Bermuda is not in the Caribbean, it is not as expensive to do business in as people might think and it has serious environmental concerns, Premier Pamela Gordon told an international business programme's viewers yesterday.

The Premier, in New York for the annual Bermuda briefing tour, appeared on the Cable Network News Financial Network (CNNfn) programme Street Sweep.

She said Bermuda was a wonderful jurisdiction to do business in and many companies had taken advantage of its business conducive atmosphere.

When pushed to answer whether or not Bermuda was expensive for companies and if there were plans to try and bring down costs, she countered that "it's all relative''.

"Quite honestly it's no more expensive than it is to do business in New York or London,'' she said, while going on to admit the cost of living was high.

"The reality is that where it becomes more expensive is not in the actual doing of business, it's the living. It's basically the rents and that kind of cost of living is a bit higher.'' However Bermuda was a small Island and therefore catered to a niche market, added Ms Gordon, and sometimes this meant "you pay more for quality''.

The Premier also answered queries about Bermuda-registered companies which did not physically work out of the Island.

"We don't offer shell companies but what you do have is companies that will set up and not physically work out of Bermuda. It offers them the environment and the ability by being these local companies so they can do their business outside of Bermuda because it is a relatively high cost base in relation to labour.

"So...whether or not a company is labour intensive or not will depend on what kind of business they do in Bermuda.'' Insurance and reinsurance companies were doing well in Bermuda, she added.

And with the former military bases closed, Bermuda had received about ten percent of its land mass back, she continued.

This had created the question of what to do with the extra property and part of the plan was to create a technological park.

Gordon talking business on CNN But those businesses which wished to come to the Island and operate had to be environmentally clean, she stressed.

"It's got to be the kind of business that's not going to create environmental problems for us because we are a such a small, relatively pristine Island.'' Ms Gordon also addressed Bermuda's stock exchange and said while there were some "big names'' on it, there were also a number of local companies.

She noted mutual funds were growing and the aircraft and ship registries on the Island were also large.

"So things are starting to boom from that perspective.'' And Ms Gordon stressed: "We are not in the Caribbean.'' She said it was unfortunate that Americans mixed Bermuda up with places like the Bahamas.

Bermuda was only an hour and a half flight from the East Coast which made it fast to get to and it had an infrastructure which was amenable to doing business.

It was also the largest British colony left, in terms of population, she added.

In closing, Ms Gordon drew attention to the fact that international business was one of the Island's twin economic pillars along with tourism which was an area causing concern.

But she noted an offshoot of these twin pillars could be the financial services sector so "we have the opportunity to continue to grow our economy''.

Meanwhile tourism was linked with the strong international business sector which was encouraging.

"The two are inextricably linked so as long as we're doing well with international business, we will at least maintain our position from a tourism perspective because one needs the other to operate.'' ON CNN -- Premier Pamela Gordon TELEVISION TV