Minister Reaches Out To IB After Hurricane
In the aftermath of the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy on the U.S. East Coast, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Patrice Minors reached out to the ABIR Association of Business Insurers and Reinsurers [ABIR] and Association of Bermuda International Companies [ABIC], to determine if member companies have a need to relocate staff to Bermuda for business continuity purposes in the short-term.
Minister Minors said, “Our aim is to support and assist those international businesses that have a presence in Bermuda as best we can. Our proximity to the east coast makes it an obvious choice for short-term relocations where there is a need. Any work permits required will be issued immediately to ensure that we help the companies achieve their business continuity objectives.”
The Ministry said they await responses from the officers at ABIC and ABIR with respect to their memberships needs.
Category: All, Business, News, Politics
LOL! Please bring some of your staff back here. You know the one’s we term limited out? But only temporarily. Ok? Not chasing a headline or anything.
For all the haters below I can see you’re all going to need rope after the election results. Pick a tree now. LMAO
You sound positive about that. Are the polls being fixed? It seems to me enough of the plp voter base has realized the plp are not for the people so I wouldn’t be so certain…unless the polls are fixed. Plus I think I’ll find a plane instead of a tree, BA most likely, but you should find a tree, and hug it, another 4 or 5 years of the plp they might just pour concrete slabs over the rest of them if zane has his way.
PLEASE…tell us which tree is yours…we wouldn’t want to get in the way…or hold you up! WLN???
I choose to put my comments at the top because of all the insensative comments below,I think it is rediculous how so many can jump to one conclusion and call the mininster such degrading names as to her position and without taking time to consider that what is being offered may have just come as a direct result of correspondence with the International sector themselves and this is just the outcome, so I will revert back a litte to what I have said so many times in the past,God did one of the greatest Miracles that was ever recorded in history when he made a Jack ass talk and as we can see they are stil able to talk up until today.
Hey Duane…remember that when one finger is pointing out (yours to whomever you refer to as jackass) there are three pointing back at yourself!! Check yaself b’fore ya wreck yaself!!!
In the book I’m reading, this guy Harry Potter used a wand to unlock a door…so I don’t get your point.
Surely you jest! You must be “takin’ the piss” with me…using a wand is actually worse!! If you are holding it correctly then FOUR fingers are pointing back at yourself!!!
Lol my point was both books are fictional.
Mr. Santucci,
The PLP have degraded every person on this island for the past 14 years, time to turn on them.
@Duane P Santucci========I never read anywhere in the Bible where God performed any miracle, I thought that was reserved for the guy Jesus..How can God perform a miracle? If he is God then its automatic he can make anything happen..you are even confused with your own belief..I’ve read quite a bit of the bible and never known about thesemiracles..do tell, or are you calling yourself a name..
He believes in a contradicting book, that America claims as their foundation, “in god we trust”, yet America is on the verge of starting WWIII (the battle of armagedon), just to keep the value of their dollar. Why do I say America is about to start the battle of armagedon? Well if my mind was a computer I’d be digging through my recycle bin, and if I remember correctly, Babylon = Russia, china = I don’t remember/care, but Duane can tell us. So according to the bible thumpers, in the next few years we’ll be witnessing the end of the world and the blood will rise to the chest of horses (yea I read your fictional book too) or all of you are FOS. I’m not reading harry potter but my point above was we’re both reading fictional books. According to yours I must be one of satans servants, but we’ll see, until then leave your religion out of politics, thanks.
Minister Minors. You have no clue as to what you are doing or how the insurance/reinsurance industry works. Your announcement shows pure desperation and ignorance.
I think Parice, needs to retire from politics…
Natural disaster…sure, swing the doors open wide and issue permits IMMEDIATELY! Can you say grasping at straws?
This woman couldn’t lead the Keystone Cops….dumber than a box of rocks!
Great response Minster. Very appropriate too – Kudos.
Desperation! She behaves like crooked contractors who go into devastated areas after a disaster.
Shame on you.
In a few days NYC will be up & running again almost like nothing happened. It is the nature of the people. They don’t spend forever talking about getting something done. They do it.
Triangle drifter you are an idiot. No matter the circumstance you always have something stupid to say.
Johnny boy, is that the best you can do? Name calling? You might want to look in a mirror to see the real idiot since my opinion is shared by many bloggers. Some of them appear much more knowledgeable in IB than me. Certainly you.
How pathetic, first drive them away, then offer a broken olive branch. Please be gone with you Ms. Minors!
Great idea. Build relations with IB and possibly benefit from some visitors/short term residents to the island.
It’s gonna take more than this to ‘build relations with IB’.
Despite the obvious disingenuity and undoubted spoon-fed preparation to her by someone else, this may be the best announcement ever made by this woman.
I’d guess their contingency plan no longer includes Bermuda, not anymore not even with a free ________ upon arrival.
How in the world would they get here? There aren’t any airlines flying in from the East Coast due to cancellations, courtesy of SANDY sigh
Interesting
Clearly grasping at straws and shows desperation in the extreme
Patrice
in 10 weeks you will be looking for employment, good luck.
if the Plp win, Aunt Paula will have to choose between putting you in the Senate and keeping the Party Leader position, which one you think she will choose?
start cleaning up your resume, lots of potwasher vacancies out there
Stooge show, Patrice could become a nail technician..
And then house them all at the empty condos on the cliff…..
Awwwww isn’t that sweet……the PLP wants to be friends with IB now.
why bring in foriegn workers? the economy is recovering and businesses are opening. and the arab are comming soon too!
This offer was given to companies who had offices in Cayman and Bermuda after Ivan had devistaed the infrastructure in Cayman and it would be months before things were back up and running somewhat normally
NY is different.. It will be days not months…
Although I think the offer was a good idea, it was a waste of breath (and an excuse to get in the news)
Dear IB Employer,
I take this opportunity to formally apply for the recently advertised position of _______________ in your organisation.
I have over 20 years experience in International Business Sector, more specifically in the banking and trust industry where I advised overseas investors how to utilise Bermuda to structure their affairs.
You would be familiar with the many of constructive measures that I introduced when I acted as Minister of Business Development and Tourism while I was a full time employee at a local Bank, as well as the work I am currently doing as Minister of Industry and Economy.
I am attractive, like to wear red and will help your company increase revenue as I am good with people and know how to bring business to bermuda and keep it here with satisfied investors and work permit holders.
Your application form mentioned my salary expectations which I would expect will be at the same level I currently enjoy with a car or housing allowance because I will be a key employee in your company.
I will only be available for interviews on fridays after 3pm as I am busy over the next few weeks canvassing the constituents in my constituency just in case the PLP win so i can prove I am worthy of a Senate seat as there will be much demand for those.
I look forward to hearing from you by the end of the week as remember I am a Minister.
yours faithfully
Application Letter from Former Minister
p.s. I will refuse any offer as a potwasher, nanny,admin assistant, underwriting assistant, technical assistant and want to be in the C Suite with your $250+k club with a tuckers point membership and school fees paid see
People please…. this is not something new, but because the PLP make the offer all the hate come out. The IB company that I worked for did this a few years ago when a hurricane hit the Caymans, they brought guest workers from the Cayman office here to work in the Bermuda office. Oh shut up, the locals didn’t want to leave their families, as I wouldn’t want to either….
The stupidity of this empty jesture shows a complete lack of understanding of IB needs and smacks of deperation and grandstanding…..We dont need people to come in on temporary work permits we just need our staff who are marooned temporarily in the States a safe and speedy return…
I don’t understand. How can they issue a permit immediately? They have said it takes weeks to do this. You know, all that paperwork, the meetings, the additional questions, the Board…..I believed them!
dont forget the chest xrays
The PLP Scares them off then welcomes them back – yeah OK… The PLP are desperate, wreckless and clueless people void of solutions. Vote this bunch out – I can’t wait for the cog to call election and watch them lose finally, then we can begin healing Bermuda after Hurricane PLP for the past 12 years! Maybe then would businesses wish to come back…
Its a nice gesture by the minister. However, all IB companies in Bermuda have Disaster Recovery Plans (both global and for all local operations where they operate) which were immediately effective for their New York operations. As TriangleDrifter said, NY’ers are a resilient and enterprising bunch and will be back up and running by tomorrow. This is a very short-term inconvenience for business. The timing was also fortunate (not being 1/1 insurance renewals, and being just outside of the quarterly reporting preparation period). If it was a more significant disaster that would take longer to recover from then the Minister’s offer could have have been useful and had some take-up rate from IB.
Relocate to Bermuda…is she out of her mind?? what corporation during a crisis would thrust its company into the sea of red tape and anti work permit sentiments that the PLP have adopted, for goodness sake if she could do nothing to stop or reduce the dozens of companies that have left us why would she even attempt such a move, is an election coming or what!!
desperation at it’s worse…Y-Gurl…….Patrice Minus brains needs to step down from politics.she @#$%^& Up up as health minister, and as else for tourism minister she had no clue what that entailed…..every ministery this women has had she has screwed up…ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ….
A nice gesture, but there is little to no need for these companies to relocate staff unless they had offices in Atlantic city and the Jersey shore. Most larger organisations have contingency plans and most execs can work from home if needed. Lobbies of buidings may have been flooded in NYC but everything else is fine. In reality, it would cost a company significant amounts of admin and $$ to relocate someone here on a short term basis, flights, rents and work permits in Bermuda are some of the highest in the world. It would make no economic sense in the short term.
This is nothing more than election posturing by a Minister who has little grasp of how the industry actually works who is a member of a party who has done more damage to the vital economic pillar of IB than any external influence (global economy).
For once something conciliatory is being said by the Government of the day to our Goose that lays the golden eggs. Pity we didnt treat them better long before and not just because a looming general election…sad
Too late…NYC was already up and running 10 seconds after the power went out. It’s called having foresight and a contingency plan in place for events such as this.
soo you call 10billion (and counting) dollars worth of damage foresight?? I bet the Reinsurance companies dont agree, and I am not saying that any of this was avoidable, but it sounds like a back handed critique of the Bermudian Government disguised in sarcasm and subtle praise for the US.. just saying.
No matter the cost, US Local and Federal Govt’s prepare for unavoidable situations like this, period. And yes, reinsurance companies are in business to make money just as the next, however they do know that the day will come when they will have to also write a check (pay out). Call it what you will, it is what it is.
WOW,, I am glad I read this, just to gauge how bitter, cynical and childish my fellow Bermudian residents can be at times..
For the record, I am not her biggest fan, but good gesture Minister,, if it helps one family in this time of need, then it was a lovely idea..
You have no idea how useless and clueless she really is…