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States Greffe
Deputy Philip Ozouf
Minister for External Relations
BY EMAIL
23rd November 2023
Dear Minister,
Follow up Questions from recent Public Hearing
Firstly, thank you for your attendance at our public hearing on 16th November. The Panel would be grateful if you could respond to the following questions which were unable to be asked during the hearing due to time constraints:
- A key theme of the recommendations of the 2015 Jersey Innovation Review report is facilitation of international collaboration in knowledge and talent exchange. What actions have you been undertaking to use relationships and contacts within local and international businesses to inform and support decision making by the Council of Ministers?
- The Ministerial delivery plan identifies work to support and enhance the Island’s economic productivity via external relationships and contacts. What actions have you been undertaking to enhance the Island’s economic productivity?
a. Can you please identify the type of benefits that may be gained in this area from work under your remit?
- What are you doing to develop collaborative approaches to issues such as housing policy, population and migration issues, labour and skills shortages through external relations?
- We briefly discussed Trade Agreements at our last hearing and since then, the Assembly has adopted P.6/2023 Assembly Consideration of the Bilateral Investment Treaty with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which will bring forward a process to ensure ratification by the States Assembly before they come into force. How do you envisage any potential process will impact your work?
- Are you taking any actions concurrently to adapt to any potential future ratification process?
- Will any legislative amendments be brought forward to give effect to P.6/2023?
- What work are you undertaking to identify the benefits and risks of Jersey’s participation in new trade arrangements such as the Bilateral Treaty with the UAE?
- We understand that earlier this year a Digital Trade Agreement was signed between the United Kingdom and Ukraine. Has that trade agreement been extended to Jersey?
- Are there other digital trade agreements that Jersey is a part of, or looking to join?
- What collaboration will you have on formation of any Digital strategies to support such agreements?
- Following the visit of the Estonian Ambassador, could you outline how any potential security risks, such as those posed by Russia, are taken into account when considering perception of Jersey’s relationship with Estonia from other jurisdictions?
- The Panel questioned Jersey’s position in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) earlier in the year via a letter. Has any decision been made on the progress of an extension mechanism for the services aspects of the partnership?
- We note that the UK’s priorities for 2023 are to progress negotiations for Free Trade Agreements (FTA’s) with India, Canada, Mexico, Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Are you party to these discussions and how will Jersey fit into these FTA’s?
- Noting the oral question (OQ.22/2023) in the Assembly in February this year, can you further outline what consideration is given when forming agreements with countries that have questionable democratic principles or poor human rights records?
- Given that the Minister for International Development and Jersey Overseas Aid Commission use the Corruption Perception Index, why does Jersey not feature on it given the desire to attract inward investment and your work within External Relations?
- What other methods are used to promote Jersey as a sound jurisdiction in which to conduct business?
- Will you be undertaking work to enhance Jersey’s profile on indexes generally used by international investors in decisions to locate business such as the Rule of Law Index and the Corruption Perception Index?
During the hearing there were a number of points in which it was agreed that further information would be provided for in writing:
- Can you identify if there are any interns employed within the overseas offices, and, if so, what is the cost of employing them?
- What is the cost of recruitment to the French office, Brussels office and overall remuneration of both?
a. Do these offices hold any reserve expenditure? If so, can you provide this?
- It was indicated that a GANT chart would provided outlining the Intellectual Property legislative timeline, can this please be forwarded?
- What quantitative analysis has been undertaken to determine the potential economic impact of the proposed additional revenue expenditure for Intellectual Property?
- The Government Plan Annex summary suggests potential revenue streams could be gained through this expenditure as well as opportunities to promote and protect innovation on the island; can you please provide further details on this?
We would be grateful if you could respond to this no later by 27th November 2023 in line with the 5 working days approved for responses between Scrutiny Panels and Ministers and to allow us time to collate the information to form part of our work on the Government Plan. We would also be grateful if you could respond to questions 16 and 17 by Friday 24th November to allow us time discuss the responses.
If you have any questions regarding this or our work in general, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please note that unless otherwise stated, all letters will be uploaded to the Scrutiny website as a matter of course.
Yours sincerely,
Deputy Moz Scott
Chair
Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel