George Town, Grand Cayman: Premier Hon.
Alden McLaughlin and the Cayman Delegation returned from London on
Friday night after a series of meetings, including a meeting with HRH
The Prince of Wales at Highgrove House his private residence, as well
as separate meetings with the Rt. Hon. Conor Burns (Minister of State
at the Department for International Trade) and Sir Edward Lister
(Chief Strategic Advisor to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson).

Joining the Premier for these meetings were
Alasdair Robertson of Maples; Jess Shakespeare of Pricewaterhouse
Coopers; Dan Scott and Eleanor Fisher of Ernst & Young; Kevin
Lloyd of KPMG; and Lord Jonathan Marland, Chairman of the
Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. Chief Officer Eric
Bush of the Ministry of International Trade and Roy Tatum, Head of
the Office of the Premier also participated.

While in London Premier McLaughlin also met with
Baroness Sugg, the United Kingdom’s new Minister with
responsibility for the Overseas Territories.

The meeting with HRH Prince of Wales focused on a
Cayman Islands based ‘Blue/Green Fund’ initiative that was
introduced to the Prince when he visited the Cayman Islands in March
2019. The fund is aimed at providing financing to Blue/Green
projects in the Caribbean. Work on the fund has progressed and it
is anticipated that it will be officially launched at the next
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in June of this year
by HRH Prince Charles and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. HRH
Prince Charles had proposed such a fund at the 2015 CHOGM in Malta,
however, to date it has not been able to get off the ground.

The Prince was excited that Cayman Islands
entities and a Cayman Islands fund will finally be able to achieve
this longstanding goal. The initial funding will be from local
investors, and the initial green project to be funded is expected to
be in the Cayman Islands. It is anticipated that there are also
institutions and wealthy individuals internationally ready to invest
a total of US$1 billion into the fund. The fund arrangements can
also be replicated to focus on blue/green projects in other parts of
the world as well. This is not only exciting for green initiatives
generally but also shows the value of the Cayman Islands' financial
products in providing solutions to benefit green initiatives in the
region and beyond.

The meetings with the Rt. Hon Conor Burns
(Minister of State at the Department for International Trade) and Sir
Edward Lister (Chief Strategic Advisor to the UK Prime Minister) was
an opportunity for the Premier and the Cayman delegation to provide
key advisors of Prime Minister Boris Johnson with an update of the
business done in the Cayman Islands, including our fund services, and
to speak about the recent EU Blacklisting. The Cayman Delegation
received assurances that the UK Government continued to have every
confidence in the Cayman Islands and in our financial services
business, and they committed to considering making a public statement
confirming this confidence. Other matters discussed included the
potential for UK and Cayman trade, especially in financial services
as well as the Blue/Green Fund.

The meeting with the new Overseas Territories
Minister was also very productive and the Premier and the Minister
discussed a broad range of issues facing the Cayman Islands and the
UK, including the EU listing process. In addition to the Premier.
Chief Officer Eric Bush, Andre Ebanks of the Cayman Islands London
Office and Roy Tatum attended the meeting.

The Cayman Delegation also met with Officials with
the City of London to discuss areas of possible cooperation.

“The meetings in London over the past week were
very successful. It provided an opportunity to meet with some key
advisors to the Prime Minister and to have them hear directly from
Cayman business people about our financial services industry and to
better understand what we do here, including the extent of our
institutional client base,” said Mr. McLaughlin. “We also
discussed the EU listing process and the impact that Brexit politics
would have had on that”

“It was also good to meet Baroness Sugg who now
has responsibility for the Overseas territories and to discuss areas
of mutual interest between the UK and the Cayman Islands.”

The meetings, which were organised by the Ministry
of International Trade, Investment, Aviation, and Maritime Affairs,
are part of the on-going engagement strategy and partnership with the
UK Government and the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council.

Ends

Photos

Baroness Elizabeth Suggs & Premier Alden
McLaughlin

L-R Rt Hon. Conor Burns, Minister of State at the
Department for International Trade, Premier, Rt Hon. Lord Marland

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