Two delegations of Bermuda business executives have attended two separate conferences — the Fund Forum Middle East Conference in Bahrain and Hedge Funds World LatAm 2009 Conference in Miami, Florida, this week.

The delegations were part of The Bermuda International Business Association's ongoing marketing and promotion efforts for the Island and focused on attracting business from the Gulf and Latin American regions.

"We know that 2008 and the first half of 2009 have been challenging for the overall global economy and that there has been a period of retrenching," said BIBA CEO Cheryl Packwood from the Fund Forum Middle East Conference in Bahrain.

"But, as we learned at our recent New York Financial Services Conference, the financial services sector is turning around. Now is not the time to sit back, but rather be aggressive in courting new business opportunities. There are growth opportunities in key markets around the world.

"These delegations are delivering an important message at the right time, showcasing Bermuda's real strengths, distinguishing the jurisdiction from competitors and delivering a vitally important message - Bermuda is open, ready and focused on international business."

The Bahrain conference was attended by more than 350 delegates from 25 different countries, including 75 fund buyers and distributors. The delegates include leading financial services executives, government officials, economists and business professionals.

Ms Packwood spoke on behalf of Bermuda in a speech entitled "Efficient Compliance and Exposure Management in Turbulent Times".

She said: "Because Bermuda is home to 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies, these companies are most comfortable with Bermuda for their international financing transactions coming from this region."

Additional representatives for Bermuda were: Jeanne Bartlett and Miles Flint of Appleby, Peter Hughes and Nicholas Angio of Apex Fund Services, and Fawaz Elmalki of Conyers Dill & Pearman.

The Hedge Funds World LatAm 2009 Conference in Miami focused on Latin American hedge fund investing and attracted more than 200 attendees from across the spectrum of financial services professionals including lawyers, accountants, fund managers, advisors, fund distributors and administrators.

The Bermuda delegation headed by Susan Stirling, director of marketing for BIBA included Shaun Morris, Eduardo Fox and Doug Molyneux of Appleby. The group has generated strong interest from the Latin American marketplace, which is increasingly looking outside their traditional markets for financial services partners.

"The timing of this event has been most fortuitous — last week's signing of the TIEA with Mexico has been greeted with great enthusiasm by the delegates here," said Mr. Morris, managing partner of Appleby's Bermuda office.

"Bermuda is the first offshore financial centre to sign a TIEA with a Latin American nation. The TIEA will provide for the exchange of information relating to criminal and civil tax matters and, perhaps more significantly, the signing of the TIEA will facilitate a change in the status of Bermuda, which when it occurs, will allow Mexican corporations to be exempt from Mexico's 40 percent withholding tax when setting up offshore operations in Bermuda."

Ms Stirling,said: "The potential for growth that we identified and began to actively pursue a few years ago is now beginning to bear fruit. Other offshore jurisdictions are visibly missing in their marketing to the Latin American market and are retrenching in the wake of the global economic crisis.

"We are seizing on Bermuda's considerable momentum and aggressively courting a most exciting new business opportunity for Bermuda."