Reflections through Cyberspace

I’m back home from a one day seminar with my friends from uni. We had presentations about Jersey, as part of one of our credits, which is about policy making in micro states. It was really interesting to get to know more about another micro state, which has a very successful offshore finance centre. In fact, my presentation was about its financial industry, and it was really interesting to analyse financial figures of such a small state, but which show a successful finance industry.

Some info about Jersey:

Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands with an area of 118.2 sq. km. and is situated 14 miles off the north-west coast of France and 85 miles from the English coast. Jersey is a Crown Dependency and is not part of the UK, nor is it a colony, but it owes allegiance to the British Crown; the UK is responsible for Jersey’s defence and international relations. The Island is not represented in the UK parliament, whose Acts
only extend to Jersey if expressly agreed by the Island that they should do so.
The Island of Jersey is divided into 12 parishes: Grouville, St. Brelade, St. Clement, St. Helier, St. John, St. Lawrence, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Ouen, St. Peter, St. Saviour and Trinity, each of which is presided over by an elected Connétable, who deals with issues relating to civil matters, and by a Rector who oversees issues relating to ecclesiastical affairs.

The legislature of the Island is called ‘The States of Jersey’, members of which are elected by the population, male and female. The States comprises the Bailiff, who is President of the Assembly, the Lieutenant-Governor, 12 Senators, the Constables (Connétables) of the 12 parishes of the Island, 29 Deputies, the Dean of Jersey, the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General. They all have the right to speak in the Assembly, but only the 53 elected members (the Senators, Connétables and Deputies)
have the right to vote; the Bailiff, who is appointed by the Crown and acts as Speaker, has a casting vote.

The system of government comprises a Council of Ministers and several Scrutiny Panels. There are 53 States members; a maximum of 23 members are in ministerial positions either as Ministers (ten members) or Assistant Ministers (up to 13 members), and an upper limit of 20 other States members who sit on the Scrutiny Panels.

The economy of Jersey has seen a great deal of change during the past few decades as markets have become more international and global travel has increased. This has meant that traditional Jersey industries such as agriculture and tourism have been superseded by financial services as the dominant industry in Jersey. The Financial services sector (banking, trust and company administration, fund management, accountancy and legal activities) has grown such that it now accounts for approximately half of the total economic activity in Jersey and employs about a quarter of the workforce.