Curaçao is a paradisiacal island located in the Southern Caribbean. The island has beautiful beaches, colonial architecture and diversified commerce. It also boasts kind and warm people and many tourist attractions. But along with all of these wonderful qualities, Curaçao also presents many great investment opportunities.
Our modern and compliant financial services, stable economy operating under Dutch law, multilingual workforce and good relationships with the US, Latin America and the Caribbean are among the island’s financial assets, but there are more factors that make us the ultimate Caribbean destination for lucrative investments.
Curaçao is located outside the hurricane belt, which makes it a reliable center for storage and the distribution of merchandise in the region. And the island is also classified as an overseas country and territory (OCT), which means that all its original products have preferential access to the European Union and are exempt from import duties.
We also have great port logistics thanks to the United States program called Economic Recovery of the Caribbean Basin. These tariff benefits are granted to the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, thus products from Curaçao enter the United States tax-free.
We pride ourselves on being an island in the Caribbean, yet we strive to be at the same level of business infrastructure as modern cities. We have managed to achieve this in the field of telecommunications connectivity; Curaçao boasts a robust telecommunications connectivity to the outside world. With access to our own Internet Exchange, CAR-IX, which is modeled after and managed by the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX), your company can easily capitalize on the advantages of a high-quality and full-capacity network while also making use of the excellent connectivity to other networks on the peering platform.
The local population is an excellent target group for testing out new concepts. The smaller
scale makes it easy to roll out new technologies and makes it easier to measure effects and quickly adapt products accordingly. And as long as you improve upon your first attempt you can keep testing again and again as Curaçaoans are forgiving people.
Curaçao boasts modern and efficient harbor facilities based on Dutch maritime expertise. Our ports have more than 1,300 sailings per year, more than 20 regularly calling shipping lines, and an efficient and reliable shipping agent network. Our harbors are among the region’s most developed and best-organized ports and are all natural and sheltered, offering safe, fast, efficient and reliable handling of both ships and cargo.
And the port of Willemstad’s strategic geographical location with respect to the United States, South America and Europe is one of the major factors that have contributed to making Curaçao such an important regional transshipment hub for container shipping.
Our education system ensures one of the highest educated and skilled labor forces in the region. The literacy rate in Curaçao is over 95%, with a sizable portion of the population gaining proficiency in English, Spanish and Dutch upon completion of their education, meaning that business can easily be conducted in these languages. Our education system is based on the Dutch education system, which is one of the best in the world.
Curaçao is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of The Netherlands. Hence Curaçao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but still has full autonomy on most domestic matters, with the exception of those considered to be affairs of the Kingdom (such as defense, foreign affairs and citizenship). The system of government of Curaçao is a parliamentary democracy based on the Dutch model and free elections are held every four years.
Curaçao also participates in the Kingdom’s judicial system, with full access to the EU/Dutch supreme court. This makes for a quality judicial system that allows legal procedures without major complications.
We have a diverse economy based on tourism, oil refining, transport, the financial services sector, trade and industry. Curaçao has two free zones, one in the harbor, and one at the airport. There are special incentives that make it very appealing to operate in one of these Free Economic Zones in which you can buy and sell products wholesale and duty-free.
In addition to all of these attractive features, the island also offers extensive tax benefits to foreign investors. So what are you waiting for? Start looking into how you can start your success story in Curaçao now!