The Cayman Islands is a British overseas dependent territory with a population of approximately 65,000 people. The islands are strategically located south of Florida and Cuba, west of Jamaica and north of Panama in the northern Caribbean Sea.

The pillars of the Cayman Islands economy are tourism (both stayover and cruise) and financial services.

The Cayman Islands has a strong maritime heritage. It has a successful shipping registry and a vibrant cruise tourism industry: approximately 1.8 million cruise passengers arrived in the Cayman Islands in 2019. Because more than 97 per cent of everything consumed in the Cayman Islands is imported by sea, it boasts a very successful port operation. Approximately 700,000 tonnes of cargo passed through its main port at George Town, Grand Cayman in 2019, mainly from the United States, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The Cayman Islands has no significant goods exports.

The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry was established in 1903 and the ports of George Town, Bloody Bay and the Creek, at which ships may be registered in the Cayman Islands, are recognised as British Ports of Registry. Cayman Islands-flagged vessels have full British Consular Services and Royal Naval assistance and protection worldwide. The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry has Category 1 status, which allows it to register vessels of any size and type as long as they meet international standards, and it provides services to commercial ships and private pleasure yachts. As at February 2020, the flag consisted of approximately 2,200 vessels, representing approximately 6 million gross tonnes and comprising approximately 1,800 pleasure yachts and 400 commercial vessels. The Cayman Islands is the registry of choice for superyachts globally.

The Cayman Islands is white-listed in all major international ports (the Port State Control Memoranda of Understanding), which has led to it maintaining its position on the prestigious United States Coast Guard Qualship 21 programme since 2007.² The Cayman Islands is a top flag on the white lists of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control 1982 (the Paris MOU) and the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region 1994 (the Tokyo MOU) and a leading flag on the International Chamber of Shipping’s annual Flag State Performance Table.

The continued popularity of the Cayman Islands flag can be largely credited to the service provided by the Cayman Islands Shipping Registry and the experience and technical excellence that has become synonymous with the Registry. Further, because of the stable political, social and economic environment in the Cayman Islands, coupled with a legal system based on English law, the Cayman Islands flag is extremely popular with banks and financial institutions.

 

Source: thelawreviews