AN MP who is one of the Island's greatest allies in the UK gave a lecture to business leaders and politicians in the Island last night (Thursday).
Mark Field, MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, was the latest guest speaker to take part in the Chief Minister's International Lecture Series.
The event took place at the Palace Hotel, Douglas.
Chief Minister Tony Brown MHK said: "Outside these shores Mark has been one of the leading voices in support of the Isle of Man.
"He has spoken persuasively about the importance of the Island's economic diversification strategy and our mutually beneficial links to the City of London, the constituency which he represents forcefully in Parliament and national debate.
"He has shown that he is not afraid to engage directly with the critical voices either and has robustly refuted many of the myths put forward about international financial centres such as ours."
Mr Field then gave a speech which praised the Island and defended its position as a small international finance centre.
He said: "Small IFCs such as the Isle of Man have repeatedly had to put up with unfair political attacks and misguided criticism.
"Whether that be sniping about their being tax havens for avaricious bankers, allegations that they provide secrecy jurisdictions for shady business figures or the thinnest of arguments about their being one of the causes of the credit crunch.
"Essentially the debate over the role of small IFCs has not just been one sided - it's been totally one-eyed."
Mr Field, who tabled a parliamentary debate last July about IFCs, went on to say that it seems there are five "distinct and distorted myths that had somehow been accepted as facts.
"I wanted to make sure those myths were destroyed.
"The first myth was that IFCs have a negative impact on growth in the global economy.
"In reality many small IFCs have stable, well-regulated and neutral jurisdictions that can facilitate international business.
"They are important for business and investors in both the major developed economies and emerging market countries.
"Investment channelled into small IFCs can in turn provide much needed liquidity, further investment opportunities, competitiveness and access to capital markets.
"A second myth was that small IFCs played a part in causing the global financial crisis.
"I don't know anyone who works in the financial markets who believes this.
"In fact the liquidity provided by the small IFCs was a very desirable thing for the UK to have access to during the crisis.
"The third myth is that the IFCs engage in harmful tax practices.
"The Foot Review recently examined the UK's relationship with IFCs.
"It suggested that the potential for tax leakage from so-called full tax jurisdictions such as the UK towards low-tax or zero-tax regimes was relatively limited.
"At the same time the Deloitte report showed that only £2 billion is potentially lost in tax leakage per annum, with Foot concluding that the real figure could be even less than that.
"A fourth myth suggested that small IFCs have a negative impact on transparency, regulation and information exchange.
"There is a huge difference between co-operative and unco-operative jurisdictions, between transparent and well-regulated centres and between the opaque and less well-regulated.
"In the fight against money laundering and terrorist funding, offshore centres such as the Isle of Man are currently among the highest rated jurisdictions globally for complying with international standards.
"Fifthly it is often thought that small IFCs do not benefit developing countries.
"They have been accused of supporting capital flight from those countries.
"But in fact the Commonwealth Secretariat has suggested that small IFCs often play an important role in boosting development.
"They do that by enabling such nations effectively to 'rent' financial expertise from other countries while they are developing financial centres of their own."
