CEC breaks ground on long-awaited ‘city’
CEC groundbreaking ceremony (L-R) Ministry Councillor David Wight, Commerce Minister Joseph Hew, Premier Alden McLaughlin, CEC CEO Charlie Kirkconnell, Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell, Financial Services Minister Tara Rivers, CEC Chief Development Officer Cindy O’Hara, and Ministry Councillor Barbara Conolly (click to enlarge)
(CNS): Cayman Enterprise City has broken ground on the long promised US$500 million dollar master planned development for global knowledge-based businesses, which officials claim will put the Cayman Islands at the forefront of the technology-driven business world. The special economic zone was originally conceived in 2011 as a means of attracting new technology-related businesses, and legislation was created to ring-fence commercial entities established in the zone, which offered CEC’s tenants very favourable terms.
Originally touted as a new revenue source for government and a generator of jobs, both in the construction of the campus and in the businesses established there, CEC has generated indirect funds in the local economy but revenue to government and job creation has fallen short of expectations.
CEC has to date largely been a rental operation, where work permit and other fees and taxes for the new businesses created in the virtual zone have been waived. Instead, CEC tenants, which are housed in various office buildings in and around the capital, pay a package to CEC, out of which a relatively small flat fee of around $1,500 goes to government for a five-year employment certificate for each expatriate worker employed in the zone, regardless of the job.
However, the start of the new campus brings renewed hope that the project could finally, six years on, produce more direct benefits in terms of local employment and revenue for the public purse.
The golden shovels were therefore out in force last week for the official groundbreaking on what officials said will be the first phase of a mixed-use development in George Town, five minutes from Owen Roberts International Airport. This phase is scheduled to be completed by the end of Q3 in 2020.
Although CEC has plans stretching 25 years into the future for the $500 million, 53-acre development, which will create around one million square feet of office space, the first phase is costing around US$38 million and will create a “new urban purpose-built hub for digital businesses across a variety of sectors, including fintech, blockchain, biotech research, envirotech, media, digital marketing and others”, CEC said in a release.
“The master-planned campus will showcase environmental architecture and designs to encourage
socialisation and collaboration unlike anything seen in the Caribbean,” said CEC Chief Executive Officer Charlie Kirkconnell. “This is perhaps CEC’s most significant milestone since opening for business in February 2012. We have worked tirelessly to promote CEC and the Cayman Islands as an ideal base for conducting international business, as well as to support businesses that have established zone companies, so that they can focus on growth and innovation.”
Around 250 businesses currently operate out of CEC’s leased buildings, and officials believe that the number of businesses will double within the next five years.
“The real major contribution is the potential that this campus offers to our islands when it is completed and filled with exciting and thriving new businesses,” Premier Alden McLaughlin said at the groundbreaking event. “This campus, and the businesses that it will draw to our shores, is an important part of helping to diversify our economy.”
Commerce Minister Joey Hew said government would continue to develop infrastructure that would foster CEC’s growth and embrace technology companies, as he spoke about the importance of supporting the digital economy locally so Cayman could become known as a place where “new technologies and new industries are born”.
CEC has a ‘Summer in the City’ internship programme for local students to gain experience with industry professionals in the zone and has worked with the National Workforce Development Agency to offer coding workshops and promote STEM careers. However, very few local people have so far been directly employed by the business in the zone.
Category: Business, development, ICT, Local News
Hope a sinkhole opens up ..
What’s with the green ribbons? Are they in a gang?
Does this mean we get the turtle shaped ice rink next?
Can’t wait to see how CIG will screw this up.
Let’s check back in a year and we will see the same pile of dirt…………….
It will at least balance business and development away from Dartistan.
Has anyone thought to address or even look into the affect this will have on the roads around southbound and Fairbanks which are already clogged. And where on earth do the figures come from……$500 million….. say it and really think about that. That is a ridiculous amount of money. Has all sense been lost?
Another project to attract tax avoidance companies from across the globe with there grubby money dreamed up by this and previous MLA’s and we wonder why the world is looking in
just another lodge approved ‘scheme’ where a few millionaires get to make more millions.
this type of ‘scheme’ give cayman a bad name….
The only time you see that dope Alden is grinning holding a shovel or on some freebie.
Do you ever see him mixing at Pirates Week, visible at the parade of lights, cheering on the effort made by the floats at the various public events.
Seems like I have more chance of seeing a Dodo than Alden in public, he even can’t be bothered to publicly comment on issues that effect the country. Or is it he is either to frightened he might start getting some awkward questions or just so bloody arrogant.
He can’t even manage more than one or two sentences to me at the hairdresser. And I’m someone he ought to have time for. I just don’t have power or tons of money.
Maybe it is because he thinks you will blab everything he says to everyone else. Like the game Chinese Wispers. By the 3rd or 4th person it will be completely different.
What a joke…..again another development to clog up an already traffic congested island.
6/19 MLAs have nothing better to do, lol, national government on a municipal level, cant decide if they are a city council or a national assembly
town council
Government MLAs always around for a photo-op
but never want to take responsibility when their projects fail
God forbid they respond to constituents and the media in a timely fashion but they have time to go get shovels and take pictures for every inch of new plans put into place
“revenue to government and job creation has fallen short” and “very few local people have so far been directly employed by the business in the zone.” That says it all, folks! Who is getting the money from these fiascos? Hint: It isn’t you and me.
The only thing worse than ‘groundbreaking’ press photos is ‘grip and grin’.
Not that it matters, but only three of the eight are holding their shovel in a manner that suggests they’ve used one before.
5:51 LOL, that’s the best comment I’ve seen on CNS in a while………………..