IOMplc To Become Public/Private Marketing Brand

Tax-news.com

17 January 2000

The Isle Of Man is to begin extensive advertising and promotion of its financial sector in a joint initiative with private firms under the banner IOMplc. This expression has been current on the island for some time to describe the growing partnership between the Government and the private sector in establishing and marketing the island's low tax facilities, but this will be the first public, official expression of the partnership.

In January 2000 the new campaign will kick off with advertising support for the banking sector, to be followed by the insurance, fund management and professional sectors. Michael Gates, Head of the IOM's International Services Division, which was set up in 1995 to coordinate promotion of the island's services, said that cooperation between the Government and commercial firms had become well established, and that the firms understood the need to work together with each other in the interests of all of them. Craig Wolstencroft, managing director of Mainstream Media Ltd, which has put together the advertising campaigns, said that it had not been easy to change the mind-set of many of the firms involved, but that the IOM was now ahead of other jurisdictions.

The campaign will target expatriates worldwide, international independent financial advisers, and high net-worth individuals, using the leading international financial press. There will also be a web-site, iomplc.com.

Perhaps it's now only a matter of time before some enterprising jurisdiction launches itself into cyberspace with an ipo (Sovereign Internet Placement); then Bermudaplc could take over the IOMplc, in fact all the tax havens could get together as lowtaxplc. They would have more assets than the G8, and could tell the OECD and the Financial Stability Forum where to get off. OK, laugh, but remember, you saw it first on Lowtax.net.

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