Getting the message out that Bermuda is open for business and a return to stability in the financial markets in 2009 are top of the wish list of David Ezekiel, chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC).

Mr. Ezekiel called on Government to continue its constructive discussions with the Island's international business community and to make the companies and their employees, which contribute so much to the country's economy, feel welcome - in both words and actions.

Alex DeCouto, president of the Construction Association of Bermuda, meanwhile, said Government should back capital projects to support the construction industry and jobs if and when private sector work slows down and to keep up its commitment to apprenticeship and certification legislation for additional trades to benefit construction service providers, workers and consumers alike.

He also hopes that one or more of the Island's hotel developers will be able to pull together the necessary capital and have the optimism to proceed with their projects and that international business continues to produce demand for office space and associated infrastructure (rentals, restaurants, etc.) as one of the key drivers of the construction industry in the past.

Mr. Ezekiel said the impact of the economic crisis was felt right across the board, but that it now needed some stability to be brought back to the marketplace.

"It affected our clients and then what impacts them impacts us and has obviously impacted our staff, many of whom have seen their pension plans dwindle and so clearly in that regards it is a hope that there is some return to stability in the financial markets," he said.

"Anything that can send out a long-term message of stability to the companies and their employees will be well received."

But he reckons both in terms of outlook and hope, everyone is going to have to rein back some of their expectations for 2009 following an unprecedented year of financial turmoil in 2008, however he offered some glimmer of hope that things would take a turn for the better in the future.

"I certainly was not clever enough to see it coming, so I am not clever enough to foresee the end of it," he said.

"But there appears to be some reduction in volatility, some investor and consumer confidence is coming back into the market.

"I think what we should be prepared for is two steps forward and one step back.

"Given what people have been through, they are so nervous that it is not going to be any smooth progression upwards."

Mr. Ezekiel believes it will be a long time before everything returns to "business as usual", with many people viewing risk very differently now and asking a lot of questions that should have been posed before.

"I think the one message from all of this is that when someone is offering you a bigger return than standard there is risk involved — whether you can identify it or not," he said.

"It is new world and I think in many ways it will make for better corporate governance, but for many people it has been a big blow to the psyche and it will be a long time before it returns to normal."

Brad Kading, president and executive director of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers foresees that the Bermuda Monetary Authority will gain the respect it deserves from international regulatory domiciles as a testament to its hard work of and the Ministry of Finance to make sure that solvency regulation of global reinsurers meets international standards.

Mr. Kading also hopes that US Congressional policymakers will come to understand that Bermuda's global insurers play an important role in meeting US insurance capacity needs and that isolationist tax legislation will be defeated because it is counterproductive for US consumers.