier said than done.
When I was 18 years old, I was an assistant to a stockbroker (at the time it was Shearson-Lehman Brothers, the Beverly Hills Branch on Wilshire Blvd – in California). This helped me gain further knowledge into the industry. What also helped me, I was interested in learning. After leaving the job, I took it upon myself to further my knowledge by venturing into Zero-Coupon Bonds (bonds sold before maturity, discounted bonds but pay phantom interest – at maturity get full face value). After that, I started buying individual stocks, and enrolling in dividend reinvestment programs.
Later, I went to work for a mutual fund company – I had to take the securities exam first. While taking the test, I met people who were taking the retaking the test. There were some people taking it for the 4th, 5th, 6th time. I passed it on the first try. ***I think it was because of workingat a brokerage firm, and my sincere interest in investments that I passed on my first attempt.
Again, the mutual fund industry is mainly commission and quota driven. With the economy in the state it’s in, and the recent ponzi schemes – I am thinking the investors will mainly be "institutional investors." Which makes me believe, the most of the funds that would be mainly active are municipal bonds, cash, maybe a few stocks in developing countries, some gold…..
There’s a lot to learning the industry – example, knowing the definition of churning, fiduciary, SEC, SIPC, par value, EPS…….There are a lot of laws that govern the mutual fund industry, there’s also a lot of math-calculations. And certainly, with the world’s economy in the state it’s in, I am sure, that people in the industry will not make sure they are taking the clients risk-factor in consideration.
Meanwhile, I just hope this is not an empty promise. Yes, I know the Cayman Islands is a financial centre – yet, I look back to the Bernie Madoff’s, GM’s bankruptcy to not pay pensions…..With that, I will just say good luck!
"I would like to know how this is suppose to work. Working in the fund industry is not easy! First, let me say, I am in the U.S. Now, here’s why I have doubt about training Caymanians for these positions. Or should I say, this is easier said than done."
Please explain what you have written. My understanding of your opening statement is that Caymanians won’t be able to be trained in this area.
Don’t you think the people of the Cayman Islands are just as capable as an American?
I apologize if my opening statement appeared to indicate Caymanians can’t be trained. I was only trying to say that this is easier said than done.
The financial markets tend to be very complicated and stressful as well. For example, most people tend to stay away from investments because they don’t understand them. Therefore, they will use savings accounts or savings bonds.
Working in the investment industry is very stressful for the workers as well. Again, this is commission and quota driven. Let’s say, for instance, you sold an investment, made your commission. Your client closed the account without your knowledge. This results in a "chargeback." This means, next month, this commission will be deducted from your check. Better yet, the company may decide that you also owe more than what was deducted from your check – so out of pocket you pay.
You must be fluent in the laws that govern investments. When you sell an investment to someone, sometimes they will make accusations that you sold them the wrong investment and they lost their money. A client can tell you to sell an investment, and if it’s not sold right away, they can makeaccusations that you didn’t sell on time and they lost money. Well, to make a long story short, you can lose your license to sell securities, you can go to prison for violating the securities laws.
And to keep this even shorter, if the investment field was so simple, I don’t think everyone would have lost money with their pensions, nor the economic downturn due to "derivatives." When you work in the investment market, this is where life sees all evil. Everything is driven by money, brokers are stressed to the point of having temper tantrums, anxiety attacks, most of driven to alcohol, or outright theft. You know when I worked as an assistant, there were times I was scared at work. Clients would come to the office/call the office making threats to the broker because they lost money. Lastly, I would say, ask someone if you can view their manuals for series 7…… and you decide.
If I had to guess, I’d say that the same proportion of Caymanians as Americans are truly gifted enough so as to excel in the incredibly complicated international financial markets which Cayman services. Maybe one-tenth of one percent of the population is that good. That would be about 350,000 Americans and about 15 Caymanians.
Thanks for your story about life in the fast lane. However I don’t see the relevance in the story or how it relates to Cayman, or anywhere for that matter.
You talk mainly from the perspective of somebody selling investments to private individuals on a financial adviser basis. The kind of hegde funds and business that makes up the overwhelming proprtion of the industry in Cayman is institutional business and completely different from selling a few shares to Mom and Pops 401Kor whatever.
The story by CNS was saying that the LOGB was hoping to make it easier to attract these financial services professionals to the country to work. Currently the Financial firms have difficulty employing trained staff because the immigration system is poor and a lot of work permits are denied and instead the company is forced to either employ a Caymanian (regardless if the Caymanian is qualified or skilled to do the job) or the company would have to move the job overseas so they could employ their preferred person.
The LOGB is therefore trying to overcome this by making it easier to get work permits for highly qualified individuals. he is asking the companies to commit to training Caymanian staff in the mid and long term. however you are correct in saying this will be initially difficult as the education system is generally very poor and the calibre of school and university leavers that have not studied overseas is incredibly low. This, together with an entitlement culture caused by the over protective immigration laws, where young Caymanians are increasingly expectant of getting top tier jobs because they are Caymanian even if they flunked school and were too lazy to put the effort in to anything.
Try getting most Caymanians to work for commissions… It is very hard and they are few and far between…
Commission means having to consistantly perform and work hard. Otherwise you get paid less.
Entitlement mentality and commission do not work together.
I love the notion that any job can be filled by anyone, with the proper training. If we were in a small town of 50,000 in say the U.S. it would be just as likley that there would maybe one or two people in that population who could fill the positions that we are talking about. Further, there is the assumption that the few who would be capable of these positions would be available and willing to undertake them. In reality they probably already have a good paying job they are happy with or have their own business. Idon’t think I am a stupid person but I know that there are plenty of things in this world that I would be incapable of doing regardless of training, assuming I wanted to try. If we had a nuclear power plant here do you really think that we could just "train" some Caymanians to run it.
Our LOGB became a Financial wizard overnight by simply naming himself Minister of Financial Services.
I cant understand why some people take so long to learn the business.