THE Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA) released the results of a recent worldwide survey that shows that 70 per cent of respondents were very familiar or familiar with Bermuda and its international business offerings.

The survey, conducted between May and June of this year, was designed to assess the progress Bermuda is making in reaching its core clients in international business and to determine their perceptions of Bermuda's strengths and weaknesses as well as the jurisdictions competitors in key markets. Reaching out to 220 lawyers, accountants, financial services and insurance/reinsurance executives, the survey spanned North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Bermuda's insurance sector should also be happy to know that 100 per cent of insurance / reinsurance executives who were surveyed know Bermuda, which, according to BIBA, is remarkable in the context of any survey.

"This is a strong showing for Bermuda and its international business community, which underscores the progress our jurisdiction is making in building awareness among its clients," said Cheryl Packwood, CEO of BIBA. "More heartening are the perceived strengths among this group of people, which strengths are our ability to handle sophisticated business issues, the experience of our service providers and our reputation.

"We have made tremendous strides in our traditional markets for business in N. America, the United Kingdom and Europe with awareness of well over 85 per cent of those surveyed. In markets that we are just entering like Asia and Latin America, awareness levels are over 50 per cent. This suggests strongly that the aggressive and bold international business marketing efforts we are undertaking are working." According to the survey results, among the 70 per cent of all respondents surveyed who were very familiar or familiar with Bermuda, it island's strengths remain fairly consistent in major markets, including 45 per cent highlighting its sophistication and ability to do complicated business, 35 per cent highlighting the credibility of service providers and 20 per cent highlighting reputation of the jurisdiction.

Bermuda still has some areas of improvement in the eyes of the survey participants who were very familiar to familiar with Bermuda, including the perception that Bermuda is costly (40 per cent) and that is slow and inefficient (25 per cent).

Commenting on the survey results, Finance Minister Paula Cox said: "When the Ministry of Finance conducted a survey a few years ago, as we were assessing future opportunities for growth, it was clear from the responses and the survey data that we did not have the level of name recognition that we would have liked in the Far East. Since then there has been a concerted effort on many fronts, namely, Government (tax information exchange negotiations, a top-level delegation visited China), private sector business connections and the BIBA outreach. These efforts have borne fruit in the form of the increased awareness. This bodes well for future business prospects for the jurisdiction."