‘We can make Guernsey a great place for entrepreneurs’
Locally born and bred entrepreneur Paul Welch spent three decades in London founding and building financial services businesses. He returned to the island with his wife and two daughters in 2016 and remains a hands-on CEO of largemortgageloans.com and millionplus.com.
I FIRMLY believe that the power is in our hands to make Guernsey a great place for entrepreneurs to do business.
Too many people run the island down, without looking to incite change. I believe in making things happen, which is why I’m lobbying the States to make changes to our legislation which will lower home buying costs and bring flexibility to the mortgage market to ensure consumers are treated fairly.
I hope I’m successful, but making change happen in Guernsey under the current system is incredibly challenging.
I’ve ricocheted from one committee to another, trying to get decision-makers to listen to my point of view.
I sometimes wonder why I’m ploughing so much time and energy into making a difference, when I already work long hours in my businesses. Then I remember; I’m doing it because I’m so passionate about creating a more dynamic business environment in Guernsey, which allows entrepreneurs to flourish.
Our reliance on the finance industry is a risk. Intrinsically, the way the world works is changing, and we need to future-proof Guernsey to ensure that we don’t get left behind. The recent Population Projection Bulletin made for stark reading: our population will decline to 59,000 by 2065. That’s just 47 years away. It might sound like a lifetime, but it’s not even two generations into the future. Our ageing demographic means that the working population will bear a huge burden. Do we really wish that upon our children?
I want my children to be brought up in a place that’s not afraid to be forward-thinking, brave and innovative. Our GDP is £2.86bn. That puts us close to the turnover of companies including Toyota, Shell and Volkswagen. We need to run Guernsey like a business, with a responsive, accountable and decisive executive board. In business you can never stand still, you always need to be looking to the next opportunity, and that’s the attitude we need to employ.
I believe that there are myriad opportunities to make Guernsey into a test bed. We’re 40 minutes from London and on the doorstep of Europe, plus we are our own jurisdiction with a captive and responsive audience. Why aren’t we in contact with Google offering the island as a test bed for driverless cars? Why can’t we test drone taxis here, servicing the Bailiwick of Herm, Sark and Alderney?
Recently, there was talk about setting up a Guernsey University, but why are we only looking to the traditional institutions? How about talking to Apple, Google and the likes of James Dyson? His Institute of Engineering and Technology has a mission to create fearless, problem-solving individuals.
How incredible would it be if our young generations were trained as all-rounders, with both practical and academic skills?
If we had innovative projects running on the island, we would also retain some of our talent, rather than seeing a brain drain of our brightest young people.
The one word I would use to sum up Guernsey is potential. But if things don’t change, we will lament our unrealised potential.
Let’s open our minds to opportunity and make the world aware that we are flexible and open for business. Otherwise, we will be left behind to the detriment of future generations.
