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Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (PRWEB) May 16, 2012

These are the early days for Cayman Enterprise City, the Caribbeans only technology-based Special Economic Zone, and Jason Blick CECs young and dynamic Chief Executive Officer is brimming with optimism and excited about what he and his team are developing in the Cayman Islands. We are doing tremendously well, he said. There are 5 companies now established within the Zone, 17 are in the process of being set up and another 80 plus are in the pipeline at various stages of negotiation so I couldnt be happier.

It is the realization of a bold concept that Blick, a finance law attorney and expert on Special Economic Zones, envisioned while working with successful SEZs in the Middle East The Cayman Islands is a tax-neutral jurisdiction offering easy access to lucrative and emerging markets in North and Latin America. Using the experience, knowledge and insight gained from a decade in Dubai, Jason Blick set off in 2008 on a four-year search of the Caribbean region. The journey ended in the Cayman Islands. Cayman stood out, he said. It has a forward-thinking government, a very dynamic community, and a wealth of support services we never had in Dubai.

The Special Economic Zone, enabled by Cayman Islands legislation passed last year, opened for business in this January, a year after Blick and his team signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government. The project was fast-tracked with support from the government, the Civil Service and the private sector. CECs master campus which breaks ground this summer, will include an Internet& Technology Park, a Biotech Park, a Media Park, a Global Commodities Park, an International Academic Park and an Outsource Park. Companies licensed to operate in the zone are globally focused and not allowed to trade in Caymans domestic economy.

I was very grateful for the foresight and vision of the Premier, the Honorable McKeeva Bush, said Jason. Mr. Bush came to Dubai with us and saw for himself the success of the zones in the Middle East.

Blick moved to the Middle East from England fresh out of law school because he says it was the place to be in the 1990s. Dubai was a new frontier where the free zones were merging technology and media it was exhilarating! he says. He advised operators, partners, financiers and end-users of Special Economic Zones. He watched Dubai Internet City develop from a sandy wasteland into a thriving economic hub in ten short years, and he also witnessed the positive impact that these economic powerhouses had on local economies. Jason Blick is confident that CEC will create new jobs, new industries, new businesses and new careers in Cayman and boost and diversity its economy.

His experience and ties to the Middle East have led to a strategic partnership with Dubai Multiple Commodities Centre, strengthening trade relations between the United Arab Emirates and the Cayman Islands. In a highly competitive global financial market, relationships like this benefit investors, so companies established in both zones can quickly access new markets.

Cayman Enterprise City is the first special economic zone to house commodities teams and this is the only SEZ in the world that has a partnership with Dubai, he said. This is a reflection of their belief in our model and we are very excited about it.

Jason Blick is also confident that many of the Fortune 500 companies will establish a presence in Cayman Enterprise City. They are always watching for the next opportunity, and now because of the internet companies can conduct global sales from anywhere in the world, he says.

Why Cayman Enterprise City? Zero Taxes, responds the CEO emphatically when the question is posed. From US$12,492 a year you can quickly have your company established and operating in a tax-neutral environment. You dont have any import duties, there is no sales tax, no income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital gains and you can have 100% ownership of your company, and it will be tax exempt for 50 years.

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Cayman Enterprise City - A Bold Vision, An Exciting Reality

Baby red crabs have infested the Cayman Islands by the hundreds of thousands, an in unusually heavy migration season that has caused havoc. If local superstition is any indicator, the Caribbean may face a rough hurricane season.

The crabs have scurried on past the immediate coast, onto roads, residents' yards, climbing up homes and scratching their way into homes. Most are infesting two of the three islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.

"People living in the coast will have them everywhere," Tim Austin, deputy director of the Cayman Islands' Environment Department, told the AP. "They get in houses, into your AC system. Anywhere there's a gap, they'll find it. They're trying to get somewhere where they'll live happily."

Austin believes low tides and the recent "supermoon" combined to make it life easier for the baby red crabs, allowing more of them to reach land.

The crabs' red hue is misleading, as the creatures climb ashore after they're born and lay low in forests and wetlands until they grow and reproduce, heading back into the water as a large black land crab seeking to deposit their eggs.

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The creatures grow from the size of about a thumbnail to nearly a foot in some cases. Fully grown crabs can scamper at up to six feet per second, have been known to claw at the tires of passing cars.

Locals colloquially call them "Hurricane Crabs" because a superstition connects their presence to a particularly bad hurricane season.

Baby red crabs, up to the size of a thumbnail, have climbed up windows and into AC units, among other places.

"There's a very strong feeling on the island that they relate to the arrival of a hurricane," District Commissioner Ernie Scott of Cayman Brac told the Cayman Compass. He added: "I've seen them here in hurricane seasons when we didn't have any hurricanes and I've seen them in a season where we've experienced hurricanes."

Originally posted here:
Baby Red Crabs Invade Cayman Islands, Could Signal Tough Hurricane Season

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Hundreds of thousands of red baby crabs are invading the Cayman Islands in a seasonal migration that residents say is unusually heavy this year.

The crabs are blanketing roads, scurrying across yards and scratching their way up homes and buildings in a process that scientists say will last about a month.

"People living in the coast will have them everywhere," said Tim Austin, deputy director of the Cayman Islands' Environment Department, on Wednesday. "They get in houses, into your AC system. Anywhere there's a gap, they'll find it. They're trying to get somewhere where they'll live happily."

The baby crabs, which are smaller than a thumbnail, were born in the ocean a few weeks ago and are emerging along rocky shores, seeking forests and wetlands near the coast where they will remain until they reproduce and head back to sea to deposit their eggs, Austin said. While the babies are red, the species is known as the black land crab because of the dark purple color it takes on as it ages.

It is likely that the recent "supermoon" and low tides have made it easier for the baby crabs to reach land, which could help explain the increase this year, he said. Most of them are overrunning Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, two of three islands that make up the archipelago.

The baby crabs do not migrate every year, in part because of ocean currents, tides and wind conditions, but adult crabs migrate every year to the ocean during the start of the rainy season, usually in May. Their migration has already occurred.

The government urges people to try to avoid the crabs as they drive, but it is nearly impossible not to hit them.

"It's a minefield of flattened crabs. You'll just see hundreds of splats," said Jim Andrews, 48, who lives with his family in the southeast end of Grand Cayman.

His house has been invaded by crabs as well.

"This year, we just saw tons of the tiny little newborns," he said. "You can hear them crawling on the windowsills."

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Hundreds of thousands of baby red crabs invade Cayman Islands

By Corrie Driebusch and Drew FitzGerald

Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Wednesdays session are J.C. Penney Co. (JCP), Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) and General Motors Co. (GM).

J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) swung to a loss in its fiscal first quarter as restructuring expenses and other charges weighed on the retailers bottom-line results and revenue, and margins weakened. Shares fell 15% to $28.20 premarket.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) posted a sharp drop in fiscal first-quarter earnings as the teen-apparel retailers same-store sales declined amid weak European sales. Shares were 5.7% lower at $42.80 in premarket trading as its sales grew slower than expected.

Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA, BRKB) went long on autos, revealing a 10 million-share stake in GM in a securities filing Tuesday. Shares of the auto maker rose 3.7% to $22.21 premarket.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Tuesday asked the agency to allow an HIV test kit to be sold in retail stores so consumers dont have to go to a health facility to get tested for the virus. The mouth-swab test, made by OraSure Technologies Inc. (OSUR) is already sold commercially to health-care professionals. If approved by the FDA, test results could be obtained in the home like tests for pregnancy and blood sugar. Shares of OraSure jumped 36% to $12.37 premarket.

GE Capital Corp. will resume dividend payments to its parent, General Electric Co. (GE), after a three-year suspension as it continues to strengthen from the financial crisis. GE Capitals board declared a $475 million quarterly dividend and plans to payout 30% of its total 2012 earnings. The company also plans to pay GE a $4.5 billion special dividend this year. Shares of GE rose 3.2% to $18.99 premarket.

Sina Corp. (SINA) swung to a first-quarter loss as the Chinese Internet company posted significantly higher expenses, though revenue improved and the loss wasnt as heavy as expected. Shares jumped 9.5% to $56.60 premarket.

Target Corp.s (TGT) fiscal first-quarter earnings edged up 1.2%, helped by a stronger-than-expected top line, though costs tied to the retail giants plans for expansion in Canada weighed on results. Shares were up 2.2% to $56.30 in premarket trade as the nations second-largest retailer by sales behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) raised its earnings outlook for the year.

Staples Inc.s (SPLS) fiscal first-quarter earnings fell 5.6% as the office-supply giant grappled with weaknesses in international operations, particularly Europe. Shares slipped 2.4% to $14.39 premarket.

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Stocks to Watch: J.C. Penney, Abercrombie & Fitch, General Motors

By Leon Lazaroff - Tue May 15 21:48:27 GMT 2012

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Conor Yang, chief financial officer at E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc., Chinas biggest Internet-based book retailer, talks about the company's business strategy and the industry. He speaks in Hong Kong with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Alicia Yap, head of China Internet research at Barclays in Hong Kong, talks about the outlook for Chinese Internet companies and investment strategy. She speaks with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)

Chinese Internet stocks gained in New York, on prospects Facebook Inc. (FB)s increased offering price will spur demand for industry assets while Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. (YZC)s discount swelled as coal prices fell.

Renren Inc. (RENN), a social networking website, climbed the most in a month, and Internet bookstore E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (DANG) posted the steepest advance in three weeks. American depositary receipts of Yanzhou traded at the biggest discount to the shares in Hong Kong since December as coal prices fell for the first time in three years. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index (CH55BN) of the most-traded Chinese shares in the U.S. extended its nine-day slump to 9.2 percent.

Chinas Internet stocks benefited from Facebooks decision to increase the price range on its IPO to as much as $38 a share from $35, implying a market value of as much as $104.2 billion. That would make Facebook worth more than Citigroup Inc. (C) and McDonalds Corp. Beijing-based Renren reported yesterday a first-quarter loss of 3 cents a share, below the median forecast for 4 cents a share by eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

All the talk on the street about Facebook is driving retail investors in particular to look for stocks that might gain on social media in China, Echo He, a New York-based analyst who covers Chinese Internet stocks for Maxim Group LLC, said in a phone interview. Renrens second-quarter outlook is weak because advertising is weak, but investors are hoping it can do as well as Facebook.

The iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund, the biggest Chinese exchange-traded fund in the U.S., was little changed at $34.72 while the Standard & Poors 500 Index slid 0.6 percent to 1,330.66.

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Dangdang Gains as Yanzhou Coal Discount Widens: China Overnight