Law firm Appleby helped move a client into a new special economic zone set up in the Cayman Islands where companies are exempt from work permits and taxes.

In a bid to diversify and boost the economy, the Cayman Government passed legislation at the end of last year creating the Cayman Enterprise City (CEC), guaranteeing ten-day, fast track set-up of operations.

Businesses who set up in the zone are entitled to numerous benefits including a 50-year direct tax exemption (should it ever be introduced in the Cayman Islands), exemptions from conventional work permit requirements, ten-day streamlined set-up and exemption from import duties.

In addition, more than a million square feet of prime office space has been designed to accommodate these exempt businesses in dedicated high-tech parks.

The CEC officials credit “the foresight” of Cayman Premier McKeeva Bush for building the zone to diversify the islands’ economy.

In the long term, a KPMG study estimated Cayman Enterprise City would create 9,800 jobs, 5,000 of which would be in the zone itself, with the remainder being jobs created indirectly.

Appleby’s Cayman office said it was “delighted to have guided a client from concept through incorporation and to have assisted in its establishment in the Islands within the special economic zone”.

Appleby said: “The entity, a Cayman Islands exempted special economic zone company, has moved into the Media Park of Cayman Enterprise City and will be engaged in publishing activities from the Cayman Islands. Its first employee has been granted all appropriate permissions and has moved to the Islands from Europe.

“This client is the first Appleby client to benefit from the numerous potential advantages of a presence within the Cayman Enterprise City special economic zone. Significant interest is building in respect of opportunities both within the zone and in the Cayman Islands generally.”

The zone’s tax and regulatory benefits are designed to attract companies from five high-tech sectors covering biotechnology, internet and media ventures, commodities and derivatives, and academics.

There will be no manufacturing or industrial businesses within the zone. And international businesses establishing within the zone will not be permitted to trade in Cayman outside of the zone so they cannot compete with local businesses.

Cayman Enterprise City was officially launched in February this year and already has about 12 companies that have moved into the zone, CEC vice-president of marketing and business development Hilary McKenzie-Cahill told The Royal Gazette.

To meet the demand of clients, she said the CEC has taken interim accommodation in and around George Town and it has been designated at Zone Space while the main campus is being built.

Ms McKenzie-Cahill said existing Cayman companies not getting the benefits of being in the CEC “understand that every new company we bring into the Zone and into Cayman will need a local Cayman law firm for legal services, a local Cayman accounting firm for accounting and auditing services, HR services, and so on”.

She continued: “They are supportive because we are referring a tremendous amount of business to them that they don’t currently have. It’s a great way for them to grow their client bases without them having to spend more on marketing. It’s a new client source for them. Zone companies can’t do business in Cayman so they do not compete with local Caymanian companies.”

Ms McKenzie-Cahill would not name any of the companies in the zone saying: “The majority of clients — those in the Zone and all those going through the licencing process — wish to have their privacy respected. CEC clients, like most international companies that choose to incorporate in Cayman to take advantage of the tax-neutral jurisdiction, generally want to their privacy and confidentiality respected.”

She did say the companies were “technology companies, internet start-ups, e-commerce groups and new media companies from small one-man-band start-ups to large Nasdaq-listed ones, and also commodities companies”.

In a recent Gazette column, Anchor Investment Management CFO Nathan Kowalski wrote that a “Bermuda National Enterprise Zone” focused on science, technology and engineering companies could help shrink the Island’s budget deficit as there is no government spending involved while tax revenues and jobs would be created by the companies building and/or retrofitting the new company’s facilities or becoming service providers.

“Simply put, this is a concept where the government grants certain foreign business special incentives to move to Bermuda and set up its facilities and hire,” he wrote.

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