(CNS Business): Tomica Daley LL.B, LEC has been appointed as senior deputy clerk of court and registrar of the Financial Services Division of the Grand Court, starting Monday 13 May. Daley is a qualified attorney with extensive experience as a senior clerk of courts in Jamaica. She also holds a Certificate in Public Administration from the University of the West Indies. According to Judicial Administration, after many years of exceptional service, Audrey Bodden has relinquished these roles but continues as Registrar of the Court of Appeal, although from 1 July, this will be on a part time basis.

(CNS Business): Dr Sharon Marshall (left), Public Relations Executive with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), has won a Gold Quill Award of Excellence from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). The Gold Quill was awarded in the Communications Skills Division in the category of Special Events – External, for communications management of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), which took place in the Cayman Islands in May 2012.  Marshall was in charge of CDB’s public relations at that time, and wrote the strategic comunication plan which emphasized the long-standing relationship between CDB and Cayman.

(CNS Business): Senior Investor Services Officer for the Department of Commerce and Investment (DCI), Shannon Francis, attended a two-day seminar in Kingston, Jamaica on ‘Attracting FDI through Good Investment Facilitation’. Hosted by the Caribbean Export Development Agency, in collaboration with the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA), the focus of the seminar was for investment promotions agencies (IPA) to gain a better understanding of investors and their expectations. DCI Acting Director Ryan Rajkumarsingh said, "As Cayman’s IPA and a member of CAIPA, DCI saw benefits in learning the most current investment promotion techniques particularly in regard to investor support."

(CNS Business): Despite continuing declines in kilowatt-hour (kWh) sales, CUC has announced improved earnings for the first quarter of the year compared to 2012. Grand Cayman’s monopoly power supplier stated that the company’s continued focus on controlling costs and improving efficiencies throughout the organization had helped with the significant increase in net earnings of $2.9 million, an increase of $1.0 million, or 53%, when compared to $1.9 million for the three months ended March last year. Given the hardships endured by CUC’s customers in Cayman, however, the firm’s efficiencies, lower general, administration and financing costs and increases in other income may not seem so impressive.

(CNS Business): Four young Caymanians are now on the career path as legal secretaries, having graduated from Walkers Junior Legal Secretary Training Programme, which provides Caymanians with an in-depth training opportunity in the field. Racquel James-Irving, Benicha Tyndale, Anya Solomon and Ashley Watler (L-R in photo) all completed the comprehensive 18-month training programme between 2010 and 2013, rotating through various departments at Walkers and benefitting from exposure to each of the firm's main practice areas. 

(CNS Business): Correspondence between the airport management and the Cayman Islands Airport Authority Board chair reveals that, despite his own direct business interests at the airport, Richard Arch refused to sign a ‘notice of individual interest form’ in line with international accounting procedures at the time the government company was preparing its annual accounts. In emails leaked to CNS, which were sent just weeks ahead of the suspension of the CEO, the board chair queried why he or any board member needed to sign such a form, given that he had supplied a letter regarding his business interests at the airport and the fact that he had absented himself when necessary.

(CNS): The empty shops and offices of George Town could get a new lease of life if the PPM is elected to office later this month, the party has promised voters in the capital. The Progressives have committed to reversing what has been a gradual disappearance over the last few years of businesses and retailers from the capital and a regeneration of central George Town. In addition to their commitment to get a cruise port underway that will not have its own upland development, the party has also revealed that it intends to appoint a mayor or a “city manager”, as the job was described in the party’s manifesto, to boost business in the country's flagging capital.

(CNS Business): Government has finally started the official procurement process for the cruise-berthing facilities in George Town and the first step is finding suitable experts to draw up the necessary business plan and strategic case for the project. A request for proposals was released on Friday and Stran Bodden, Chief Officer in the tourism ministry, said the procurement process would be open and competitive in keeping with international best practice and the Public Management and Finance Law. He said the business case would direct the number and size of the piers that will eventually be developed.  It is expected that one of Cayman’s major consulting firms will be contracted to begin shaping the long awaited project.

(CNS Business): Promising new “game changing economic decisions” if it is returned to office, the United Democratic Party is pledging a new and improved environment for “doing business” in the Cayman Islands. In the UDP campaign manifesto, the party says it is focusing on tackling bureaucracy and is planning a Financial Services Centre of Excellence. The party also claims that it will protect Cayman’s position as a leading world financial centre. In the past the UDP has been more widely supported in the business community than the PPM because of what was considered to be the more pro-foreign stance taken by the UDP, and in particular its leader, McKeeva Bush. However, his recent run-in with the law is said to be making the business community more nervous about his re-election.

(CNS Business): Mourant Ozannes has been named Offshore Law Firm of the Year by Chambers Europe, publishers of legal directories. The local lawyers said the awards are amongst the most prestigious for the legal industry. Having won the Offshore Award in 2009 and 2011, Mourant Ozannes has won this accolade more times than any other offshore law firm. The firm was also named Offshore Law Firm of the Year at the HFM Europe Awards on the same day. "Few can match this firm for its breadth of abilities and almost unparalleled roster of big-name clients,” Chambers Europe said about the Cayman based firm.

(CNS Business): Local recruitment specialists Stepping Stones have won the title of this year’s Top Employer Award 2013 in the small-medium employer category.  This is the company’s second time shortlisted as a finalist and Managing Director Milly Serpell said the award validated the firms business practices. “It tells us we are on the right path to ensuring our people are supported, motivated, and rewarded in our workplace,” she added.  The awards were created by the Cayman Islands Society of Human Resource Professionals in 2009 to recognises employers that attract and retain employees, contribute to the community and create an environment that exemplifies respect, fairness and pride in the workplace.

(CNS Business): Three young Caymanians attending the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) this summer will be helped on the road to leadership with some cash from a local law firm. Ciara Henry, Ryan Japal and Henry Hill were given US$500 toward their registration and related attendance costs for the conference by Maples recently who described the three youngsters as ambitious and talented. The GYLC is a leadership development program that brings together outstanding young people from around the world to build critical leadership skills in a global context. The Caymanian students attending this year will be going to China and Europe.

(CNS Business): Although government had forecast generating close to $3 million dollars from Cayman Enterprise City (CEC) in this budget and for at least two subsequent fiscal years, government accountants have been forced to dramatically revise that position after Cayman’s first special economic zone has generated only $200,000 for government coffers this year. The zone, which was granted special status under the law, was expected to attract new science and technology industries to Cayman that would eventually be housed in a state-of-the-art campus. As a result of the zone’s special status, the companies registered there pay no duty, work permits or the usual license fees but just a one-off registration fee.

(CNS Business): Local telecommunications company LIME introduced the new BlackBerry® Z10 smartphone at a launch hosted at the Cayman Islands National Gallery in George Town, Grand Cayman, on Monday. The new smartphone, now on sale here, is the first BlackBerry to launch with the re-designed, re-engineered and re-invented BlackBerry 10 platform, giving customers a powerful mobile computing experience. Customers who purchase the new BlackBerry Z10 from LIME will also have the opportunity to win one of three trips for two to see Alicia Keys’ 'Set The World On Fire' concert in Prague on 12 June.

(CNS Business): In a dispute between a member of the Cayman Islands Real Estate Brokers Association (CIREBA) and a non-member over commission in a high end real estate transaction, Chief Justice Anthony Smellie ruled that Remax, one of the defendants in the case who acted for the sellers, “could not stand behind the CIREBA rules to keep the full commission for itself” and ordered them to pay the agents for the purchaser, Cayman Realty Consultant (CRC), one-half of the 5% of commission on a US$6.6 million transaction instead of a “referral fee” of US$30,000 that it said it was restricted to pay according to CIREBA rules. The judge said there was no reason in the public interest to justify invoking the CIREBA rules to block an award that was otherwise justified.