With its North American marketing programmes in place and gleaning good results, Cayman Enterprise City (“CEC”), the Cayman Islands’ award winning Special Economic Zone is now focused on raising its profile in London, the centre of the world’s financial services industry and home to a burgeoning tech sector.  Chief Executive Officer Charlie Kirkconnell got the UK campaign off to a great start during a recent trip to London where he promoted the benefits of the Cayman Islands as the ideal business base for British tech and media companies looking to attract new business by expanding into the North and Latin America markets.

During his visit Kirkconnell hosted an event for tech companies and attended a dinner hosted by the Premier of the Cayman Islands for UK based business people with a connection to the Cayman Islands at the Cayman Islands Government’s invitation. Kirkconnell also manned an exhibition booth at the British Overseas Territories Investment Forum 2013 event, which is a high-profile UK government trade summit promoting economic development in the Overseas Territories, and held a series of face-to-face meetings with prospective clients.

Kirkconnell says “Cayman’s Special Economic zone has made it both easy and cost-effective for companies to set up a genuine physical presence in the Cayman Islands to conduct business with North and Latin American companies on the same time zone, from this strategically located tax-neutral jurisdiction”.

The London campaign included a reception hosted by CEC at the Cayman Islands Office in London where Kirkconnell and his team welcomed 35 persons representing 17 companies interested in learning more about CEC and the Cayman Islands as a place to do business.  Lord Blencathra, Director and UK Representative of the Cayman Islands Government office assisted with the event, and CEC’s London-based Representative Rob Wirszycz reached out to contacts in the local tech and commodities industries. The Premier of the Cayman Islands the Hon. Alden McLaughlin, in London for Joint Ministerial Council week, attended and spoke of the Cayman Islands Government’s pro-business mind set towards direct foreign investment and economic development and of the Cayman Enterprise City project as an important driver of foreign direct investment.  Kirkconnell networked with interested decision-makers, showcased the benefits of CEC and Cayman generally and answered detailed questions

“Those who attended were genuinely interested and saw the benefits of both Cayman as a pro-business jurisdiction and the CEC zone as a mechanism to easily establish a presence there,” said Lord Blencathra. “The personal contact with both the Premier and CEC’s team was very well received by the attendees and we look forward to working with CEC on promoting the benefits of this jurisdiction to the UK market.”

The British Overseas Territories Investment Forum 2013 was held at historic Lancaster House in London on 28 November 2013. Hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as part of Joint Ministerial Council week, the focus of the forum was to give UK companies and investors the opportunity to learn about the Overseas Territories’ current and future plans, and to highlight commercial opportunities. Minister for the Overseas Territories Mark Simmonds spoke at the event and assured attendees of the UK government’s solid and open support of the Territories’ economic development efforts. The Cayman Islands Government invited CEC to attend the summit so that Cayman’s newly formed Special Economic Zone could be showcased.

“The faith of the Cayman Islands Government in the project and its vocal and visible support of it during our time in London were invaluable” said Kirkconnell.  “The message that the Cayman Islands is a first-class, business-friendly jurisdiction that is seeking to grow its economy came through loud and clear to all that had the opportunity to hear it and we expect to see a substantial number of businesses we presented to establish a physical presence in the Islands in the not too distant future.”