June 9, 2010. In response to the question: “Do you think the new 25-year residency certificate will affect inward investment to the Islands?” a total of 58.2 percent of local readers participating in a Cayman Net News online opinion poll thought the new residency rules would produce either no effect at all or a decrease in inward investment.
A total of 800 readers responded to the poll using internet devices located in the Cayman Islands. Of these, 426 (53.3 percent) thought that the new 25-year residency certificate would have no effect at all on inward investment to the Islands; 161 (20.1 percent) thought there would be a modest increase; 129 (16.1 percent) said there would be a marked increase; 39 4.9 percent) thought there would actually be a decrease in investment; and 45 (5.6 percent) said they didn’t know.
Reader Dawn commented, “The Cayman Islands have benefitted greatly from overseas investors with its status as a tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction. While this has been beneficial to the islands, it has hurt other economies by the cheating of tax revenue. One hears of shell companies and tax evasion. As this has been under protest and non-compliant investors might be penalised, one now has to consider how much more beneficial it would be to continue to invest in the Cayman Islands as against larger economies with much tighter and transparent controls.”
