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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER
BY DEPUTY S.M. WICKENDEN OF ST. HELIER ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 8TH MARCH 2016
Question
Further to the answer tabled to question 9238 on 23rd February 2016 regarding the support provided to Jersey's digital industry, could the Chief Minister advise –
- why it has taken almost a year to draft a digital framework when the Strategic Plan was agreed on 30th April 2015;
- why is has taken 3 years to act on one of the Key Objectives for eGovernment, which was to grow the local digital sector; and
- whether any policies in the Design Authority tender process specify the need to align with the Strategic Plan and, if so, what are they, and if not, why not?
Answer
- The Strategic Plan includes the aim to Develop a plan to promote additional jobs and growth in the Technology sector, with a particular focus on Fintech'. Work in this field has progressed considerably since April last year, in FinTech and many other areas of ICT. This includes:
- hosting the Channel Islands' first global Fintech conference in October 2015
- the appointment of a new Chief Executive of Digital Jersey
- the launch of Digital Jersey's 2016 Plan, which focuses on New Business
- the announcement that we would produce a digital framework for Jersey (similar to the framework for financial services published in 2014)
- the commissioning of a report (published in December) examining which sectors within FinTech (and also MedTech, AgriTech, RegTech etc.) Jersey can best capitalise on, and what actions it needs to take to do so.
These strands combine with progress made by the JFSC to create a light-touch and innovation- friendly sandbox'style regulatory environment for FinTech products.
The Digital Policy Framework will reflect these and other developments, guided by the Strategic Plan and complementing four other closely-related government policy initiatives: the Innovation Review and Action Plan, and new Strategies for Telecoms, Cyber-Security and Enterprise.
A first draft of this Digital Framework will be circulated among key stakeholders in the coming month, and should be officially ready for launch in the second quarter of 2016.
- In the context of developing the digital industry the mandate given to the eGovernment programme is to identify and act on opportunities to stimulate the digital industry in the process of delivering the primary objectives of the programme, which are to enhance customer service and create a more efficient public sector.
Since relaunching the programme in January 2015 much of the budget committed to system development, project management and business analysis has been spent with local suppliers. It is anticipated that details on this expenditure will be published in the first half of 2016.
The Design Authority will seek to identify what opportunities exist to stimulate the local digital industry in moving towards target enterprise architecture and how these opportunities should be developed.
- The appointment of a Design Authority is directly aligned with Strategic Plan, specifically: Desired Outcome 1.3 - Improved, more productive and sustainable public services.
The Design Authority will establish the enterprise architecture for the States of Jersey, which will enable delivery of the eGovernment objectives.
This will also support delivery of other desired outcomes. For example improved data architecture will support all initiatives that span the States of Jersey, such as 1,001 days.