New chamber president Barrie Baxter said the organisation is looking to switch from its current offices in Glategny Esplanade, St Peter Port, to offices in Market Square that will double up as a business development centre.
‘We are going to have a wide open office, which will be literally open for anybody – States members, business guys, anybody that wants to talk about business and the development of business,’ said Mr Baxter.
‘We are going to be literally transparent. We are going to be open for business. What I want to provide is an open space that people really can come to and discuss business.’
Building on work already done by chamber staff, the new president said that the new space would, for example, host ‘value-added seminars’ on topics that were important for establishing and developing businesses.
Tapping into the skills, experience and expertise of chamber members to help other members was also important, according to Mr Baxter. He stressed the importance of the island working together, adding that other business organisations could have a desk in the chamber’s new offices. ‘We have all got ultimately the same goal – the health and wealth of the island and all its inhabitants.’
Mr Baxter also set out his vision of renewal for the chamber, saying: ‘We are going to go back to our roots and try to gather the consensual view of members so that we can represent that properly for them on their behalf to government insofar as they set policy – and we should be informing them.
‘It should be a two-way street. We should be the go-to place for government. We should be the people that they rely on to gain an insight into how businesses feel about whatever the particular issue is and what the requirements are of business.’
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