2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 17 - Education
Chapter 34 - University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park
Subchapter I - Declaration of Purpose; Short Title; Definitions
§ 482. Definitions

(a) “Corporation” means the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park Corporation created by this chapter.

(b) “Board” means the governing board of the Corporation.

(c) “Board of Trustees” means the Board of Trustees of the University of the Virgin Islands.

(d) “Bonds” means the bonds, temporary bonds, refunding bonds, debentures, notes, interim bonds, receipts, certificates, certificates of participation or other evidences of indebtedness or obligations authorized to be issued pursuant to this chapter.

(e) “Electronic Commerce” or “e-Commerce” means transacting or facilitating business or providing the means to transact or facilitate business on a communications network including, but not limited to the Internet. “Electronic Commerce Business” or “e-Commerce Business” means any business whose revenues derive primarily from intellectual property, collaboration services, applications, or transactions that leverage communications networks or utilization of communications networks is central rather than incidental to the business. The term includes, by way of example only, any business that provides one or more of the following services: on-line marketing; reputation management; web hosting; medical and other record or data storage and processing; social media; on-line travel, on-line registration products or services; on-line subscription services; GPS tracking technology; mobile applications; on-line game; digitally delivered newsletters; banner ads or text ad marketing; software as service; enhanced call routing, call reporting and IVR services.

(f) “Existing Business” means any entity that was obligated to obtain a business license in the Virgin Islands for at least one year prior to application and was obligated to file Virgin Islands gross receipts tax returns, including any new entity formed by, or an affiliate of. an Existing Business. For the purposes of this section, “affiliate” means an entity that is controlled by, controlling or under common control by another Existing Business.

(g) “Holder of bonds” or “bondholders” or any similar term means any person who is the bearer or the registered owner of any outstanding bond or bonds registered to bearer, or not registered, or the registered owner of any outstanding bond or bonds which at the time shall be registered other than to bearer.

(h) “Incubator Business Tenant” means a knowledge-based business in its startup phase which receives hands-on management assistance, access to financing and orchestrated exposure to critical or technical support services from Research and Technology Park tenants.

(i) “Knowledge-Based Business” includes, but is not limited to any business that uses highly skilled/highly educated personnel and a high level of research and development to create intellectual assets and property and to be innovative in their products, services or processes as a significant source of value and competitive advantage. Knowledge-Based Businesses as defined in this chapter specifically includes research businesses, information technology businesses, e-commerce businesses, electronic hosting facilities, agricultural research, and electronics businesses. This definition is applicable only to those Knowledge-Based Businesses that may reside in the Research and Technology Parks.

(j) “Person” means any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, or other entity.

(k) “Research and Technology Park” means real property owned or leased by the University of the Virgin Islands in the Virgin Islands which has been leased to the Research and Technology Park Corporation by the University's Board of Trustees pursuant to a resolution adopted at a duly constituted meeting of the Board, which resolution, proclamation, or order shall include a detailed legal description of the area to be included in the Research and Technology Park and any real property owned by the Research and Technology Park Corporation or leased from any other party. The term includes all lease, contract, access or license rights acquired by or utilized by the Park or the Protected Cell Corporation or the Park’s strategic partners in and to data processors, servers and similar electronic systems, broadband access rights, telecommunications services and facilities, data transfer lines or radio equipment and the like, which constitute the data cloud of the Park and Tenants accessing or otherwise utilizing the Park cloud principally from the Virgin Islands shall be considered to be operating and residing in the Park for all purposes.

(l) “Research and Technology Park project” or “project” means: any building, whether or not in existence or under construction or other improvement; purchase of an existing building; refinancing of an existing building in order to facilitate substantial improvements thereto; or real estate improvements, including remodeling and refurnishing of or adding to existing property or both, and, if a part thereof, the land upon which it is located, and all real property deemed necessary to its use.

(m) “Research and Technology Park Support Business” means accounting firms, law firms, banks, and other service providers and businesses that will complement the activities of the Research and Technology Park, but shall not include any businesses that are eligible for any tax benefits in connection with their location in the Research and Technology Park.

(n) “Resident of the Virgin Islands” means

• (1) any United States citizen domiciled in the Virgin Islands for one (1) year or more as verified by using the date of issuance information from a W-2 form, a voter registration card, a permanent resident card, a Virgin Islands driver's license, or such other means as shall be set forth in rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to section 486(cc) of this chapter.

• (2) a person who has attended a school in the Virgin Islands for at least six (6) years or is a Virgin Islands high school or University of the Virgin Islands graduate and who is registered to vote in the Virgin Islands; or

• (3) any “Native Virgin Islander” defined as any person born in the Virgin Islands, any person who is an offspring of a parent born in the Virgin Islands, or any person born outside the Virgin Islands to a Native Virgin Islands parent while that parent was studying abroad, employed abroad, or in active military service; or

• (4) the holder of an alien registration receipt card (United States Department of Justice Form No. 1–151) domiciled in the Virgin Islands for one (1) year or more.

(o) “Virgin Islands” means the unincorporated Territory of the United States Virgin Islands.

(p) The term “Single Source Solution” means the adoption of policies and practices that would anticipate the needs of technology businesses for rapid response and delivery, and the creation of arrangements among public sector departments and agencies, and private sector partners and service providers which would make it possible for technology companies to have available to them, in a single place, and on a one-stop shopping basis, the services they need to carry out their business operations successfully, thereby creating and promoting a client-oriented, business-friendly, enabling environment for the development of the technology sector in the Virgin Islands.