The Cayman Islands hosted representatives from Portugal on Thursday to sign a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA).
The agreement was signed on behalf of the Cayman Islands by the Premier, the Honourable McKeeva Bush, OBE JP, and by Professor Sérgio Vasques, Secretary of State for Tax Affairs, on behalf of Portugal.
In attendance at the signing ceremony was His Excellency the Governor, Mr Duncan Taylor CBE, members of the legislative assembly and senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Monetary Authority. Also attending were various private sector representatives including those from Portuguese institutions with operations in the Cayman Islands.
The Premier made the following remarks to attendees immediately following the signing:
It is my pleasure and a great honour to recognise our distinguished visitors from Portugal today – Professor Sérgio Vasques and Mrs Ana Rita Chacim – here to sign a tax information exchange agreement this afternoon.
We are particularly pleased to be signing this agreement on Cayman soil and are grateful to the Portuguese delegation for taking the time to visit our shores.
I know you are only with us for a short time, but I hope you will be able to get a sense of what we, in the Cayman Islands, are all about and the unique attributes of our country.
I realise our two countries are worlds away geographically, but from what I understand, we have a common thread in our history – we both share a seafaring heritage that has greatly contributed to our lifestyles and cultures.
I know for Cayman, our maritime history is not only a source of pride, but has fostered resilience and tenacity in our people to be the best at what we do.
The other connection we have is through some of Portugal’s major financial institutions which have a presence in the Cayman Islands and are licensed by our regulator, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.
We see this as a sign of confidence in our financial services industry and we hope that this agreement may help expand opportunities for more commercial activities between our two countries.
We are especially pleased to see some representatives from the more than 16 Portuguese financial institutions with operations or structures in the Cayman Islands.
We greatly value this commercial relationship and the trust that these organisations have placed in the Cayman Islands as a jurisdiction.
The Government also values the hard work and meaningful discussions between our two excellent negotiating teams which culminated in this agreement. We want to congratulate and recognise the individuals involved.
The Cayman Islands pride ourselves as a major international financial services centre that guarantees high standards of services underpinned by internationally recognised and accepted levels of regulation.
We look forward to many more years of productive and successful commercial and government-to-government activities between Portugal and the Cayman Islands.