Offshore News: March 2007
22.03.2007 In his annual State of the Nation address, Seychelles President James Michel showed a positive picture of the territory's economy. He said that the government is looking to expand the offshore business sector with new products and will seek to boost foreign investment with further liberalisation of foreign exchange controls. He also stated that the Seychelles offshore sector has shown its potential to assist the country's development, and growth in the tourism and fisheries sectors will allow the government to initiate more schemes aimed at attracting global capital. Seychelles government is also promoting investments in the onshore business environment, with a new law effective from January 1, 2007, and continuing to restructure the tax system with the creation of a single Revenue Authority which has the power to collect all taxes on behalf of government, including registration fees and licenses.
18.03.2007 Leading Swiss private bank, Banque Piguet & Cie S.A., has announced the opening of its first overseas office in Hong Kong. More than 200 guests were present at the opening ceremony, officiated by Secretary for Finanacial Services and the Treasury, including Banque Piguet's board members from Switzerland, Consul-General of Switzerland in Hong Kong, Hans Jakob Roth, and a certain range of financial and business professionals from Europe and Asia. Opening of the Hong Kong office shows the Swiss bank's determination to expand its presence overseas and extend the best tradition of Swiss private banking into the wider Asian regions. The bank specialises in private banking, institutional asset management and services to independent portfolio managers. Banque Piguet's investment strategy is based on the risk analysis of global macro-economic trends relative to the valuations of financial markets.
15.03.2007 The City has launched the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), which for the first time establishes an index of competitiveness between 46 of the world's financial cities. In this Index, London and New York are placed in the 1st and 2nd places, as global financial centres; Hong Kong is in the 3rd place, Singapore in the 4th place, followed by Zurich. The research ranks London after New York by five points; London is the leader in all the main five areas of competitiveness - people, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness. The report contains some concerns about the UK tax regime. The other main points highlighted in the GFCI research are: Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre and the most likely Asian city to emerge; regulation as a decisive factor in the competitiveness of London and New York.
13.03.2007 On Tuesday the government of China released a statement on foreign direct investments into Chinese economy. In January and February 2007, foreign direct investment in China totalled 9.7 billion dollars, which is a 13% rise from the same period of 2006. The Chinese government also provided information that in the first two months of 2007 there were 5,716 new foreign-funded enterprises, - 11.29% more than in 2006. The top three foreign direct investors, by the information of commerce ministry of China, are Hong Kong, Japan and the British Virgin Islands. In 2006, foreign investment in China was USD $69.5 billion - down 4.1% compared to 2005.
