Why
Curacao
As you are likely aware, Curaçao has many natural
advantages:
| • Curaçao offers a very comfortable lifestyle and a
authentic tourist experience • As a Netherlands’s protectorate we enjoy European Union market privileges • We fall under the Dutch legal system • Our population is multi-cultural and multi-lingual with English, Dutch, Spanish, and Papiamento spoken throughout the island • We are only 35 miles from South America with excellent port and airport facilities • Some of the world’s best diving sites are in Curaçao • We have an advanced business services sector • Fine dining and historical, education, and cultural experiences abound • We offer attractive investment incentives • And we also have the fun and sun for which the Caribbean is known. |
Building on Curaçao’s inherent Comparative Advantages and Competitive Business Sectors, our vision of Curaçao’s economic future is an island advanced in all forms of education and rich in sophisticated entertainment and lifestyle experiences. We call this strategy, “Education and Sophistication.” To make this vision a reality, we are concentrating on developing four complementary industry clusters:
| 1. Education: All levels and
types of education and training including history, art, higher education,
technical, medical, aquamarine, edutainment, and more; 2. Business Services: Business Training, Business & Financial Services, and Regional Headquarters, and Corporate Tourism; 3. Niche Tourism: An authentic Caribbean experience for the sophisticated traveler including a safe, friendly, and very rich cultural experience along with secluded beaches and beautiful vistas; 4. Experience: Dining, Arts, Sports, Music, History, Diving, Golf, and other leisure lifesty |
Curaçao's Investment
Climate is Favorable
Curaçao offers investors a relatively safe and positive environment
in which to do business:
| • A stable political environment and long
democratic tradition whose integrity is guaranteed by our membership
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, • A brand-new civil code that has done away with many of the awkward differences between our original Continental code and the Anglo-Saxon code, and have made our system and that of Great Britain and the U.S. more comparable and more compatible, • A modern financial and business services infrastructure including local offices and representations of most major banks, accounting firms, law offices and consultancies, • An expanding tourism infrastructure, featuring the likes of Hilton and Marriott, with Hyatt working to build a resort and golf course on the eastern side of the island targeted at the upscale tourist market, • The second biggest seaport in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, after Rotterdam, and definitely one of the two or three most modern and efficient ports in the wider Caribbean, featuring among others the best mooring facility for latest generation mega cruise ships, • An airport in the process being modernized into one of the very best and safest by 2006, • Historic Willemstad, one of UNESCO's 80-something World Heritage sites, the delight of all visitors • Traditionally low inflation, always under five percent per year. |
Economic Zone Law
There are two Economic (free trade) zones in Curaçao geared towards
trading in goods and services: Harbor Free Zone, Airport Economic Zone,
covering a total area of 61ha., multipurpose buildings are offered or
land in long lease in a fully service park. Both zones managed by Curinde
corporation, 85% owned by the Island Authority of Curaçao. These
companies are permitted to export a max of 25% of their turnover to the
Netherlands Antilles at normal import duties. The remaining 75% must be
re-exported to third countries. The economic zone law was enacted in 2000.
The law targets companies that are engaged in international trade and
its supporting activities, such as the following: storage, assembling,
processing, packaging of goods, maintenance and repairs in the economic
zone of goods pertaining to companies doing business outside of the Netherlands
Antilles, maintenance and repair of machinery and other equipment located
abroad using
goods stored in the economic zone and electronic commerce.
Under the law, regardless of nationality, a legal entity with capital
shares and which isadmitted to the economic zone area can obtain the following
benefi ts: 2 percent tax on the profi t induced by exports until 2025;
Exemption for turnover tax, exercises, import duties in the case of import,
transshipment or export; Employees who lived outside the Netherlands Antilles
for more than 5 years can qualify for an expatriatestatus.
In addition, certain taxfree benefi ts may be granted to the employees
of companies located in the economic zone Upon request, the Central Bank
will
grant an exemption from the payment of foreign exchange license fee charges
for merchandise transaction.
European Union Acces and Privileges
In so far as the Netherlands Antilles applies the common import tariff
of the EU single market, it can freely export products into the EU which
it has sourced externally, without additional processing.
Products originating in the Netherlands Antilles, or which have undergone
‘substantial economic transformation’ there, have EU origin.
Access to the European Market can provide a case for investing in Curaçao,
particularly if such an investment fits the Curaçao economy for
other reasons as well.
There are certainly opportunities for companies to establish value-added
processing facilities in Curaçao that are most suitable for itscompetitive
factors and enjoy duty-free entrance into the European Market. The key
is to pick the right products and processing operations that conform to
the regulations and leverage the competitive factors of Curaçao.
Geo Cultural Advantages
Not small among Curaçao’s advantages are what can best be
termed its “geocultural advantages.” Geographically, Curaçao
lies 35 miles off the coast
of South America. It is strategically located in the Southern Caribbean
at the cross-roads of trade routes between South America, the United States
and Europe. Good sea and air connections exist and the airport is undergoing
major expansion. The Ports of Curaçao are all natural, sheltered
ports that offer safe, fast, efficient and reliable handling of both ships
and cargo.
As part of the Netherlands Antilles, it maintains close business, cultural,
and tourism ties with Holland, and has a stable parliamentary democracy.
Curaçao maintains special access to the European Union and the
U.S. Market.
Most importantly, however, is the diversity of its people. Five languages
are spoken in Curaçao: (Dutch, English, Papiamento, Spanish, and
Portuguese,), and most people speak at least four. Papiamento is a Creole
language taken from Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch and West
African, that is believed to have originated in the 17th century to enable
slaves from different regions in Africa and their masters, and the slaves
among themselves to communicate with one another. This language dexterity
makes residents of Curaçao truly citizens of the world and supports
the development of Curaçao as a dynamic international service center.
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Click here to download the Fiscal Incentives for Sectoral Promotions |