Nevis, Well Positioned For The New Millenium

By Agatha Jeffers-Gooden. Director

This year, 1999 commemorates fifteen years since the launch of the Nevis' offshore financial services sector. In 1984, a year after gaining full political independence along with its sister island from Britain, the Nevis government identified the offshore financial services sector as a sector that could offer novel opportunities for economic diversification and economic growth of a small island state, like Nevis. It also recognized that the sector had the potential to generate foreign exchange earnings and make significant contributions to government revenues, with favourable spin-off effects on the overall gross domestic production. In recognition of these benefits, the government launched the offshore financial services industry with the enactment of The Nevis Business Corporation Ordinance, 1984 (NBCO), which is modeled in large part on the United States Delaware Corporation statutes. Today, Nevis currently has four attractive pieces of