Gibraltar Launches New E-Business Council

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

28 April 2004

The Gibraltar government has established a new E-Business Advisory Council, whose first meeting on Monday represented a step towards the creation of an e-commerce centre for both local and international traders in the export business, the Gibraltar Chronicle has reported.

According to the report, the members of the council have “wide experience” in the field of business and information technology. The council membership consists of government officials, including the government’s head of IT, John Desoiza and the chief executive of the Ministry for Trade, Industry and Telecommunications, Richard Garcia.

Two members of the panel are drawn from the private sector and were nominated by the Gibraltar Federation of Small Business and the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce, although they will serve on the council in their personal capacities.

Trade Industry and Communications Minister Joe Holliday, who chairs the council, commented that “above all we want to avoid cumbersome decision-making…the sort of thing that could happen if members of this council, or the other advisory councils, had to refer back to their representative bodies each time a decision had to be made,” the Chronicle reported.

He added that the government was aware of the increasing role of IT in business, and has implemented a number of incentives for small firms including free importation of computer equipment and a deduction of up to £50,000 of the capital cost of IT equipment in the first year.

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