‘Unlikely any of 20 plans for growth will happen by 2020’
IT IS ‘very unlikely’ that any of the 20 actions outlined by Economic Development to promote economic growth in the island will come to fruition in the lifetime of this States, the committee president told attendees at the most recent Institute of Directors’ lunch.
One audience member said that as a private business that did not have many people or resources, if he had put forward 20 action points he would be told to prioritise, and wondered if Economic Development would be better off doing that.
‘We do hope to make progress on all 20,’ replied Charles Parkinson. ‘But we only have two years left of this term so it’s very unlikely that any of the ideas will reach fruition.’
He said that some of the ideas might reach a dead end. ‘To be clear about this; this are just ideas,’ he said. ‘We are going to explore all of them but there is no commitment to do them.
‘If we look into something and find that it’s just not going to fly, we will just close it down.’
In a speech which summarised the department’s recently published strategy document, he condemned the previous ‘vision’ document published by Economic Development at the start of the year, before he was elected its new president.
‘To me, that previous committee’s document lacked vision,’ he said.
‘It was full of “the day job”,’ he added, referring to it simply stating support for existing agencies.
‘But what do we want the economy of Guernsey to look like in 2031?
‘I’m hoping this will lead to a dialogue about the direction of travel and where we would like to take the island. This is starting a conversation.’
Among the committees’ other goals was to rebrand Guernsey, with Deputy Parkinson saying that at the moment if someone mentions the island in the UK, the response was usually ‘tax haven’.
When asked how he would like to have the island regarded, he said he would like people to think of Guernsey as having made a positive contribution to the wellbeing of the world, ‘not just shuffling money around’.
Institute of Directors’ local branch chairman John Clacy said that, by coincidence, how to rebrand the island was the subject of its annual debate, which will take place in October.
