Jersey Delegation Prepares To Leave For Middle East

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

23 February 2005

Members of the Jersey government and financial services industry will next week embark for the Middle East as the jurisdiction sends its largest ever business delegation to the Gulf region.

The 50-strong government team, led by Senator Frank Walker, President of the Policy & Resources Committee, senior policy-making committee of the States of Jersey, will begin by visiting Bahrain on March 1st, before continuing on to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates on March 5th. The visit will conclude in Dubai, the UAE’s commercial centre, on March 10th.

Jersey Finance will be arranging formal receptions and delivering presentations highlighting the strengths of Jersey’s Finance Industry to finance and legal professionals in each location, and three of the 40 senior finance industry representatives accompanying the government delegation are due to give speeches. These will include: James Crill, Partner at Mourant; Advocate Anthony Dessain, Senior Partner, Bedell Cristin; and Trevor Norman, Director, Volaw Trust, who all have extensive knowledge of the Middle East.

Jersey Finance has also revealed that it will undertake a private visit to meet finance representatives in Qatar at the invitation of the Qatari Minister for Economy and Commerce.

“This will be our third formal visit to the region since 2002 and we are extremely optimistic about the potential for new business,” observed Jersey Finance Chief Executive Phil Austin.

“It is already clear that the delegation in March will be our largest to date and we will arrive with many Government and commercial contacts already established from previous visits so our efforts can be focused specifically on developing business for the Island,” Mr Austin added.

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