Government is looking into how much Bermudians are prepared to see foreign investors "own" Bermuda's businesses and how many more foreign workers the community can bear to have working here, according to Bermuda's Attorney General and Education Minister, Paula Cox.

Speaking on Monday at ACE's second annual Insurance Symposium, the Minister said that expanding the financial services sector on the Island posed a number of critical policy questions on sustainable development not only for Government but also for the community.

She said: "To what extent are Bermudians prepared to see foreign investors "own" the country's resources ? including its major enterprises? To what degree is the population prepared to accommodate additional foreign workers, many in high salaried occupations? What additional burdens on infrastructure are tolerable?"

Government has pledged to expand the financial services sector, an area it has picked out as a possible growth area and ownership of companies has become a hot topic since the huge multi-national bank HSBC put in an offer to buy Bank of Bermuda.

Government's chief economic advisor last week said the decision to let HSBC Plc buy the Bank of Bermuda was only the first step in the Finance Ministry's plan to open the Bermuda market to foreign financial institutions.

Dr. Andrew Brimmer, who has been advising the Ministry of Finance on economic matters since 1999, told that the opening of Bermuda's financial services sector through the HSBC transaction was in line with Government's strategy to expand the financial services sector through active pursuit of foreign investment capital.

And while Ms Cox on Monday confirmed this, she also said that the issue of sustainable development was being looked at by a Government committee.

"The expansion of financial services has been assigned a high priority by the Government of Bermuda," she told insurance professionals.

She said that the Ministry of Finance considered that Bermuda had demonstrated a comparative advantage in the development and provision of financial services to the global community.

And she said that the Financial Services Development Committee had produced a draft policy framework which anticipated that there would be an expansion of activities by firms already established in Bermuda, which would be followed by the creation of new domestic business and this would be followed by foreign companies entering the country for the first time. She listed commercial banks, asset management, investment banks and insurance companies among a list of the kinds of financial services firms the committee was speaking about.

Ms Cox said: "The defining aspects of any credible policy on sustainable development has to include, among other things, consideration of whether additional growth is compatible with national goals for economic development (e.g. training, and development opportunities for Bermudians), infrastructure issues, environmental considerations and proper economic analysis."