International Business Vehicles

• Author: Trevor Carmichael, QC
• Pages: 11-20

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International Business Vehicles

3

International Business Vehicles:

Some Caribbean Challenges

Dr Trevor A. Carmichael, QC

SIR KEITH HUNTE, High Professor Ralph Carnegie, Deputy Dean Mr. Jeff

Cumberbatch, Madame Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues:

It is a special honour for me to be asked to speak at this very timely

workshop formulated by the University of the West Indies through its dynamic

and insightful scholar Rose Marie Belle Antoine. Indeed, it evokes a special

feeling of joy to know that St. Lucia was chosen as the venue for this inaugural

conference, since St. Lucia is very much in the important stage of launching

the expansion of its international business sector to include the products that

over the past three decades or so we have come to associate with the term

‘offshore.’ My presence in St. Lucia here today however has dual meaning.

In my own life, St. Lucia evokes a notion of being first - for in my teenager

years St. Lucia was the first place outside of the island of Barbados that I ever

ventured to visit. It was also the place which first taught me that ‘comment ca

va’ and ‘comment a ye’ are not inconsistent and are indeed one and the same.

In this short presentation, I propose to speak about the various types of

entities which are part and parcel of the offshore international business

environment. In this regard, I propose to speak about international business

companies, offshore banks, captive insurance, to a lesser degree, trust, and

possibly mutual funds. Throughout the presentation, I intend to highlight the

areas of regulation and supervision, for these two elements are critical to the

development of a healthy and productive international business environment.

However, a third element is by implication recognised - namely the element

of administration. For it is the harmonious interplay of these three elements

which represents the ideal type model, that any jurisdiction, with the

appropriate legislation, seeks to achieve.