Offshore News: September 2007

25.09.2007 A report from China Daily has revealed that offshore financial centres including the BVI and the Cayman Islands remain some of the largest investors into China. According to the report, companies in Hong Kong invested the most resources into China in the 1st 8 months of the year and accounted for USD 14.1 billion of the USD 41.95 billion total. Hong Kong is followed by the BVI which invested USD 9.91 billion, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore, the US, the Cayman Islands, the Samoan Islands, Taiwan, and Mauritius. The 10 countries indicated above accounted for 86.55% of all foreign investment into China in the 8 months.

05.09.2007 The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has updated a list of countries ranked by GDP using figures from 2006, 2005 or 2004. The list included many low-tax jurisdictions such as BVI, Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, Jersey and Guernsey. Actually, at least 13 out of the top 20 countries are low-tax jurisdictions. The leader is Luxembourg followed by Bermuda and Jersey. The 4th position is taken by Equatorial Guinea followed by UAE, Norway, Guernsey, Ireland, Cayman Islands, Andorra, BVl, Iceland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Canada, Isle of Man, Austria, San Marino, and Switzerland.