a company that will set up local "virtual offices'' for businesses around the world.

Through EOCnet.com's "e-suites'' businesses located in any country can take advantage of Bermuda's lack of corporate tax as they conduct electronic transactions with customers or other businesses anywhere on the planet.

Bermuda's e-commerce Minister Renee Webb, the Island's business leaders, journalists and analysts from across the US attended the much-hyped razzle dazzle launch of the new privately held company.

Chief operating officer Lee Olsen -- who worked for IBM for 22 years -- said the company planned to benefit from the Internet's immense growth.

He said estimates of the e-commerce market's worth by 2002 or 2003 ranged from half a trillion dollars to $3.2 trillion -- but many experts believed even those unimaginable figures were too conservative. And while the Internet was "redefining the way business will be carried out in the future'', Bermuda had efficiently hitched its wagon to the medium through EOCnet.com, which was incorporated here as EBS Ltd.

CEO Granger Whitelaw announced the company's alliances with five world financial, e-commerce and consulting leaders: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bank of Bermuda, Visa International, Cable & Wireless and Sterling Commerce.

"No single company can provide truly one stop shopping for businesses e-commerce solutions,'' he explained. "But with the five partners we are aligned with I assure you we can, because it is all here in one package.'' Mr. Whitelaw explained the "e-suite'' was a legal corporate entity under which a business anywhere could conduct business or data storage in Bermuda without the cost of incorporating or having a bricks-and-mortar presence.

"As you know Bermuda is one of the world's premier offshore business locations, top for security, tax benefits and many other regulatory advantages.'' The concept is based on the rent-a-captive insurance model, which has flourished in Bermuda. The e-suite is created to give companies a cost-effective way to get offshore. Mr. Whitelaw said his company was the first in the world to embrace the concept and manoeuvre a private member's e-commerce bill through Bermuda's House of Assembly and Senate to endorse and legitimise it. EOCnet.com would make its client list available to its partner PricewaterhouseCoopers for "various e-commerce consulting services'' and in turn PWC would link partners and clients around the world with EOCnet.com.

Through EOCnet.com's website PWC would also provide their expertise on corporate and individual tax laws of 120 countries to e-suite clients.

But he stressed the concept was not merely about Bermuda's "tax neutral benefits''.

The company's private bill, the EBS Ltd. Act 1999, also legitimises electronic transactions as legally binding contracts providing companies with a concrete legislative framework on which to structure their business.

"Our company in partnership with this Island is going to become the global capital of the e-commerce world,'' he said.

Through its Act, EOCnet.com is endorsed as a "safe harbour'' with respect to the European Union's strict data protection laws so personal customer data can be sent outside the EU via Bermuda.

But it was the Island's former Premier and current Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon who provided a reality check at the launch by questioning how EOCnet.com planned to protect Bermuda's stellar reputation.

Mr. Whitelaw said it was the Island's high standards which had attracted EOCnet.com here so the company was committed to preserving them, particularly in regard money laundering.

"There is no pornography or gambling allowed in Bermuda and nor will we conduct any business with any electronic commerce company of that type,'' he said.

He said the Bank of Bermuda was going to do extensive "due diligence and vetting'' including FBI, Interpol and CIA checks on any business who applied to run an "e-suite''.

EOCnet.com risks raising the ire of global bodies like the OECD and the EU which are already scrutinising offshore centres to see how tax practices deemed harmful to other countries can be stamped out.

Photos by David Skinner Big launch: CEO Granger Whitelaw (left) and COO Lee Olsen (above) address media at the BUEI yesterday.