Isle Of Man Seeks To Enhance Links With Gulf Region

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

07 February 2005

The Isle of Man's newly appointed Chief Minister, Donald Gelling, and a delegation from the Isle of Man will be setting off for a five day tour of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Bahrain on the 18th February, to develop further links with the area, it emerged last week.

The visit, which will be the Chief Minister's first of his new term (but not his first to the region), has been arranged by Isle of Man Finance, the promotional arm of the Isle of Man Government Treasury responsible for the Island's finance sector,

It is hoped that the visit will foster bilateral business relations between the two financial services sectors. The delegation reportedly intends to re-visit contacts made in previous visits and seek to forge new friendships on behalf of the Island with senior Government officials in the Gulf.

Joining the Chief Minister as part of the senior official delegation will be John Aspden, Chief Executive of the Island's Financial Supervision Commission, David Vick, Chief Executive of the Insurance and Pensions Authority, Head of Isle of Man Finance, Jane Dellar and Business Development Manager Andrew Smith.

Speaking with regard to the forthcoming vist, Mr Gelling announced that:

"I am delighted to be able to return to the Gulf region and lead a further delegation. It will be an honour to continue dialogue with senior Government officials during the visit, and to formalise further our existing strong financial and economic relationships."

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