Working Relationships between Cayman’s Enterprise Zone and clients key to success for Caribbean’s “Silicon Valley”
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (PRWEB) January 02, 2013
An example is the strategic partnership between Cayman Enterprise City and Latitude19 Technology an offshore e-commerce and payment gateway startup that recently established in the zone. Employees from both CEC and the technology company teamed up at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Chicago with a common goal of attracting businesses to CEC and the Cayman Islands. Staff from Latitude19 Technology attended the conference last year, and received a lot of questions about setting up a business in the Cayman Islands, so this year Cayman Enterprise City was brought in to help market.
“We partnered with the CEC Business Development team to make sure we had the complete message delivered − from business setup to E-commerce solutions,” said Mike Whalen Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Latitude19 Technology. “We have a mutual interest in attracting new business to Cayman; our business development efforts truly complement each other and it was a great team effort.”
“We had a phenomenal response,” said CEC colleague Dean Allen who spoke with exhibitors who had already heard about Cayman Enterprise City and were very interested in the Zone benefits. “A lot of them expressed frustration with their tax burdens and many are looking at using CEC as a tax exempt base for their international sales,” he added.
The whole team promoted CEC as the perfect solution for companies feeling overburdened with taxes and regulations, and the Cayman Islands as the ideal tax-neutral jurisdiction in an economically stable British Overseas Territory. The CEC Business Development team is now following up leads cultivated at the show in Chicago, and several companies have already started the set up process.
CEC has secured concessions for international businesses that place it within the top 1% of the Special Economic Zones in the world: , a 50-year tax-free guarantee (no income tax, no corporation tax, no sales tax, no capital gains tax), no import duties, quick easy set up and more along with 5 Year Work/Residency Visas. The focus is on five key business sectors: information communications technology (ICT), media, biotechnology, commodity & derivatives and academia. Forty eight companies are currently operating their businesses within CEC or in the licensing process and another 168 are in the sales pipeline.
Latitude19 Technology, so named because Cayman is located at Latitude 19 on the world map, was among the first to sign up when CEC opened for business. In 10 short days the company had a Trade Certificate, and Class A fully-serviced offices to conduct business.
“I chose to be in the Special Economic Zone because we want to be the premier international online gateway and I want substance over form and the ability to have a real physical operation in Cayman,” said owner Tim Moore. “CEC enables the small and medium entrepreneur to do that, and there’s a strong desire to have businesses down here.”
“We have the support of the Cayman Islands Government, we have the support of the Caymanian people and the local business industry,” said CEO of Cayman Enterprise City Jason Blick. “We are absolutely and totally focused on the execution and delivery of the best special economic zone in the world and helping our zone clients grow and achieve their goals.”
About Cayman Enterprise City
Cayman Enterprise City is a Special Economic Zone being developed in Grand Cayman in a state-of-the-art campus of innovative and sustainable architecture, designed to complement and respect the local environment. The campus will include: Cayman Internet & Technology Park, Cayman Biotech Park, Cayman Media Park, Cayman Global Commodities & Derivatives Park, and Cayman International Academic Park. There will be no manufacturing or industrial businesses within the zone. For more information on CEC call +1(345)945-3722, e-mail [email protected] or visit
http://www.caymanenterprisecity.com
Charlie Kirkconnell to become CEO
In a separate story CEC announced last week that Caymanian Charlie Kirkconnell will be taking over as the company’s chief executive officer and outgoing CEO Jason Blick will remain a shareholder and director of Cayman Enterprise City and take on a new role as chairman of the Cayman Commodities and Derivatives Exchange.
Mr. Kirkconnell became involved with Cayman Enterprise City as a shareholder in late 2011 and then began working for the company on a full-time basis in January 2012. He initially served in an operations role before becoming the company’s chief strategy officer.
The Commodities and Derivatives Exchange, which is a separate entity with a different ownership structure than that of Cayman Enterprise City, will be the trading structure in which the tenants of the CEC’s Commodities and Derivatives Park operate.