Cook
Islands Introduction
By
the end of the year 2000, Nassau Islanders were
able to make their first telephone calls to the
outside world. The board of Telecom Cook Islands
(TCI) had informed the then Prime Minister Dr
Terepai Maoate in August 2000 that they had agreed
to fund the establishment of a satellite earth
station on Nassau (in the northern group).
The
directors of TCI also informed the government
that it would build a satellite earth station
on Palmerston Island (northernmost in the southern
group) the following financial year to coincide
with planned passage and airport developments
on the island.
In
May 2007, Argent Networks, a leading technology
and telecommunications billing solutions company
announced that it would provide its ArgentEclipse
real time convergent billing and CRM software
for Telecom Cook Islands.
Telecom
Cook Islands, which has been operating since 1991,
is majority owned by Telecom New Zealand, with
40% held by the locally elected government of
the Cook Islands.
Larry
Barker, CEO of Argent Networks, announced that
the deal with Telecom Cook Islands would supply
Telecom Cook Islands and its users with the full
ArgentEclipse suite of products.
“ArgentEclipse
is a complete converged billing solution that
will provide Telecom Cook Islands with both prepaid
and postpaid billing with a single rating and
CRM solution. The suite of Eclipse products will
give Telecom Cook Islands a flexible infrastructure
to expand its range of product, provide subscribers
with more compelling services, and help to manage
their network more cost-effectively,” said
Barker.
Also
that month, the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Pacific Islands
Telecommunications Association (PITA) announced
that they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding,
with the aim of building partnerships to better
share information about the internet.
“This
MoU is a step forward in accountability and ensuring
the stability of the Internet. By sharing information,
ICANN can learn about the challenges facing small
island nations, and PITA will have access to expertise
and ideas from other areas facing similar challenges,
” explained Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN’s
President and CEO.
The
objective of the MoU is to build a non-exclusive
partnership to see information on internet issues
flow in both directions, promote regional telecommunications
and information technology standards, and aid
in transferring skills, knowledge, and capacity
to the Pacific Islands region.
The
parties agreed to:
- Exchange
information on issues relating to the internet
emerging from the respective organization’s
work;
- Foster
a network of stakeholders and decision makers
who can contribute to discussions of Internet
security, stability, and interoperability; and
- Provide
information about respective policies under
development and enable improved participation.
In
October 2007, it was announced that the Cook Islands
authorities had signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with API, the New Caledonia based company
representing the South Pacific Information Network
(SPIN), to conduct a country specific assessment
of the proposed optical fiber undersea cable.
The
proposed project has two components, the first
an east-bound route, known as SPIN-East, going
from New Caledonia to French Polynesia via Wallis
& Futuna, which could provide links to Fiji,
Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga Niue and the Cook
Islands. The other is the west-bound route (SPIN-West)
from New Caledonia linking Vanuatu, Solomon Islands
and Papua New Guinea, and would connect to the
existing Port Moresby - Cairns cable and the soon
to be implemented Noumea - Sydney and Tahiti -
Honolulu cables for international access.
The
objectives of SPIN-East are not only to connect
the Pacific Islands but also to contribute to
ICT development in the region, secure New Caledonia
and French Polynesia traffic, build a new trans-Pacific
route, and offer back-up capacities to US and
Australian operators, it was announced.
The
Cook Islands government expressed the hope that
involvement in a network such as SPIN would enhance
economic growth by providing employment opportunities
with regard to remote working, on-line catalogues,
e-commerce and the establishment of new multimedia
and audiovisual industries, while also developing
prospects for e-learning, e-administration, etc.
Secretary
General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community
(SPC), Dr. Jimmie Rogers, told the Cook Islands
cabinet at the time that this project provided
a chance for the Cook Islands and the rest of
the Pacific to tap into the development opportunities
that can be gained thorough ICT. He also concurred
with the view of Greg Urwin, the Secretary General
of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS),
that "the lack of telecommunications infrastructure
in the region is a serious impediment to development
and improvement and quality of life of Pacific
Islanders".
The
SPIN project is aligned to the Pacific Digital
Strategy and the Pacific Plan endorsed by Pacific
Leaders.
According
to Liz Koteka of the Policy and Planning Division
of the Office of the Prime Minister, the signing
did not commit the Cook Islands to the project,
but allowed API to come in for further assessment,
dialogue and negotiations with Government and
other agencies.
She
added that: “Government will only commit
to the project when all the required information
and the possible options have been analyzed and
assessed to ensure that the decision that Government
will make would be to the benefit of the Cook
Islands."
Cook Islands
Offshore Activities
The natural bonding of the Internet and Offshore
stems from the fact that both, of their nature,
manage to avoid tax. Businesses which can operate
on the Internet without, so to speak, touching
ground in a high-tax jurisdiction will naturally
migrate to offshore jurisdictions; while business
that already have offshore existence will find
it highly convenient to be able to use the Internet
to trade with their high-tax customers without
having to make a landing in their countries.
By
locating websites in the Cook Islands to carry
out functions previously based in high-tax jurisdictions
such as sales and marketing, treasury management,
supply of financial services, and most of all,
the supply of digital goods such as music, video,
training, software etc, businesses can take advantage
of low rates of taxation for increasingly substantial
parts of their operation.
In
many countries, the distribution of goods from
a warehousing facility does not constitute the
carrying on of a trade or business in that jurisdiction,
so that even for physical goods, in many case
it will be possible to avoid a permanent establishment
(taxable presence) altogether in many high-tax
jurisdictions where trading activities currently
take place.
For
information about the impact of e-commerce on
a number of the main offshore activities which
take place in the Cook Islands, click on a link
below to go to our specialist E-commerce site
Offshore-e-com.com
Sales and Distribution of Physical Products
Sales
and Distribution of Digital Products
Banking
and Financial Services (including Investment
Funds)
Corporate
Support Functions
To
see an analysis of the current state of legal
and tax issues surrounding offshore e-commerce,
click
here.
BACK
TO TOP
Cook
Islands Case Studies
This section will contain case studies of e-commerce
solutions applied to offshore business activities
carried out from the Cook Islands. The case studies
will be developed in association with 
partners. Contact us
to learn more.
BACK
TO TOP
|
LOWTAX.NET
