PACT repackages effort to attract foreign investment

| 17/09/2021 | 122 Comments
Cayman News Service
Jane Scaletta, Director of InvestCayman

(CNS): The Ministry of Investment, Innovation and Social Development has launched a new department to attract inward investment, officials said in a press release. InvestCayman will serve as a “global facing entity” and “an investment promotion agency” to attract investment that aligns with government’s priorities, a release from the ministry stated.

Minister André Ebanks said the agency will work across government and with private and civic sector entities to attract investors. “Investment is the backbone of economic growth, and must underpin Government’s efforts to diversify the economy,” he said.

For many years, successive governments have placed the idea of foreign investment at the centre of economic policy to fuel growth and to find that elusive third pillar of the economy in addition to financial services and tourism.

Ebanks is the latest in a long line of ministers hoping that “targeted and strategic inward investment will be the catalyst for developing human capital, creating purposeful and sustainable development, building resilience, and supporting sustainability for the people of the Cayman Islands, and for the future”.

He said attracting inward investment was one of the core functions of his ministry. “Within the ministry, that work will be carried out by the new entity called InvestCayman, especially by supporting the ease of doing business with the Cayman Islands Government and within the Cayman Islands’ economy,” he stated.

“An array of compelling attributes distinguish and define our jurisdiction, including our legal institutions and good governance, our constitutional link to the United Kingdom, our diversity and our caring community. Within that context, InvestCayman will elevate the Cayman Islands by promoting the wide variety of opportunities that exist here – among them technology, education, infrastructure and energy transformation.”

Jane Scaletta, a marketing professional and a former executive director of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association from 2011 to 2014, has been appointed to head up this new department. Between 2019 and 2021, Scaletta served as deputy director for international marketing and promotions in the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and was instrumental in launching the Global Citizen Concierge programme last year.

“I am delighted to embark on this new journey as director of InvestCayman, to represent the Cayman Islands, tell our story to the world, and develop new opportunities that will have a synergistic impact on the country and our people,” Scaletta said. “With a particular passion for sustainability initiatives, I look forward to working with fellow civil servants and building relationships with our trusted partners to ‘futureproof’ the Cayman Islands through sustainable investments.”

InvestCayman website


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Category: Business, Policy, Politics

Comments (122)

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  1. Anon says:

    Truman Capote was once described as as ‘candied tarantula’.draw your own inferences.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Cabinet is unable or unwilling to bell the CS cat.

  3. Anonymous says:

    80s hairstyle here kind says everything that needs to be said…

  4. Anonymous says:

    Flogging a dead horse.

  5. Hard working civil servant says:

    I honestly do not understand what the heck is going on in this place. It’s total madness. I have no words.

    • Anonymous says:

      No clue, either.

      I am a Caymanian who is fully vaccinated, but still wondering when the vaccine for foreign greed and local gentrification is coming out.

      That endemic has infected everything here. Everyone that does not die from COVID will definitely perish from this virus.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Wow just wow I wonder if any Caymanians applied for this

    • Anonymous says:

      Doubt it. They don’t apply for all the tourist jobs and hotel and restaurant jobs

    • Anonymous says:

      You mean other than the Caymanian who got the job?

      • Hmmm says:

        She’s not Caymanian. At least not that I know. When I worked with her she was a white Jamaican, with US citizenship.

    • Hmmmm says:

      Would love to see the ad for this position. As far as I know Ms. Scaletta doesn’t even have a Bachelors let alone a Master’s or PhD? Why bother telling Caymanians to work hard, get a degree, and a second degree, and a third. All you need to be successful is someone willing to give you preferential treatment. Things that make you go Hmmm.

      • Anonymous says:

        I don’t know where this multiple degree thing came from. The ‘education for profit’ US I suspect. It’s obviously nonsense except for a few professions. I don’t know anyone with one degree from a good University that isn’t doing well or very well. Multiple second rate degrees from unknown ‘Universities’ is just a waste of money.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes Caymanians – qualified Caymanians did apply. Its not about who is qualified for the role its about who will carry out the will of the government in power without regard for fairness or legality.

  7. Anonymous says:

    This is how to waste government revenue.

    We don’t need a special investment department. We don’t need global citizen programs.

    We already have the ultimate tool to attract capital: No taxes on income or capital gains.

    What we need to be spending money on is staying off of blacklists and making sure we can sustain the financial services industry as long as possible.

    I can’t fathom how successive governments don’t seem to understand this. Tara Rivers made a mess of her ministry and now Andre Ebanks is hiring some random Karen to try and attract more crypto bros to buy PR while letting CIMA run wild and self-inflict wounds on the FS industy. They should know better.

    • Anonymous says:

      Also need to spend money on the public services and safety here. Not even a decent park to walk the dogs or a shopping centre. No point attracting money and make life her terrible. We are off to try another tax free location, hopefully with more to do.

      • Anon says:

        Exactly, the beach and…..nothing else. An island that thinks a fish stall in George Town is culture… No parks, no open spaces, no culture, concrete everywhere. Lockdown has killed it for us. We’re going to somewhere with more to do than go to an over priced restaurant.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yeah I know I moved to the Caribbean for the dog parks and shopping centres. Dear god this is a wind up right or did you leave Toronto because of the lack of white sand beaches?

    • Anon says:

      You’re right. Watch as they attract ‘dirty’ money from the likes of crypto and fail to put in appropriate AML checks. Two ‘grey’ lists and counting.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Why would I invest in a country with incompetency officials?
    Why would I invest in a country that won’t protect it’s natural resources?
    Why would I invest in a country that does not want ‘physical’ expats – just my money?
    Why would I invest in a country with a poor educational system?

    Answer: I did – 34 years ago in Cayman. The country I loved is not the Cayman of 2021. But I am now unwelcome and will be leaving. I realize this will make many happy; proving my point.

    • Anonymous says:

      I fully agree. I left. I won’t be going back. My little piece of land just have to wait.

      • Anonymous says:

        As they used to say in Jamaica when the brain drain started.”Last person to leave the Island , please turn off the lights”.

        • Anonymous says:

          No need the lights went out long ago, this is why every successive government here fumbles around as if in the dark.

    • Anon says:

      Similar story for us. When every comment coming out of a Caymanian mouth is moaning about why an expat has this or that, when it’s expat money they all live off. I am sick to the back teeth with it so we’re taking our money elsewhere. Thanks for the huge capital appreciation on our property. It’s amazing how they think they have somethong unique here that we can’t source elsewhere. Masters of their own destiny.

      • Anonymous says:

        Ha. What an embarrassing post.

      • Anonymous says:

        Lol. And you’ll find that wherever you go back to your “huge” profit will buy you almost exactly the same as you could afford before. Possibly less after transaction costs. Doh.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Can Cayman survive with the collapsed of the world financial system.
    No good having wealth without health.

  10. Anonymous says:

    “Investment is the backbone of economic growth, and must underpin Government’s efforts to diversify the economy,”

    They will need to diversify after just killing the tourism industry!

  11. Anonymous says:

    This is starting to look more and more like an insane asylum.
    I couldn’t imagine a job this difficult so hopefully it doesn’t require any actual objectives.

    It would look like this I imagine.
    Jane: would you like to invest in the Cayman Islands?
    Investor: Sure tell me about it.
    Jane: Well, I can’t tell when we will open, or what the requirements will be when we do open, but the one thing I can tell you is no matter what the CIG says it changes every time someone sneezes.

  12. Anonymous says:

    That’s what politics does

  13. Anonymous says:

    great idea… a woman now in charge of our international laudry service!

  14. Anonymous says:

    When you keep hiring the same old dinosaurs, you keep getting the same old results.

    When will cayman learn?

    This is a brand new world. Let us see whose hard fought ingenuity she takes as her own this time. Jane van der Bol Scaletta do you have ideas that are your own, this time around? Or will you continue to take from entrepreneurial visionaries and rewrap their work as yours?

    • Anonymous says:

      if she does it with my idea, I kept the proof and will show it accordingly.

      • Anonymous says:

        Hopefully, you’re a Caymanian or you won’t get far. That’s how it worked and how it still works. Not nice, at all.

  15. Anonymous says:

    What a mistake – this is not the person for this job how short are peoples memory here? We need the continuity of the Public Service Commission back in recruitment in the civil service it was well informed and provided consistency ensure these sort of re-hiring mistakes didn’t occur. Don’t you people check reference or better just ask ? FFS🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

  16. Anonymous says:

    At least PACT sees the need for diversification. Let’s see what path that takes. Inward investment in what exactly, more concrete.. or how would international investment be different?

    At the very least, diversification should include “relatively” easily-established light industry to accommodate the human “products” of apprenticeship programs like CIG (PWD) has just finally started (more needed in the private sector!). Chinese/Local investment?

    Then consider more progressive options like legalizing/decriminalizing certain vices. They can be regulated! Models exist, no need to reinvent the wheel. Just change the laws!

    • Anonymous says:

      This ain’t PACT! This was already up, running and producing before PACT was birthed as a result of egos.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Next: bring back Bill Peitrie to fix the GMO mizzie fiasco?

  18. Anonymous says:

    We need investors who are vested in our sustainable development and not those who have no respect for our people, culture and history. They also need not be into bribing some of our corrupt leaders in order to get what they want. The ideal investor will respect and abide by our local laws regulating development and most of all DOE/NCC’s recommendations regardless of whether our CPA board differs with them.

  19. Anonymous says:

    What am I missing here. The islands have sold out to foreign investors who now own most of the best parts of the island. They pay no ongoing taxes, leave them empty contributing nothing to the economy and then pay no capital gains tax when they are flipped to an even wealthier foreign investor. This is absolute madness. Whey does government allow it year after year after year. No other country in the entire world would allow a foreign investor to own assets and pay no ongoing taxes.

    • Anon says:

      Because the minute they start taxing no one will buy. It’s a one time deal. Pay the stamp duty and that’s it. We did it. Other expats already here rent because they can’t see past the huge stamp duty. But we have doubled our investment in two years abd we’re now off to invest that elsewhere. Thanks Cayman.

    • Anonymous says:

      An unequal tax playing field; yeah that’s sure to attract foreign investors going up against the likes Dart, Schilling, Kirks, Boddens Thompsons, Cox etc

      Secondly yes other countries DO offer foreign companies massive tax breaks to attract FDI.

  20. Anonymous says:

    So if most civil servants work for 3k a month that’s probably all they are worth

  21. Anonymous says:

    Green. Sustainable. Carbon neutral. Donut economic model.

    • Anonymous says:

      All of which Cayman ain’t

    • Miami Dave says:

      There needs to be a tax on new foreign investors who invest in real estate but don’t ever live here. The cost of real estate is already sky high and not coming down or even stabilizing.

      The Cayman Islands should not be a place for laundered real estate money.

      • Anonymous says:

        Canada looks like it is about to implement what you are proposing Miami Dave. This is because foreign investors, mainly from China, are making it impossible for the average Canadian to own a place in Toronto or Vancouver.

        Very similar to the average person living
        in the Cayman Islands.

  22. Anonymous says:

    What foreign investor is going to invest somewhere that is a) so openly hostile to it’s current investors and b) closed?

    • Anonymous says:

      Good then they can stay away 🙂

    • Anonymous says:

      To 6:04pm there will be investers who genuinely love our island and love our people – unlike some who come here, just for the money and call our people stupid and lazy.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because it’s still one of the most safest place in the world to invest.
      Where most of these investors come from either has to be worried about dying from covid or a bullet.

    • Anonymous says:

      Agreed.
      As a owner of a international company that was operating from Cayman, with the ongoing border closure we pulled out 12 months ago.

      Lots of other Caribbean jurisdictions have been open an much more accommodating to business travel needs.
      I was more than happy to return until the government’s announcement the past week, now it’s time to move on as there is clearly no plan!

      • Anonymous says:

        Thanks! You just stated EXACTLY why we don’t want, need and shouldn’t allow you and the likes of you here!

        The country can’t support building the social and physical Infrastructure for people like you who simply pack up and scoot at the first broken fingernail. We want partners who genuinely care about us and are in for the long run.

    • Anonymous says:

      From your comments I don’t think that you have travelled much and travel well.

      Cayman’s attitude towards foreign investment is anything but hostile when compared to other locations.

      No Governors have been killed here, no resorts have been attacked, no foreigners kidnapped, and I need not go on.

      If you have travelled or, at least, listened to some world news you would surely not post such uninformed comments.

  23. John Smith says:

    Having just reversed the successful initiatives taken by his ministry over the previous few years and cancelled international commitments made, some of which were sponsored and supported by private enterprise, Mr Ebanks seems to be “recreating the wheel” instead of capitalizing on the previous sound foundations.

    This so called “new department” seems to be a rehash of the old!

    Surely it would have been sound policy to build on the existing structure, including the recruitment of top level senior staff, thereby benefitting from the time and money spent previously.

    This smacks of personal politics overriding good sense.

    • Anonymous says:

      Every new minister knows more than the previous regimes and the civil servants he/she commands. Don’t worry – all of this will be undone when the next minister takes over, which, the way things are going with the draconian Covid border restrictions, might be a lot sooner than expected.

    • Anonymous says:

      “Personal politics overriding good sense”.
      Are you by any chance also referring to letting Joey go, as opposed to examining what caused his resignation ?
      Joey’s dedication to the long term success of the Port far outweighs the short term political convenience of pandering to stipend collectors.

    • Anonymous says:

      Policy, which policy?

      Air Miles Eric and his band of opportunists ran this show.

      No policies in that Ministry other than find the next place to jet off to with friends to eat and drink the best on the menus.

  24. Anonymous says:

    Another high paying job made up for a foreigner whilst most Civil Servants work for less than 3000 per month.

    • Anonymous says:

      I was thinking the same thing

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes.Manydo. Shame tho!
      Those at the bottom cant vote raises and packages for themself assenior civil servants in Cabinet recently did.

    • Anonymous says:

      I am pretty sure she has Status given that she was married to a Caymanian for donkey years.

    • Anonymous says:

      Oh yeah, it would have worked out brilliantly and silenced the critics, to give the job to someone currently earning under $3,000 per month. I bet there are loads of people doing manual labor jobs that would be brilliant at leading a brand new government agency and representing the country when attracting inward investment.

    • anon says:

      5.13pm How hard do they work for only $3000 a month, and do they answer their phones?.

  25. neverwannabeacivilservant says:

    How many Directors, Deputy Directors and Dept Heads has Govt appointed this year, assuming somebody has been able to keep count of them?.

    • Anonymous says:

      17/09 @ 5:10pm – an accurate count hasn’t been established as yet. Government is seeking to recruit a Director of Tally, one Deputy and 2 acting Deputies! Then we’ll know!

  26. Anonymous says:

    You talk inward investment but you hate for foreigners to own anything. Make up your minds.

  27. anon says:

    Please, please!, no more FIN developments on S Church St or anywhere else in the Cayman Islands.

  28. Anonymous says:

    Sounds great. What kind of investment is desired? Cayman doesn’t seem interested in most things one can invest in, and her list is so general as to be meaningless. I guess the waste to energy plant will count ad infrastructure investment, but it doesn’t seem “inward” .

  29. Anonymous says:

    Just as long as the investment partners does not include China Harbour and subsidiaries … I’m good.

    • Anonymous says:

      4.04, It is alleged that The Chinese are very generous in thanking those who facilitate contracts for them,
      The cruise piers are not dead and gone yet.

    • Hubert says:

      We really don’t need any real estate investment from Communist Party of China members or Russian laundered money. Keep dirty money out of Cayman real estate development.

    • Anonymous says:

      You do realize that China Harbour and it’s subsidiaries are Communist Party of China entities?

      People don’t get CPC and how they work internationally.

  30. Anonymous says:

    Open the border!

  31. Anonymous says:

    Wow. I can’t believe Jane Scaletta is the head of this endeavor. Is she even on island? Last I heard she ran off to Florida.

    Time to get new blood promoting Cayman. Time for fresh. Time for someone with foresight and not someone who takes the ideas and work of others and says it’s hers.

    Sad days, indeed. Old is not good.

    • Anonymous says:

      Jesus! Soon we’ll be bringing back Lania Rittenhouse ( remember her from Mac’s day?) at another exorbitant salary to “embark on this new journey”. Why are we so fascinated with these foreign “experts” who usually add nothing to tourism/foreign investment etc but add to their resume.

    • Anonymous says:

      Promote from the many great civil servants?
      Those days are long gone.

  32. Anonymous says:

    They’re already doing work permits for whomever will pay….are they going to take away the payment requirement?

  33. Anonymous says:

    Fix the dump!

  34. Anonymous says:

    Position was advertised where again?

    • Jamie says:

      It was posted both online on the Gov jobs section and in the classifieds of Cayman Compass, I recall seeing it. However, I have to wonder how much more foreign investment they require in this country, property valuations and cost of living are sky high in this country and only continues to grow. They seriously need to think about putting in place a property tax for foreign investors that would be paid annually, say in the region of 5-10%. The barriers to entry are so low that it makes it almost impossible for an average citizen to purchase land or property and unless a catastrophic hurricane hits, it won’t be going down.

      • Anonymous says:

        You do understand that putting out the ads is just a ruse, according to the law they have to run the ads. However, they have already selected their “favourite” person and it doesn’t matter if those applying aremore than qualified to fill the post or not. This is an old trick. The problem with Cayman is that we do not have enough politically matured intelligent, non corrupted persons who will speak out and stand up for honesty, and integrity. Too many out there using the back channel to get their personal project taken care out. They know that others are aware but they are too corrupted to give a damn..

      • Anonymous says:

        And income tax on expats in the civil service!
        Tell me again why the Labor Laws do not apply to government??!

      • Anonymous says:

        Others are considering your ideas too- and not just small island nations.

        There is a federal election in Canada on Monday. Here is what one political leader is proposing:

        https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/erin-o-toole-targets-housing-crisis-pledges-freeze-on-foreign-investment-1.5553212

      • Anonymous says:

        The last thing we need is more taxes. If property tax is levied on foreigners how long do you think it will be before locals are taxed bearing in mind everything in Cayman gets more expensive yearly.

  35. Anonymous says:

    Keep the border closed indefinitely, that should help.

  36. Anonymous says:

    Does this mean that Air Miles Eric has been grounded?

  37. Anonymous says:

    We had to move our business because Cayman’s naughty banks have all signed settlements prohibiting them from dealing with US persons, or have introduced business-repelling monthly compliance fees for the “high risk” of running 100% tax compliant business.

  38. Anonymous says:

    Trying to attract inward investments is much more than trying to entice more tourist to the island through marketing strategies.. That is what hotel concierges do. Normally tourist investment is merely a plane ticket and a hotel room for a week or so with a few dollars thrown in for the restaurants. Maybe they will return maybe they won’t. Inward investment is much bigger and more diverse. Is this lady really capable to do this? Just asking for a friend.

    • Anonymous says:

      @ 1.22pm “Is she capable” is that really important or is ‘who she knows’ more important?

      • Anonymous says:

        So it seems @4:22. I guess this is being kinder – but to whom. Being kind does not mean picking out a friend of a friend and leaving the rest of us to starve. I thought more thought would be given when filling these positions that Caymanians can fill. I guess “me and mine are ok, and to hell with the rest”

        • Anonymous says:

          To them it does. No need to beat around the
          Bush as nepotism rules inside which is a way to create forced lotalties by trying to become a fake lockjaw king/queen maker.

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