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SEYCHELLES
INTRODUCTION
- SEYCHELLES
OFFSHORE ACTIVITIES
- SEYCHELLES
CASE STUDIES
As
a rapidly-developing jurisdiction with modern
legislation and attractive tax regimes, the Seychelles
certainly has the opportunity to become a centre
of e-commerce activity. The Internet has yet to
have much direct impact on the conduct of offshore
business from the Seychelles, but as with all
other aspects of business activity, no one can
doubt that there will be an impact, that it will
be soon, and that it will be substantial.
Following
recommendations made by the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) and the Commonwealth Secretariat,
the Seychelles Government set up an e-commerce
task force in 2004, headed by the Telecom Division
of the Ministry of Economic Planinng that will
discuss and propose the implementation of a national
e-commerce strategy. This exercise is expected
to bring together the economy’s main stakeholders
to discuss how the Seychelles can benefit by adopting
a strategy that will make use of the Internet
as a medium for marketing of its national resources,
products and services.
Currently
Cable & Wireless is the main telecommunications
company in the Seychelles operating over 12,000
lines.
Since
2003, competition has been provided by Airtel,
a joint venture between the Bharti Group, Emtel,
the premier GSM operator in Mauritius, some private
investors and the Government of Seychelles. Registered
as Telecom Seychelles Limited and operating under
the brand name of Airtel, the company is licensed
to offer comprehensive telecom services including
GSM Cellular, PSTN (Fixed Lines), Fax and Data,
International Roaming, connectivity to Internet
Services and Maritime Telecom Services (INMARSAT).
Airtel
provides the whole range of telecom services,
from GSM Mobile services, Airtel Prepaid Mobile
Cards available at a string of outlets, International
Roaming with 140 operators in 61 countries, a
host of Value Added Services, Fixed Cellular services
and a fast growing Fixed Line network.
The
Seychelles' only ISP used to be Atlas, formed
by a consortium of the three main computer companies
in the Seychelles, Space95, VCS and MBN.
In
February 2001 a second Internet Service Provider
was established: Kokonet claims to employ state-of-the-art
technology and aims to encourage wider use of
the Internet in the Seychelles. Kokonet, which
is jointly owned by Space 95, Mauritian group
Blanche Birger Limited as well as some staff members,
is connected to the Internet backbone through
a VSAT gateway. Initial bandwidth of 2 Mbps/512
Kbps is being used, more than doubling the bandwidth
available to Internet users in the country.
Customers
have available a choice of different technologies
to link to Kokonet - dial-up, digital leased line
and wireless. With dial-up services, there are
two digital ISDN lines and a further one has been
ordered from Telecom Seychelles (TS). Customers
will also have the possibility of accessing the
Kokonet network through digital leased line circuits
offered by the local telecommunications providers.
In
January 2001 ATLAS announced the launch of an
internet roaming service. Through ATLAS's local
network, the service allows customers to access
the Internet via a laptop by using the same ID
and password as their home PC. It is of particular
advantage to foreigners who wish to communicate
with individuals and businesses in the Seychelles
but do most of their electronic communications
on the move.
To
enable ATLAS to offer the service the company
got together with ipass, a major player in the
international global virtual network providing
people with secure, low-cost access to their corporate
networks and Internet from virtually anywhere
on the globe. Currently ipass serves over 160
countries with around 140,000 points of presence
(POP). Users can connect to the Seychelles
from almost anywhere in the world. With a point-and-click
interface, users can input the country they are
calling from thus allowing ipass to link the user
to the most convenient ISP to the user's location.
In addition, iPass will provide secure authentication
to protect user names and passwords. Those customers
using the service outside of the Seychelles will
be charged by ipass through their usual ISPs.
In
2003 the government passed the Interactive Gambling
Act, 2003, providing for the licencing and regulation
of any internet gambling business carried on in
or from Seychelles. The Act conforms to strict
international regulatory norms and draws heavily
from solid Australian legislation. See Law
of Offshore for further details of the legislation.
In
February, 2004, ATLAS launched "Skyway"
a new high-speed broadband wireless internet service.
"Skyway"
provides high-speed fixed wireless access to homes
and businesses on Mahe, Praslin, La Digue, Silhouette,
North island, Ste Anne island, Cerf island and
other marine park islands.
With
speeds ranging from 128Kbps (Kilobytes per second)
to 10Mbps (Megabytes per second), this new service
will provide downloads that are 50 to 500 times
faster than current dial-up modems.
Atlas
can also boast to be the first provider of wireless
“hotspots” in Seychelles with deployment
of the technology at the Wharf Hotel & Marina
and at the Seychelles International Airport.
In
December, 2005, Cable and Wireless announced that
it had reached agreement for the purchase of Atlas.
The transaction was completed on 31 December 2005.
Speaking after the signing ceremony, Cable &
Wireless Seychelles Chief Executive Officer, Usman
Saadat, said: "The acquisition of Atlas is
a further step towards offering customers in the
Seychelles a full range of services backed by
the expertise of Cable & Wireless."
In
July, 2009, Cable and Wireless launched their
Web2SMS online service, the first in the Seychelles,
enabling users to send SMS messages from their
computer to any mobile in the world.
In
October, 2005, the Seychelles awarded its first
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) licence to
cable television entertainment service provider
Intelvision, as the government advanced its policy
of liberalisation in the telecoms sector.
According
to the Seychelles Department of Information Technology
and Communications, Intelvision, through its cable
television network, will be able to offer internet
and telephone services. The firm was also issued
with an Internet Service Provider's licence, bringing
the number of ISPs in the jurisdiction to three.
The
department aimed for 25% of all homes to own a
computer in 2010 and to have more than 6,000 internet
subscribers nationally. By June, 2011, statistics
compiled by Internet World Stats, showed that
there were 33,900 internet users, representing
a country penetration of 38%
Seychelles
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 businesses
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 offshore jurisdictions
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 cases,
it will be possible to avoid a permanent establishment
(taxable presence) altogether in many high-tax
jurisdictions where trading activities currently
take place.
As
a rapidly-developing jurisdiction with modern
legislation and attractive tax regimes, the
Seychelles certainly has the opportunity to
become a centre of e-commerce activity.
For information about the impact of e-commerce
on a number of the main offshore activities
which take place in the Seychelles, 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.
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This section will contain case studies of e-commerce
solutions applied to offshore business activities
carried out from the Seychelles.To be kept updated
as to our progress click
here.
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