Representatives from the Virgin Islands met with senior financial services professionals in London to update them on the territory’s progress toward returning to normalcy post-Hurricane Irma, according to government.
“At the moment, the government’s focus is on restoring key utilities across the islands,” Benito Wheatley, the VI’s European Union and United Kingdom representative, told the group. “Telecommunications service is improving every day and the government is looking at ways to relax rules on work permits and reduce tariffs on building materials in order to expedite rebuilding.”
Dawn Smith, general counsel at the Financial Services Commission, added that “significant progress” has been made toward restoring the financial and legal services available in the territory.
“The backlog of past filings has now been cleared, VIRRGIN is fully functioning, regulatory submissions can now be completed electronically, and banking services are returning to normal operations within the next week,” she said.
BVI Finance Chairman Kenneth Morgan also spoke about the recent developments in the territory. Together with Maples & Calder partner Matthew Gilbert, he opened the discussion to explain the VI private sector’s perspective on long-term reconstruction in the territory.
Gary Hales, head of business development and marketing at BVI Finance, added that business is “carrying on” in spite of the recent hurricanes.
“Companies are still being incorporated and court cases are still happening,” he said. “BVI firms have advised on a significant IPO and a high-profile insolvency case within the last weeks, showing the immense resilience of the businesses based on island.”
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