Premier Pamela Gordon told a BIBA breakfast briefing in San Diego yesterday of the four ingredients Bermuda has that has brought success for the Island in international business: A high quality infrastructure, including expertise in the various industries and telecommunications; A determination to maintain a good reputation "deliberately positioning ourselves in the high end of the market''. It means an international business company register of quality not quantity, of 10,000 instead of 100,000 companies; A partnership involving business and government. It means, she said, as was evident at the breakfast, that a united front is entered into when promoting Bermuda's international business.

At the BIBA breakfast were Government Ministers of Tourism, Telecommunications and Finance. Other government officials included Sen. Angelita Fox, Director of Tourism Gary Phillips amd other Tourism officials.

The Premier said "we all go to these events to provide our support because we are committed. We take this business very, very seriously,'' she said.

Creativity, she said, is the fourth part of the formula as evidenced by the 22-square-mile Island being the third largest insurance market in the world, comprising the largest captive, and a growing commercial, market.

The Premier quoted Standard & Poor's, who last year declared Bermuda "a breeding ground for the most innovative and unusual risk management techniques in the insurance industry.'' The BIBA breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Hotel was enhanced by the sounds from Bermuda's own Tropicana Steel Pan in the form of Robert Symons.

But it faced some competition as J&H Marsh Mac also hosted a morning meeting which attracted some 240 people. But the BIBA meeting heard from the Finance Minister Grant Gibbons that 55 percent of the $631 million spent by international business in Bermuda in 1996 came from insurers.

Dr. Gibbons explained how recent legislation gives Bermuda a leg up on its competition, as the Bermuda industry seeks to lead the way in the convergence of insurance and capital markets. He said: "this new law will allow people and entities who are not registered insurers under Bermuda law to invest in insurance derivatives. It is a unique piece of legislation that is intended to remove any uncertainty as to whether an investor in, for example, a catastrophe bond is engaging in insurance. It will also simplify and therefore accelerate the procedure under which securitisation programmes are licensed by Bermuda regulators.'' The Minister also advised of the start-up of CATEX International Ltd. and the Bermuda Commodities Exchange, and noted other financial services provided.

New legislation is in place for collective investment schemes as the number of such schemes rose 30 percent in the year to the third quarter of 1997. Net asset value climbed 33.8 percent from $15.62 billion to $20.9 billion. There are new opportunities for the Island to further diversify in information technology and electronic commerce.

The Minister said: "Building on core legislation and existing international treaties, we intend to develop an information technology services sector. The Ministry of Finance is working with BIBA and with a specialist consultant to define the legislation required and to target service opportunities in such emerging fields as Web-based electronic commerce, secure financial services, data warehousing and information service centres in telemedicine and on-line education.'' BUSINESS BUC