Cayman's Department of Commerce and Investment

Cayman’s Department of Commerce and Investment is creating the perfect climate for inward investment

The Cayman Islands is building a reputation as an increasingly attractive global location for investment and commerce, in part thanks to a government department which is creating the perfect climate for inward foreign investment.

The Cayman’s Department of Commerce and Investment (DCI), part of the Ministry of Finance, Tourism and Development, was formed around a core mission: "to lead in promoting and facilitating appropriate long-term foreign and local investment in the Cayman Islands." The vision was to encourage economic development of the Islands by attracting investment and entrepreneurial ventures.

This may be a common goal for most countries’ departments of commerce and investment, but in the case of the Cayman Islands it is more than mere rhetoric as the DCI has been taking specific steps towards reaching its goal of facilitating foreign investment. The DCI is doing this through the successful creation of a number of specific services available to foreign investors through its Investor Support Services Unit.

First, they offer strategic advice to each potential foreign investor based on their specific business or financial objectives; second they provide hands-on investment facilitation to help realise those objectives through the provision of pertinent information, liaison with relevant stakeholders and arrangement of site visits, along with after-care services; and third, the Department negotiates incentives and benefits for certain investment proposals (based on a case-by-case basis).

As the DCI deftly puts it, the Cayman Islands’ “natural beauty, stable government, supportive business environment, direct access to international markets, sound regulatory regime and a standard of living that compares favourably to most cosmopolitan cities in the world make [the Islands] an ideal place to live, work and conduct business”. It seems that the Cayman government, specifically through the DCI’s Investor Support Services Unit, is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to this “supportive business environment” – creating a climate which makes Cayman ripe for investment.