French Connection

28 November 2007

A senior political delegation, representing the States of Jersey together with members of the Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the Jersey Hospitality Association, Jersey Heritage Trust and relevant department officers met with their counterparts in Rennes on Monday 26th November. The delegation formalised an agreement to secure co-operation between The States of Jersey and the Conseil Générale in Ille et Vilaine.

The agreement seeks to pursue initiatives of mutual benefit to both jurisdictions, particularly regarding economic development, culture & education and tourism.

The initiative to explore opportunities to work together at public and private level had been instigated some two years ago. A structured format was established from the outset to ensure each group formally reported and recorded their decisions. The structure is seen to be crucial in order to avoid the process being simply a “talking shop”.

Monday’s discussions ranged extensively across a variety of subjects; for example: an opportunity to share information technology, currently in development by Jersey Tourism. The potential to cross promote Jersey Live with the Route du Roc, participation in a very high-level strategic economic development “think tank” called Idea 35 and an experiment to be conducted shortly that trial recycling some selected waste products to France.

Delegation: Connétable Ken Vibert, Economic Development Minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, Education Sports and Culture Assistant Minister, Deputy Carolyn Labey, Transport and Technical services, Minister Deputy Guy de Faye, members of the Chamber of Commerce, Ray Shead and John King, Gerald Fletcher, Chief Executive of the Jersey Hospitality Association and Doug Ford , Jersey Heritage Trust plus senior managers from the respective departments.