News that the Cayman Islands is actively considering proposals contained in the Bermuda First report for its own jurisdiction while debate in Bermuda has hardly begun should be a call to action.

That the Caymans have a greater sense of urgency about ways to shore up its international business segment is not a huge surprise. With tourism hit by the recession, its international business sector facing challenges due to the collapse of hedge funds and tax threats to its international banking sector, Bermuda's main offshore rival is under more threat than this Island.

But, that does not mean that Bermuda should not be looking at the same ideas and the other proposals in Bermuda First, which has lain virtually dormant since it was unveiled.

The two ideas being pushed by Cayman are to fast-track three-to-five-year work permits, to provide assurances to senior executives in in investing companies that they will be exempted from the regular seven-year term limit for foreigners and giving wealthy individuals the right to live and work in the Caymans for 25 years if they make a business investment of at least $2.6 million.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Michael Dunkley rightly said that the Bermuda First Report had not received the "critical review it deserves", in part because events overtook it.

That does not mean that it does not need discussion. The premise on which it was commissioned, that Bermuda cannot rely on tourism and international business forever, remain as true now as then. Now there is another reason; that the ideas floated in the report may be adopted by Bermuda's competititors first.