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| Director of the Maketing and Development Department, Financial Services, Ms. Shawna Lake. |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, MARCH 31ST 2006 - St. Kitts is making steady progress in the financial services sector, Director of the Marketing and Development Department, Ms. Shawna Lake said Thursday.
"Since 2001 many things have happened. In 2000 we were placed on the FATF Black List and on the OECD Blacklist for Harmful Tax Competition and this was actually unfortunate for St. Kitts and Nevis, because in St. Kitts, we had only just a few years before launched our financial services sector with the passing of our Companies Act, Limited Partnerships Act and our Trusts Act," she said.
Ms. Lake said that that during 2001 to the middle of 2002, the Department basically had to refocus all of its attention on working with the Taskforce that was dealing with developing new legislation and regulations to get the Federation off the Blacklist.
"We weren't able to focus on dealing with any new products for our market and much promotion and marketing, because we were finding that we weren't able to market in an environment where people were under the misconception that once they placed money in a Blacklisted jurisdiction or made investments in a Blacklisted jurisdiction that their money was automatically tarnished, so that was one of the issues that we had," she said.
Ms. Lake noted that since removal from the Blacklists in 2002, the St. Kitts Financial Services Sector began developing new products, doing more market research and doing more marketing as well.
"So with regard to our Company's legislation which is the main product that we have as an international financial center, in 2003 which was the first set of statistics that we as a department started keeping for the sector to monitor the growth," said Ms. Lake.
The Director of Marketing and Development said St. Kitts had registered 1001 companies on the register and as of 31st December 2005 "we had 1680 companies which is a big improvement although it's a modest improvement probably compared to other jurisdictions that receive hundreds of company formation applications per month."
"We have had steady growth in the area and St. Kitts has always tried to promote real investment and not just companies that are shell companies or companies that are formed without any real presence per say. So I think that's one of the things that we have tried to promote for our jurisdiction; that we want sound investments, we want providers who are properly licensed, that are credible, who have no issues with criminal activities, etc.," said Ms. Lake.
She said that persons applying to be a provider in St. Kitts, particularly persons who are not from the jurisdiction, has to undergo background checks to ensure that there are no issues in their past business dealings.
"So we've had steady but modest growth in that area and there are a few developments that I believe are going to enhance the number of companies that are being formed in St. Kitts," said Ms. Lake.
Commenting on the introduction of the St. Kitts International Ship registry back in 2004, Ms. Lake said over 150 ships have been registered since registration began in early 2005.
"This is very formidable for a very small registry like ours and we are now having ships applying for mortgages etc, so banking institutions in various jurisdictions are now recognising us as a credible and established jurisdiction to register ships," she said.
"Now in our legislation if ships are owned by local companies they are able to get on to our register and there are also additional incentives provided for ships owned my local companies e.g. there are discounts on the registration fees on the ship register," said Lake.
She disclosed that St. Kitts and Nevis International Ship Registry, which operates out of London, England "is a tactical decision that was made because of time zone issues and because of the access to more facilities necessary for the shipping industry."
"However the local aspect of the registry is being handled domestically and right now the Maritime Division is trying very hard to encourage more of our vessels to register on our local register," said Ms. Lake and efforts will now be made to attract more locally-operated vessels to be registered with the St. Kitts and Nevis International Ship Registry.
"One of the things that has discouraged the local vessels from registering on the domestic registry is the fact that many vessels coming here and flying foreign flags, are not required to pay duty to enter the Federation and I think there is a fear that once local vessels are registered on our registry, they are going to be required to pay duty, particularly so for the larger vessels. So this has been one of the issues brought to the forefront when we tried to make a push for more of our domestic vessels to be registered and that's something we are still working on," said the financial services official.
She said programmes and discussions are ongoing to encourage local vessels to fly the St. Kitts and Nevis flag, which would be the preferred route. "However, we do have vessels from neighboring islands now registering on our registry, so I think that is a move in the right direction and I think in time we will see more of our larger vessels domestically being registered on our registry," said Ms. Lake.
