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Business Review 2006 from
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Looking outwards
Advocate Christopher Scholefield
partner, Viberts
Having suffered a large downturn over the past few years, travel agents are now seeing marked signs of recovery in the business travel market.
Although the States of Jersey's Draft Strategic Plan promises to 'strengthen Jersey's international personality' there is one notable absentee from the ten members of the Council of Ministers of the States of Jersey: we have no Foreign Minister.
The long standing constitutional convention is that Jersey enjoys autonomy in its internal affairs but externally it is represented by the government of the United Kingdom.
The States' own Guide to Ministerial Government in Jersey explains that the Chief Minister's Department will deal with international relations and relations with the UK government.
In practice, relations with France have been delegated to Assistant Chief Minister, Ken Vibert, and Deputy Alan Breckon will represent Jersey on the British Irish Council.
Perhaps it was felt that Jersey's external relations, whilst important, are not so extensive as to justify a ministerial post and a department, so it made sense to assign these responsibilities of the Chief Minister.
This was also a constitutionally convenient solution. Eyebrows in Whitehall would have been raised had the mandarins discovered that little Jersey was proposing to appoint its own Foreign Minister presiding over a department which, in their eyes, had no work to do.
However, the position is not that simple. Information technology has presented challenges to a jurisdiction which constantly has to strive to avoid being seen as just another part of the UK. Only recently has Jersey arrived on the standard internet drop down jurisdiction list, years after smaller territories such as Bermuda, or even Pitcairn!
France
The fattest dossier will inevitably be the one on Ken Vibert's desk marked France.
The rigid centralisation of the government of France in Paris is famous, but no longer entirely correct. The French regions have big budgets and so are a force to be reckoned with. By the accident of its geography Jersey finds itself dealing with both Basse-Normandie (Lower Normandy) administered from Caen and Bretagne (Brittany) administered from Rennes.
As a result there is a curious symmetry in the situation on both sides of the Channel. On our side there is a centuries old constitutional convention which no longer fits so comfortably with Jersey's new-found readiness to ask whether its interests are best served by Whitehall. On the French side the regionalisation policy has left both Caen and Rennes to follow their own agendas when dealing with Jersey.
How is Jersey to coordinate its relationship with two French regions which are very much in competition with one another?
Normandy
Forget the arrival of the TGV in St Malo. Our ancestors thought nothing of boarding a train at Snow Hill destined for Paris (via Gorey and Carteret). Granville has always maintained a direct service to Paris - St Lazare, the problem was the decline of maritime links between Jersey and Normandy but that is now being addressed. It is believed that, jealous of St.Malo's stranglehold, the Department of Manche and the Region of Basse Normandie are ready to pour money into upgrading the harbour at Granville.
Remember too that the Maison de Jersey is in Caen not Rennes. Parish twinnings have largely been with communes in Normandy, not Brittany.
Indeed the emphasis in Jersey has for some years now been upon reviving the Island's ancestral links with Normandy.
Or Brittany?
However, there is no denying that almost all Jersey's trade with the continent passes through Brittany. Now the regional authorities and the Department of Ile-et-Vilaine are paying renewed attention to their relationship with Jersey.
A delegation from the Department arrived in Jersey last November. Working groups have been set up to consider education, transport, tourism and infrastructure, matters of direct relevance to four of Jersey's ten ministers.
Either way, we all share an interest in bringing people to our part of the world. We have had our differences in the past over fishing rights and the Ecr╚hous but our Island and these regions complement one another in many respects.
They offer us competitively priced goods and services and interesting possibilities for future travel links.
We offer them a curiously exotic holiday destination and a convenient place to acquire that commodity which the French need more badly than they may care to admit - proficiency in the English language.
For the very rich, Jersey offers a home from home for tax exiles who so far have sought refuge in Switzerland or Belgium.
Another point is that contacts through Paris are inevitably conducted in the context of the French government's sceptical view of Jersey's finance sector. Regional authorities, with their emphasis on practical matters, are less distracted by the questions of principle which influence national policy-making in Paris.
Elsewhere
Apart from Ken Vibert's special concerns the other dossiers the Chief Minister will have to master include:
- Relations with Portugal and Madeira
- Relations with Poland
- Relations with the European Union
- Relations with International Financial Regulatory Bodies
- Relations with the other micro-states of the world, some of which will have much to teach us
- Relations with the oil rich Gulf States which Jersey is now courting so assiduously
Clearly the foreign aspect of the Chief Minister's duties could command much of his attention.
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