British Virgin Islands

Territory added to EU ‘grey list’

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:50:01 +0000

Territory added to EU ‘grey list’

/sites/default/files/imported_articles_images/node__12768.jpg

admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:50

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Territory added to EU ‘grey list’

The Virgin Islands has been added to the European Union’s “grey list” along with nine other jurisdictions in the Caribbean and elsewhere, the EU Council announced after its meeting on Feb. 24.

Besides the VI, the EU added the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Israel, Montserrat, Russia, Tunisia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Vietnam, bringing the total list up to 25 jurisdictions.

Although the inclusion does not mean that any penalties or sanctions will be levied against the territory, according to the EU, the move represents a significant setback after the territory rushed through economic substance legislation at the end of 2019 in order to meet EU requirements on tax reform.

In a Feb. 24 press release, the EU Council said that the list reflects “ongoing EU cooperation with its international partners and the commitments of these countries to reform their legislation to adhere to agreed tax good governance standards.”

The countries on the grey list are working toward meeting the EU’s tax standards, the release stated.

According to the EU, criteria for the list cover tax transparency, fair taxation and preventing tax base erosion and profit shifting. The organisation called implementation of the list a “dynamic process,” and noted that the next revision is scheduled for October of this year.

Anguilla, Botswana, Costa Rica, Dominica, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Qatar, the Seychelles, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay were previously added and remain on the grey list.

The blacklist, which remained unchanged after last month’s announcement, currently includes American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States Virgin Islands, and Vanuatu.

VI response

At a press conference late last month, Premier Andrew Fahie urged onlookers not to view the move as a censure of the territory.

He said the grey-listing meant the VI has “substantially met all international tax standards set out by the EU, but that ongoing improvements are being made to implementing tax good governance.”

As a result, he said, it has been grey-listed while it implements policies and procedures in the territory’s Country-by-Country Reporting framework.

“No defensive measures flow from being on such list and the BVI is still a cooperative jurisdiction,” he said. “Once the BVI meets these commitments, it will be removed from the annex.”

He added that the territory “takes its international obligations seriously” and had already been finalising the necessary steps to ensure successful implementation of the recommendations.

This week, BVI Finance CEO Elise Donovan directed queries to the Premier’s Office. Director of Communications Dr. Arliene Penn said, “BVI’s addition to EU’s Annex II is a positive rating for us because it acknowledges that BVI is a cooperative jurisdiction that has implemented measures (in the case of the Country-by-Country Reporting) in accordance with the high international standards prescribed. The BVI remains highly committed to the transparency and international cooperation agenda.”

The EU has hinted for some time that it would seek to modify its requirements for the list, the latest iteration of which was announced last October.

In February 2021, the European parliament passed a resolution calling for a measure that would automatically blacklist British territories like the VI, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands that have a zero percent corporate tax rate — and that now have a weakened voice in the EU in the wake of the United Kingdom’s split from the organisation.

The resolution did not mention the VI at the time, but it came before the revelation that nearly two-thirds of companies named in the far-reaching Pandora Papers investigation last year were based in the VI.

Panama, which is already on the EU blacklist, was host to the second highest number.

World response

Meanwhile, the EU Observer reported late last month that tax-reform campaigners are already applauding the news.

Chiara Putaturo, a campaigner with the non-profit Oxfam, praised the move, but complained that the Cayman Islands was not included.

“If the [new] grey-listing … is confirmed, we will see some real tax havens finally at risk to be blacklisted [in the future],” she said. “However, there are still other tax havens that are left off the hook, … such as the Cayman Islands, because the criteria remain weak.”

History

As in other OTs, leaders in the VI have long criticised the EU’s blacklists as arbitrary and misleading, maintaining that the territory’s financial services industry is tightly regulated in keeping with international standards.

Nevertheless, the VI was grey-listed along with other jurisdictions in 2017. In March 2018, the EU concluded that the VI, the Bahamas and Cayman needed further technical guidance from the EU and had until the end of 2019 to adapt local legislation, which resulted in the Economic Substance Act being rushed through the House of Assembly in late 2018.

Thanks to this move, the VI was white-listed, alongside 16 other jurisdictions, in February 2020.

The post Territory added to EU ‘grey list’ first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post Territory added to EU ‘grey list’ appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

Caribbean

Business

Work starts on public company register

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:50:01 +0000

Work starts on public company register admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:50

Monday, March 21, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Work starts on public company register

A year and a half after Premier Andrew Fahie promised to work with the United Kingdom toward establishing a public register of beneficial ownership by 2023, he has announced that progress toward the goal is under way amid a UK-led crackdown partially directed toward Russian oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“On 22nd of September 2020, I stood in the House of Assembly and gave a commitment to work in collaboration with the United Kingdom government towards a publicly accessible register of beneficial ownership for companies in line with international standards and best practices as they develop globally and at least as implemented by [European Union] member states by 2023, in furtherance of the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive,” the premier said during a press conference last week. “The consultation process with the financial service industry will commence in short order.

“The policy lead will rest with my executive team in the Ministry of Finance, who will work closely with the BVI Financial Services Commission.”

UK bill

The announcement was followed by Tuesday’s early-morning Royal Assent for the UK’s new Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, which was rushed through the UK Parliament last week in response to the Ukraine invasion.

The bill is designed to allow the UK to move more quickly to impose new sanctions against oli garchs and intensify enforcement of sanctions already in place.

Amid the bill’s more important provisions is a new Register of Overseas Entities, requiring people behind foreign companies that own UK property — many of which are VI-registered — to reveal their identities.

UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said, “There is absolutely no room for illicit finance in the UK, and by bringing forward this Economic Crime Act at unprecedented speed we’ve put [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and the corrupt elites propping him up, on notice. Our new Register of Overseas Entities, the first of its kind in the world, will have an immediate dissuasive effect on oligarchs attempting to hide their ill-gotten gains, ensuring that the UK is a place for legitimate business only.”

Under the new act, entities that refuse to reveal a beneficial owner will face tough restrictions on selling their property, and those who break the rules could face a fine of up to £2,500 per day or up to five years in prison, according to the bill, which is expected to be a valuable tool for law enforcement agencies in investigating suspicious wealth.

According to the UK Parliament, Companies House will begin work to implement the register “as quickly as possible,” working closely with the UK’s three land registries. Any foreign company selling properties between Feb. 28 and the full implementation of the register will also be required to submit its details at the point of sale, Parliament stated.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said, “This government has moved quickly to strengthen our response to Putin’s cronies and ensure that corrupt elites have nowhere to hide their dirty money in the UK. We will continue to work with our international partners to take the strongest possible action against those who enable this unprovoked aggression towards Ukraine.”

VI commitment

Here in the Virgin Islands, Mr. Fahie said the commitment to a public company register, for which the VI was the final holdout among the British overseas territories, was one which he “did not give lightly, nor did I give it without reservation.”

“Whilst we continue to monitor developments on the subject of publicly accessible registers, as they feature in various international forums, and whilst we continue to make the case for a slightly different strategic approach, we must of course take the appropriate steps to honour our commitment if and when called upon,” he added.

The premier said he is confident that collaboration with the private sector will give the VI “the best framework that we can negotiate and with the legal protections, safeguards and security that I have insisted on all along, if publicly accessible registers for beneficial ownership indeed are to become operational by next year.”

He added, “I repeat my earlier caution that throughout these negotiations, prudence and balance must be the guiding mantra.”

Recently published decisions from a Jan. 19 Cabinet meeting provided some details on the rollout of the register.

In the meeting, Cabinet members decided that the FSC will be responsible for housing any public register and for “urgently” commencing “sourcing an estimate” for including such a register in its revamped Virtual Integrated Registry Regulatory General Information Network Platform, known as VIRRGIN LEAP, according to a summary of the Jan. 19 meeting released Monday by the Cabinet Office.

The new platform will incorporate functions for recording the “receipt, update, confirmation of accuracy, maintenance and [public] accessibility of beneficial ownership information,” the summary noted. It added that the financial secretary will be the designated decisionmaker “where approvals are required from the government.”

The post Work starts on public company register first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post Work starts on public company register appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

Caribbean

Business

One Mart continues expansion

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:50:01 +0000

One Mart continues expansion

/sites/default/files/imported_articles_images/node__12767.jpg

admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:50

Monday, March 21, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

One Mart continues expansion

One Mart owner Mark Vanterpool thinks Virgin Islands residents should have more local places to shop.

And by that, he means they shouldn’t have to go more than a few blocks for high-quality goods, he said on Friday during the grand opening of a new 2,500-square-foot store in Baughers Bay.

“I heard some comments: ‘another store two feet from the one he has down the road,’” he said. “‘Another one 500 feet away. Why does he need to have that? Is that business sense?’ Every time it has to be only business sense? Sometimes it has to be common sense. Sense for the people of the area. And that’s not politically speaking.”

Mr. Vanterpool, who is an opposition member for the Fourth District in the House of Assembly, explained that One Mart came from “humble beginnings,” and had its genesis in the small neighbourhood shop he grew up with in Huntums Ghut. His goal, he said, is to give people in the area that same type of reliable place to shop, both on a daily basis and in the event of emergencies.

“We want to have a store in the communities so that the communities can own that store just like the ones in Huntums Ghut owned it,” he said. “The people of Baughers Bay, this will be your store.”

He added that recent events have illustrated the importance of such convenience.

“Your place where you can shop, your place where you can go to when a hurricane hits and there’s nowhere to go,” he said of the store. “The first place you can come to is One Mart. When a pandemic hits, you don’t have to go down the road running to five different places. One Mart will have what you want.”

The Baughers Bay store is one of three Mr. Vanterpool said he hopes to open in the coming year, including a 34,000-square-foot supermarket in Fat Hogs Bay, according to a statement released in January. The statement reported “record” first quarter earnings for OM Holdings, the publicly traded company that is affiliated with One Mart.

In a process that started in 2020, One Mart’s holding company, KMark Foods, was acquired by the publicly held Portage Resources Inc, a Nevada-incorporated firm that first had sold off all its assets and liabilities as part of a restructuring process, according to a press release announcing the reverse merger. Portage was renamed OMHI, and Mr. Vanterpool was appointed CEO and chairman.

Last month, OMHI’s subsidiary, Atlanta-based Rydeum, launched a mobile ridesharing and delivery app in Jamaica called DoGetGo, which was available for download on both Apple and Google app stores as of this week.

In July, Rydeum signed a contract to supply what it calls “Local On-Demand Technology” to the Jamaican Union of Travelers Association, which claims to be the largest taxicab company in Jamaica. The company has said it plans to expand the service to other countries in the Caribbean.

Revenue

For the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 — which encompassed September, October and November 2021 — the company reported that revenue increased 33.3 percent to $8,002,587, compared to $6,002,894 for the same quarter in the previous fiscal year.

“We had an excellent quarter,” Mr. Vanterpool said in the January statement. “With a break in the Covid lockdown and more people traveling, we saw an increase in revenue from food service thanks to the reopening of restaurants, and BVI residents continue to support our supermarkets. Our staff returned to a 40-hour week, and we made some additional hires for our new stores. We also saw an increase in deliveries even though the government lifted restrictions.”

He credited the post-pandemic bump in tourism for “increased assurance that this year will be another record one for our company.We also expect significant growthfrom the three new stores we willopen this year, as well as from thelaunch of our mobile app DoGetGo in Jamaica.”

Other remarks

At the Friday opening ceremony, Sixth District Representative Alvera Maduro-Cainescongratulated Mr. Vanterpool forbringing One Mart to the area.

“After the hurricane, manypeople ran to Baughers Bay andare living in this area,” she said.“So this supermarket is reallymuch needed here.”

Premier Andrew Fahie andCountry Head of FirstCaribbeanInternational Bank Amory Jervisboth were on hand to praise the storefor providing convenient shoppingand increased employment as theeconomy struggles to recover frompandemic-related slowdowns.

History

Mr. Vanterpool founded OneMart in 1986, and the chain nowclaims to now be the second-largest grocery store in the VI.

It has lately announced a series of ambitious expansion plans.OMHI acquired Rydeum in2019. Mr. Vanterpool also announced last year that he had acquired the VI’s iconic Pusser’sfood, beverage and clothingbrand from its founder.

OMHI has been vocal aboutits plans to expand to the UnitedStates VI and elsewhere in theregion.

The post One Mart continues expansion first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post One Mart continues expansion appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

Caribbean

Business

Week focuses on financial literacy

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:50:01 +0000

Week focuses on financial literacy admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:50

Monday, March 28, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Week focuses on financial literacy

Money Matters BVI is currently celebrating Global Money Week 2022, an international observance focused on developing financial literacy skills in children and young adults.

Here in the Virgin Islands, activities include student field trips to banks and other financial institutions, according to Rhonda Hodge-Smith, coordinator of financial literacy at the Financial Services Commission.

Participants, she said, will gain “firsthand knowledge of product offerings, the working of the institutions, and an understanding as to how financial products fit into the individual armoury for wealth building and preservation.”

Older students will also get an understanding of “macroeconomic frameworks” so they can be savvier market users, she added.

Institutions

Participating institutions fit into the broad categories of regulator, government accounting, and providers of banking, insurance and investment products, according to a Money Matters press release.

MMBVI has also planned other activities, including the launch of a billboard near Pasea Estate and various social media promotions.

“While March is a hectic month for BVI youth, with [Global Money Week] coming on the heels of other local activities like Education Week and sporting competitions, according to principals and financial executives the field trips are crucial since they present the opportunity for youth to have coordinated experiential interaction with financial institutions,” Ms. Hodge-Smith stated in the release.

Internationally, Global Money Week is sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Network on Financial Education.

‘Financial literacy’

FSC Managing Director and CEO Kenneth Baker said with the “plethora” of financial products coming to the market, it’s more important than ever that young people understand them and choose wisely.

“With its emphasis on childhood financial literacy, Global Money Week has presented an excellent opportunity for the commission,” he said. “In the long run, the expectation is that we will see generational improvements in financial literacy via improved knowledge, understanding, and confidence in decision making toward personal economic goals.”

More details on Global Money Week activities are available on the Money Matters Facebook page, @moneymattersbvi.

Money Matters is part of the FSC’s financial literacy programme. Its goal is to engage audiences of all ages with the objective of raising awareness on topics including personal financial management, financial rights and responsibilities, saving, banking, investing, debt and wealth management, and estate planning.

The post Week focuses on financial literacy first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post Week focuses on financial literacy appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

British Virgin Islands

Caribbean

Business

Task force to tackle permit backlog

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:50:01 +0000

Task force to tackle permit backlog

/sites/default/files/imported_articles_images/node__12766.jpg

admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:50

Monday, March 28, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Task force to tackle permit backlog

After Premier Andrew Fahie promised on March 11 that the backlog of nearly 2,000 work permit renewal applications would be cleared within a month, Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration Minister Vincent Wheatley announced Friday that a task force had been formed to tackle the issue.

“I am so pleased to announce that coming out of our labour stakeholders meeting, the Labour Task Force is now in place with the specific purpose of removing the work permit backlog,” Mr. Wheatley wrote on Facebook. “It is anticipated that the backlog should take no more than a month to be cleaned up.”

The backlog of applications has been blamed for exacerbating labour shortages as the economy struggles to recover from the pandemic-related slowdown.

Meanwhile, a much-anticipated online system rolled out last July has not delivered the improvements that government promised in the years leading up to its release.

The system was billed as the vanguard of the public sector’s digital transformation, and initially it accepted applications for new permits and renewals alike. However, in December, it stopped accepting renewals, requiring them to be submitted via hard copy instead. And last month, it stopped accepting applications for new permits.

History

Amid escalating complaints about the processing delays, government held a Feb. 11 stakeholder meeting in which some employers complained of waiting months at a time to process permits. Staff shortages were blamed as the main culprit in the delays. At a March 11 press conference, the premier promised the backlog would be resolved within a month and that Mr. Wheatley would provide more details within a week.

“One thing I know that I can say to the public is that [Mr. Wheatley] has discussed with us as a government and we’re putting in place, is to make sure that all the backlog of the renewals are cleared up within a month’s time,” the premier said.

He added that the work to clear the backlog demonstrated “how we will address some of the areas after having that public meeting and listening to the voice of businesses and others and also speaking with the requisite authorities and the public about how we’ll be able to manoeuvre staff, etcetera, to adjust in some of these areas until the permanent staff comes in, because there are some positions that have to be filled that were not filled.”

The post Task force to tackle permit backlog first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post Task force to tackle permit backlog appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

British Virgin Islands

Caribbean

Business

Labour claims progress on backlog

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:50:01 +0000

Labour claims progress on backlog

/sites/default/files/imported_articles_images/node__12765.jpg

admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:50

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Labour claims progress on backlog

A new labour task force is on track to meet the promised one-month deadline to clear out the hundreds of backlogged work permit applications that are slowing the territory’s economic recovery, Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration Minister Vincent Wheatley said during a press conference on Friday.

Mr. Wheatley announced that the eight-member task force, which was announced on March 18 and consists mainly of retired public officers, has retrieved 500 and processed 305 work permit renewal applications of the 1,541 that were on file in mid-February, when the government’s online system stopped accepting applications.

Additionally, they retrieved 203 and processed 103 outstanding applications for new permits or changes of employer, he said.

“Please note that the data presented is a snapshot in time,” Mr. Wheatley warned. “Given that these numbers are changing on a regular basis, they will be updated weekly.”

The numbers only apply to online applications submitted between July 2021 and February 2022, he said.

Task force members include Janice Rymer, Dawn O’Neal George, Marieta Headley, Myrna Samuels, Reginald Hodge, Ernest Potter, Devon Penn and Keida Williams, according to the minister.

“Their expertise and experience means that they can step in and provide immediate and direct support to the department,” Mr. Wheatley said. “It is envisioned that with the hiring of these additional persons for a one-month period, not only will it help to clear the work permit applications from the system, but it will also bring work permit processing times back in line with the department’s service standards” by April 18.

History

After Premier Andrew Fahie promised on March 11 that the backlog of nearly 2,000 work permit renewal applications would be cleared within a month, Mr. Wheatley announced on March 18 that the task force had been formed to tackle the issue, which he largely blamed on staffing shortages and Covid-19-related quarantines that slowed down progress.

Meanwhile, the much-anticipated online system that rolled out last July has not delivered the improvements that government promised in the years leading up to its release. The system was billed as the vanguard of the public sector’s digital transformation, and initially it accepted applications for new permits and renewals alike.

However, in December, it stopped accepting renewals, which were then required to be submitted via hard copy instead. And last month, it stopped accepting applications for new permits.

On Friday, Mr. Wheatley said that since July 2021 the department’s ability to process permits has been “dramatically affected” by labour shortages and effects of the Covid-19 surges.

“Constraints and challenges varied from entire units within the department being quarantined and technical issues within the processing system,” Mr. Wheatley said on Friday, calling the delay “disruptive” for businesses struggling to fill long- and short-term labour needs as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

Consequently, he said, staff has been scrambling to address the delays in a variety of ways, including working late hours and weekends; making minor administrative and policy changes to improve efficiency; and adding personnel.

Processing

Mr. Wheatley added that government remains focused on ensuring that individuals do not “lose their ability to work because of the lack of a work permit.”

He then explained that the members of the task force may have to call employers or employees and ask them to furnish missing information. He asked applicants to be receptive to these calls in order to speed up the process.

The minister also asked employers who have not heard from the department regarding their uploaded applications to submit a list of outstanding work permit applicants and application ID numbers to wpportalhelp@gov.vg, with the name of the business in the subject line.

“Once a renewal work permit has been approved, an appointment to collect will be set and an email or text message will be generated informing the applicant or employer of their scheduled time and date to collect the work permit,” he said.

The post Labour claims progress on backlog first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post Labour claims progress on backlog appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

British Virgin Islands

Caribbean

Business

$11m in ESHS contracts awarded

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:40:01 +0000

$11m in ESHS contracts awarded

/sites/default/files/imported_articles_images/node__12764.jpg

admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:40

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

$11m in ESHS contracts awarded

Government awarded four firms a total of $11 million in contracts on Friday to begin the long-delayed revamp of Elmore Stoutt High School, which is expected to reunite the entire student body on a single campus after more than four years.

But a $4 million funding gap will need to be filled to fund those contracts and complete the project, according to government officials, who are asking businesses to step up and donate.

In remarks during the contract-signing ceremony, Premier Andrew Fahie announced that even though the sum of the contracts overran the initial Recovery and Development Agency estimate for the construction by $4 million, teachers and students cannot wait any longer to reunite on the campus that was devastated by Hurricane Irma in 2017.

“If we push this project back anymore, who knows how much material costs will go up further to, or what else might come,” Mr. Fahie said. “We will not defer this project anymore and extend the suffering of our students and teachers and the administrative and support staff any longer than necessary.”

He added that all students could expect to return to the main campus for the start of the new school year in September.

Contracts

The complete project — first unveiled at a meeting in January — consists of three interconnected buildings consisting of a new junior school, a new amphitheatre, a technical block, a classroom block, and an administration block. The blocks will be constructed first. The planned classroom block consists of two buildings, both of which will be three storeys tall.

Both buildings together include a total of 42 classrooms that each can accommodate 20 to 25 students, divided into separate construction packages, according to the January plans.

On Friday, officials announced that Quality Construction will construct the technical block for $4,336,427.12; Sunleaf Construction and Northam Construction will work together to construct the administration block at $888,104.66. Metro Construction will get $2,496,690.84 for the construction of the north classroom block, and Autland Heavy Equipment will construct the south classroom block for $3,721,766.59.

Representatives of each company spoke at the ceremony, promising to deliver on time and on budget.

Brian Marshall of Metro Construction said he was keen to help with such a key project in the territory’s recovery strategy and help get students back into a proper school building.

“The redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School will be a challenge for all of us, all the stakeholders, given the timeframe and logistics, but we at Metro Construction pledge to do our part to ensure that this project is successful along with all the other contractors,” he said. “So, guys, let’s get it on.”

In January, officials explained that their aim is to move faculty and senior students from the former Clarence Thomas Limited building in Pasea — where they had been accommodated since shortly after the hurricane — before eventually building a junior high school on both ends of Tortola to ease the pressure on the Road Town campus.

In November, officials said that government had allocated $7 million in the 2022 budget for works to be completed this year.

Funding gap

Blaming the funding gap on soaring inflation due to the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Mr. Fahie said the government has “several options” to secure the additional funding.

His top choice, he said, is the “Move with a Purpose Project,” which he described as a challenge to 70 VI businesses to make donations of at least $60,000 toward the school redevelopment project.

He said that donors will have the guarantee that monies donated will be accounted for, adding that each donor will also get a monthly progress report from the RDA on how the money is being spent.

Some donors have already stepped up, he said, adding, “So don’t tell me it can’t happen.”

On Monday, however, Opposition Leader Marlon Penn argued on the National Democratic Party radio programme that he feared the project would be left in the lurch if the pledges don’t materialise before the five-month timeline is up, leading the government to turn to other sources.

“If those pledges don’t come in, where are they going to go? Back into the Reserve Fund. The Reserve Fund is the place that we are going to go to get those additional monies to get those projects going,” Mr. Penn said.

RDA process

Anthony McMaster, who Cabinet confirmed last month as CEO of the RDA, said the plans for the new buildings were hatched in August 2021, when Deputy Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley described “a grave situation” in the school buildings.

“He said, ‘The RDA has poised itself to be an agency that is making a difference. Well, I need a difference. I need a solution. Because I need to get my teachers and my students out of that environment,’” Mr. McMaster recalled.

The RDA initially provided seven different options to the minister before he was satisfied with one, Mr. McMaster said, adding that these proposals included plans to construct a new school to the tune of $40 million.

However, that and some of the other designs would have caused further delays, and Dr. Wheatley deemed them not suitable, he said. After settling on the final plan in December, the RDA hired Trojan Design Consultants to draw up plans, Mr. McMaster said.

“By December we engaged the services of SunWise Limited and — again, performing miracles because the projected time for the demolition and removal of all the slabs that lay here after the hurricane was supposed to be four weeks — within 14 days, all of those slabs were removed,” he said.

Caribbean

Business

Sandbox aims to educate

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:40:01 +0000

Sandbox aims to educate admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:40

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Sandbox aims to educate

An early participant in the Financial Services Commission’s regulatory sandbox regime for financial technology recently spoke out about her experiences operating in a small but growing industry in the Virgin Islands.

Elaine Sun, the senior executive and chief compliance officer of crypto derivative exchange Brtuomi Worldwide Limited, noted that continued education will be needed for both businesses and regulators in order for the territory to master the digital asset space.

“We applied right after the BVI sandbox guidelines had been issued, within one or two months,” Ms. Sun said during a March 18 forum sponsored by BVI Finance. “We believe that this sandbox [has] quite a clear criterion and standard to be able to supervise the digital asset derivative exchange.”

The Financial Services Regulations 2020, which facilitated the creation of the sandbox, took effect in August 2020 as part of local efforts to support innovation in the growing fintech sector and allow businesses to trial new products and services.

The FSC announced that it had approved the first participant in the regulatory sandbox in April 2021. At that time, Bank of Asia said in a press release that the bank “has played a pivotal role in introducing, leading, and delivering this sandbox project, which is affiliated with one of the three most prominent crypto exchanges in the world.”

Participants’ views

Ms. Sun predicted that the sandbox will continue to face challenges in how the FSC and the industry communicate with each other.

Bitcoin has only been around for just over a decade, and the language of digital assets is new even for many longtime industry practitioners, she explained.

“Those people [in the fintech industry] are pure technology backgrounds; they don’t do financial institutions,” she said. “They don’t use the terminology that we use in the banking sectors. This is their world they created up till now, [whereas] the whole world now has access to it.”

Glenford Malone, acting deputy managing director of the FSC, said applicants for the programme have been a mixture of businesses that have a good grip on fintech and those that still need more guidance. However, he said, only those that are ready to launch have been accepted.

In terms of applications, “A lot of it revolves around fintech and practically 90 percent to 99 percent of it revolves around the virtual asset space,” Mr. Malone said, adding, “We don’t intend it to be a voluminous area.”

He did not state how many applications have been accepted since the sandbox formally launched in August 2020, and FSC representatives did not provide a response to Beacon queries by press time.

Industry views

Ayanna Hull, head of private wealth and regulatory practice at Harneys, also emphasised that education on the industry is an ongoing process.

“There is the technical knowledge that you need to be up to speed with and there is the legal aspect. On the technical side, because it is so new to the BVI, it is not very easy to find a lot of people that understand crypto, understand blockchain, understand platforms, or understand how [it all] works,” she said.

At Harneys, she added, “We have a fintech team internally, where there are four or five of us and we all sit and analyse everything that comes through.”

According to Lisa Lou, president of the Bank of Asia, providing services for digital assets has been a “learn-to-grow” process.

“Our experience and our observation are actually more from our clients. What our clients need, what they say, what they want to get into [are all] what we observe from our client base,” she said. “The bank has seen an increase in inquiries in digital assets-related business, and that can be an exchange or can be a funds company that has both a traditional portfolio as well as a crypto portfolio.”

“Quite a bit” of discussion, she said, has focused on security tokens and security token exchanges, which preserve ownership of assets in the blockchain.

“The BVI has made progress in that regard,” she added.

According to the World Bank, regulatory sandboxes, which facilitate businesses conducting experiments, first popped up in 2016 and now exist in over 100 countries, making competition intense.

However, Ms. Hull said that from her view, the VI is “probably the most attractive in terms of the digital asset space amongst the offshore centres.”

The post Sandbox aims to educate first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post Sandbox aims to educate appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

British Virgin Islands

Caribbean

Business

Incorporations see best year since 2018

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:40:01 +0000

Incorporations see best year since 2018

/sites/default/files/imported_articles_images/node__1389.png

admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:40

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Incorporations see best year since 2018

In 2021, new incorporations in the Virgin Islands saw their best year since 2018, recovering somewhat from a disappointing downward trend for the territory’s core financial product, according to fourth quarter statistics released by the Financial Services Commission.

Overall, 2021 saw 36,178 new incorporations, falling just 1,237 shy of 2018, in which 37,415 new companies were incorporated.

Quarterly performance has been rising steadily all year, with Q4 2021 ending on a particularly impressive note. At 9,809, the number of new incorporations in Q4 2021 increased three percent when compared to Q3 2021, and nearly 61 percent from Q4 2020.

Best Q4 since 2015

Moreover, the soaring Q4 incorporation numbers surpassed Q4 2018’s total of 8,916. In fact, Q4 was the best overall quarter since Q3 of 2015, as well as the best Q4 since 2015.

The news of the continued resurgence of incorporations after a disappointing record-low performance in 2020 initially was overshadowed in October by the Pandora Papers leak, which linked VI structures to foreign leaders and other wealthy and famous figures, painting many in a negative light.

But the leak didn’t appear to have any negative effect on incorporations on Q4, which encompasses statistics from October through December.

More legislation

Addressing the numbers at a press conference on Friday, Premier Andrew Fahie said he plans to soon introduce more legislation to support financial services and encourage the numbers to continue to rise.

“Financial services has been strengthened over the years from government to government to government. What’s amazing is if that had gone down while I was leading, I would take the blame for it,” he said. “Because those things you can only say grace be to God for because in the middle of Covid, we are able to do that.”

The encouraging numbers for 2021 show a sharp contrast over the previous year. With just 22,362 new companies formed, 2020 hit a 21-year low for new incorporations, eclipsing the previous low of 26,150 in 2019.

The VI has announced it has begun work on a commitment to the United Kingdom requirement to establish a public register of beneficial ownership by 2023.

Addressing whether this step could harm incorporations in the future, the premier said, “In some way you’ll always be concerned, but one thing you learn is when you’ve got a lemon, make lemonade. So we’re going to continue to adjust and run between the raindrops and don’t get wet.”

Looking at the number of total active companies, however, paints a slightly different picture. After hitting at least a 14-year low in 2020, total active companies rose to 372,196 in Q1 2021, or 5,832 more than finished out 2020.

However, between Q1 and Q2 of last year, the territory lost all those gains and more. With a loss of 7,216, total incorporations fell to 364,980.

Alongside new incorporations, Q3 also saw an uptick in the number of total active companies, with 372,911. However, Q4 of 2021 again saw a decrease to 368,893, a loss of 4,018.

Total active companies have also been on a longer term downward trend. In 2019 the numbers hit the previous 13-year low of 387,344 after peaking at 481,002 in 2011.

Other services

Meanwhile, limited partnerships, which began in the territory thanks to new legislation in 2017, continued to stay steady compared to last quarter, with 170 partnerships formed, just one less than Q3.

However, Q4 saw a 286 percent increase in the number of new LPs compared to Q4 2020. Cumulatively, 2,066 LPs have formed in the territory since 2017.

Meanwhile, trademarks continued to fall slightly. The totalnumber of new applications to register a trademark in Q4 2021 increased from 54 to 70, with a total of 270 for the year — two fewer registered than in 2020 and 44 fewer than in 2019. Since the enactment of the Trade Marks Act in 2015, a total of 1,729 new applications to register a trademark have been filed, the FSC reported.

Five patents were re-registered in Q4, two less than in 2020, but a significant jump from the zero that were registered in Q3.

The post Incorporations see best year since 2018 first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post Incorporations see best year since 2018 appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

Caribbean

Business

27 finish skills training

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:40:01 +0000

27 finish skills training

/sites/default/files/imported_articles_images/node__12763.jpg

admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:40

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Original Publisher

Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

27 finish skills training

Twenty-seven residents received certificates on April 5 after completing eight modules of the Employability Skills Training Programme.

Dr. June Soomer, chair of the University of the West Indies Open Campus Council, said the programme, sponsored by UWI, the International Labour Organisation, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College and the VI government, was launched during the pandemic to give opportunities to underserved people who were particularly hard-hit economically by the response to Covid-19.

“The primary aim of the course was to mitigate the negative socioeconomic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the socially vulnerable, and particularly women, by inculcating a culture of entrepreneurship and providing participants with the requisite skills to enhance employability,” Dr. Soomer said at a graduation ceremony held on April 5.

The objectives of the eight-module programme included developing positive attitudes towards sustainable enterprises and social entrepreneurship; creating awareness about self-employment and operating a successful enterprise; and preparing individuals to become better employees through better understanding of business, according to HLSCC.

Topics covered under the eight modules included, “What is Entrepreneurship?;” “How Do I Run a Business?;” “Assessing the Feasibility of the Business Plan;” and “How to Develop a Business Plan.”

Programme aim

Dr. Soomer explained that the programme originally registered 46 female and eight male students between the ages of 18 and 55, which she said represents the breadth of students served by the initiative.

“We go all the way up. We have graduated grandmothers and great-grandmothers in our programmes, because, as I said, we have given people a second chance, particularly women, and we are very proud of that,” she added.

During the ceremony, Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration Minister Vincent Wheatley praised the graduates for having “answered the call” to get trained for future work.

“I know that the training has increased the competence of our workforce since 27 persons have been trained and are now better prepared and equipped in the world of work and to add support to the territory’s workforce development needs,” he added.

Future innovators

Dr. Soomer further explained that professional development and capacity building “has been at the heart of the partnership” between the UWI Open Campus and the VI government since the partnership began in the 1980s.

Throughout the Open Campus’s evolution, she said, it has offered “programmes relevant to the development of the territory, whether it was at the level of professional certificates, diplomas, associate degrees or degrees.”

She added, “We now have a very large alumni [population] in the country who can boast of their prestigious and practical qualifications.”

The post 27 finish skills training first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post 27 finish skills training appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

British Virgin Islands

Caribbean

Business