World-Class Data Centre to Boost Jersey E-Commerce

Tax-news.com

31 January 2000

A new multi-million-pound world-class data centre and Internet exchange is being built which will allow Jersey based businesses to deliver global e-commerce services. The centre will be run by Foreshore Ltd, a joint venture between local IT Group Itex and the Jersey Electricity Company and should be completed by the end of this year.

The new centre will provide Jersey with the technology infrastructure required to compete effectively with other offshore e-commerce centres such as the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Bermuda which is currently the market leader.

In announcing the new centre, the managing director of the Jersey Electricity Company Mike Liston also issued a warning to the Jersey Government that liberalisation of telecommunications services must also go ahead if the centre is to be a success. ‘The States need to make a decision quickly on allowing competition in the telecoms market to allow us to get out and tell the world Jersey is well and truly open as an offshore e-business centre,’ Mr Liston said.

In response to Mr Liston's comments, the president of the Jersey States Policy and Resources Committee Senator Pierre Horsfall welcomed the new centre and promised that the telecommunications licensing issue will be resolved as a matter of urgency. ‘We have set our sights very firmly in making Jersey a leading centre for e-commerce and such an investment in infrastructure by leading Island businesses which will help achieve that aim must be welcomed,’ Senator Horsfall said.

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