By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. (One Caribbean News) — Officials from the U.S. Virgin Islands recently attended the 2025 SelectUSA Investment Summit just outside the nation’s capital, highlighting the territory not only as a premier travel destination but also as a strategic business hub.
The annual Investment Summit brings together more than 5,000 economic development officials and investors seeking to strike deals and promote growth. While most states and territories attend to pitch their competitive advantages, few can offer what the Virgin Islands brings to the table: sun, sand and startup opportunities.
“We just want to inform the world that the U.S. Virgin Islands is open for business,” said Celina Morris, director of marketing for the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority.
According to Morris, the Virgin Islands are more than just a top tourist destination- they offer serious opportunities for investors.
“We’re also a great investment destination. We not only have the beauty of the sunset and the sea, but we also offer a strong infrastructure. We offer robust tax incentives where you can get up to 90% off for corporate income taxes through our Economic Development Commission program. We also offer exemptions for business property taxes, gross receipts taxes, excise taxes, and either exemptions or reductions that are very significant in customs duties as well,” said Morris.
Morris and her team aimed to stand out at this year’s Investment Summit in a sea of state, territory and federal economic development agencies.
“Our focus really is attracting light manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, transshipment, cold storage—you name it. We have the land and opportunity available for anyone who’s interested,” said Morris.
Investors from more than 90 international markets attended the Investment Summit, many showed interest in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“We just had someone here from Iraq, we met with people from Ethiopia, Ghana, and throughout the Caribbean,” Morris added.
Sydney Paul, director of marketing for the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park (RT Park), echoed the territory’s business-forward message.
“We don’t want to be left behind, and technology moves so fast,” Paul said.
RT Park was created over 20 years ago to bridge talent coming out of the university with opportunities in tech.
“Not only does that create workforce development opportunities for Virgin Islands students who are coming out of the university, but it’s just a really good intellectual exchange that we’re trying to build in that tech hub,” Paul said.
An intellectual exchange that helps develop and attract thought leaders, pioneers and tech experts to collaboratively address regional challenges.
“We have a lot of similar challenges when it comes to climate change, hurricanes, infrastructure, the limited land that we have. How can we be creative about leveraging technology to just make, you know, life better in general,” she said.
Paul said RT Park is helping diversify the economy and encouraging a younger generation of problem solvers to stay—or set up shop—in the Virgin Islands.
“You can work from anywhere in the world. So if you have the technical skills—maybe you’re a coder, maybe you’re in software development—you can stay at home, make really good money and not have to travel or move to the mainland U.S. if you don’t want to,” she said.
In a rapidly evolving tech world, Morris, Paul and other dedicated professionals from the USVI are making the case that technology and innovation can “thrive in paradise.”