LONDON, England: The Financial Times, June 27, 2006 - The Dubai International Financial Centre has big ambitions, aiming to play host to 20 per cent of the world's investment funds.

It has enacted the collective investment law to provide a legal framework, covering mutual funds, property funds, Islamic funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds.

This put it on a par with other leading onshore fund centres, such as London, New York and Hong Kong, said Sandy Shipton, head of asset management at the DIFC. It was unique, he said, because it was designed to fit the fund industry from a wholesale perspective.

Shipton has his sights set on the alternative fund industry as an obvious target for what the DIFC has to offer.

The industry was fragmented, he said, typically domiciled in the Cayman Islands or a similar tax haven, administered in Dublin or the Channel Islands, with investment management in New York or London.

The plan is to bring all that together. "We can get the back, middle and front office here," Shipton said.

Funds set up in the DIFC gain the advantage of zero tax on income and profits, no restrictions on foreign exchange or capital repatriation, a dollar-denominated environment, and a wide network of double taxation treaties.

Jamaica sends sugar to Grand Cayman

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Radio Jamaica, June 27, 2006 - Jamaica has emerged as Caricom's lead exporter of sugar. According to information from the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC) during the month of May, Jamaica led other regional producers by sending 21,000 tonnes to the UK and Grand Cayman.

Kansas City entrepreneur has property in the Cayman Islands

KANSAS CITY, USA: The Kansas City Star, June 27, 2006 - V. Cheryl Womack is one of the Kansas City area's most high-profile entrepreneurs. Womack, owner and chief executive of VCW Holding Co. LLC, has ownership interests in at least 10 other enterprises, investments as diverse as a test tube factory in China, a golf course development in Poland, a cattle operation that sells bull semen, and a restaurant and catering business in Maryville, Kan.

In addition to her multimillion-dollar Mission Hills home, she has properties in the Cayman Islands, on St. Croix and in New York.