Bermuda’s “blossoming” relationship with the United Arab Emirates, which has brought about an agreement to secure the use of its public finance technology, also affords opportunities to network and sell the island’s services with high-level officials from other jurisdictions as well.

David Burt, the Premier, attending the World Governments Summit in Dubai this week, said: “I’ll just be frank. There’s a significant amount of criticism that naturally comes for the amount of travel that ministers may or may not be engaged in. But it’s also important to recognise that because of how long I have been in this office, with the connections that I have, there’s the ability to make connections for Bermuda and Bermuda companies that you wouldn’t get.

“We can make those connections, which is underappreciated. It’s underappreciated how important it is to network and build those relationships.”

Mr Burt said the island is likely to see delegates from the Gulf Co-operation Council states attending the World Risk Summit next month, because “we provide insurance solutions” of interest in their countries.

The GCC covers the bloc of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well as the Emirates.

The Premier added: “As their economies grow, they are going to have the need for more and more complex insurance solutions.”

Mr Burt’s calendar in the Middle East also came with agreements with Bahrain officials to strengthen data protection and travel agreements.

The Gulf state and the Emirates have been faulted on human rights by groups such as Amnesty International.

Mr Burt said their records were a wholly separate matter when it came to Bermuda’s business.

“That’s a conversation people will make,” he told The Royal Gazette. “But the one thing that happens in international relations is you do not get yourself involved in the domestic affairs of another jurisdiction or country.

“I can assure you, you can find something objectionable in any country that we deal with.

“People can find something objectionable about the UK, the US and other places. Let’s not go there. Let’s focus on commonalities, on trading relationships.”

He added: “When it comes to matters of international relations and diplomacy, we don’t have the power to speak to those particular matters.

“Remember, we are a colony, and the only thing as a colony that we can do is have interactions on matters of economic, cultural and technical co-operation.”

The Premier highlighted that Bermuda has been “a leader in digital finance since 2018”, putting the island on the map for the annual Satochi Roundtable digital finance conference.

He said: “It moved to UAE in 2023. This is the first time this has been hosted by the UAE. I knew they were trying to make moves in this particular space and we wanted to make sure we had exposure on this side of the world.”

He said his conversations with Abdullah Bin Touq Al Marri, the Minister of Economy in the UAE — now Minister of Economy and Tourism — led to him getting invited in 2023 to the Investopia conference in Abu Dhabi.

“That’s where the relationship started. That’s the reason why we had the Digital Finance Forum in Bermuda with Anthony Scaramucci, because of our relationship with the UAE on that.

“From that point, the relationship started blossoming.”

Mr Burt said he no longer used the word “fintech” to describe Bermuda’s area of regulation.

“We’re looking more broadly at digital finance, whether that’s digital-based insurance companies in Bermuda, financial services, asset management — with all these things, there’s a wide variety that will come.”

He said it was “unfair” to make comparisons with the insurance and reinsurance industry in Bermuda, which took decades to evolve into a pillar of the island’s economy.

“We’re continuing to build our capacity to become recognised leaders in the globe,” he said.

“When people think of digital finance, you want to see the exact same way it comes to mind as when people talk about insurance and know Bermuda is the place to go.

“We have the expertise necessary to provide the regulatory leadership that these industries require.”

Asked whether digital finance was a sphere reluctant to be brought under regulation, Mr Burt said: “Absolutely not; that would not be correct.

“We have multiple companies coming to our regime. If there are people that don’t want to be regulated, that’s fine. That’s not where our particular focus is.

“Bermuda is targeting companies that want to be regulated, that want to have a high standard.

“That’s the reason we’ve seen the high standards and attention Bermuda has garnered in the digital finance space.”

As he prepared for his final engagement before returning to the island, Mr Burt said: “There will be further discussions with some of these players. I don’t think it will be over legislation from our side.

“We might see some changes on other sides. People want to have access to Bermuda’s superior regulatory regime.”

He added: “That’s more of a ‘stay tuned’.”

Mr Burt said the memorandum of understanding signed this week with the Emirates entailed technical co-operation between the two sides to make use of the UAE’s tested artificial intelligence and IT resources to track financial trends and get early warnings of developments.

“What happens right now, in regular public finance management, is sometimes you will get the signal after an event has already happened.

“If you’re able to monitor these data flows in real time, that’s what this is really about.

“You don’t always want to reinvent the wheel. If you can work with another country that has done this already and can help and assist, that’s the reason why we went that way.”