States ‘putting money where its mouth is’ to push finance
THE agency tasked with supporting and promoting Guernsey’s finance industry is getting millions of pounds more in government funding – with the objective to drive economic growth.
Economic Development committee president Neil Inder said the States was putting ‘money where our mouth is’ was by providing additional funding for Guernsey Finance.
The money will be used to enhance the agency’s research, expanding its local and global communications and recruiting experienced business representatives in target markets.
‘Guernsey’s finance sector offers world-leading expertise in a secure, stable and well-regulated jurisdiction. It continues to be the driver of our economy and government has invested too little in promoting the industry overseas in previous political terms,’ said Deputy Inder.
‘Early in this term the Committee for Economic Development recognised this as something that needed to be quickly addressed and we were pleased it was supported by the States of Deliberation in the Government Work Plan when the recovery action “Invest in the Finance Sector” was supported.
‘So now we’re putting our money where our mouth is and have increased the baseline funding from government for Guernsey Finance from £1.2m. per annum to £1.5m. per annum from 2022 onwards.
‘In addition, the States agreed to an additional £1m. of funding per annum for three years from 2022 to 2024. Guernsey Finance will therefore receive £2.5m. per annum in total funding from the States of Guernsey from 2022 to 2024, in addition to the funding Guernsey Finance receives from the finance industry.’
Guernsey Finance chief executive Rupert Pleasant said the agency was delighted that the Economic Development committee had approved additional funding for the agency.
‘This is an exciting period for us and we are already putting our strategy into action,’ he said.
‘There are three key areas that we will channel this funding into, including enhancing our research offering with more academic and thought leadership reports, increasing our reach though enhanced local and global PR and communications, and looking at recruiting experienced business development representatives on the ground in our strategic target markets.’
