The solution is Jersey should put
a man on the moon
o be fair to the Council of Ministers, their new Government Plan approved by the States in December, does include a number of specific measures designed to boost the economy. They aim to spend an additional £80m over four years on supporting the economy, which sounds like a lot, but it includes investing in skills and infrastructure, which they should be investing in as a matter of course.
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It is also going to be a big job keeping up with the best of the global financial centres, restoring the tourism industry to its traditional role as a significant wealth creator and trying to develop alternative sources of income.
So, the £80m may be aimed at demonstrating the government’s commitment to innovation and doing things differently, but cynics will say that the reality of the plan is just to do more of the same. There is very little new in it even if the public service is undergoing a painful restructuring. Moving the deckchairs and giving people new titles has been done before in the Island - several times.
It’s doubtful, therefore, that the government plan will excite many people or enthuse them to work together to help achieve it. What is needed instead is some radical thinking that fundamentally changes the way government views the economy. Ministers might still believe in small government, but it is time for them to acknowledge that they are not just there like firemen ready to step in to correct market failures. If both the public and private sectors wait for the other to take a lead, the result may be neither of them doing anything, and that in a small island where you can get all the leaders of both sectors into one room!
Governments have to take the lead as elsewhere they are adopting a mission-oriented approach by setting bold targets to spark innovation, boost the economy and solve society’s problems. Academics have shown that the role of government
has been vital in the early stages of most new inventions and innovations, and that was how the United States was able to put a man on the moon. Even the ubiquitous iPhone was the result of early investment by government as much as it was the whizz kids of Silicon Valley. So perhaps instead of our insipid government plan, that is what Jersey should be aiming for – a spark for new growth and direction such as putting a man on the moon.
That might sound a little over-ambitious for a tiny island, but the whole point of such an approach is to aim high and accept risks that produce the most benefits and achieves investment that would not otherwise be made.
In Jersey’s case there is a slightly less spectacular mission which would still represent a huge leap forward and bring enormous economic and social benefits if the government is brave enough – instead of going to the moon we could turn Jersey into a Smart Island. This would be along the lines of the numerous Smart Cities being created already, where the clever use of data and the latest technologies are used to create efficient living and working spaces, enhance the quality of life and provide new economic opportunities. It could solve many of Jersey’s problems, ranging from traffic flows and over-crowding to lacklustre productivity and a shortage of skills.
A few islands have already started on this course, and even Jersey, which has generally been slow in innovation and adopting digital technologies, is making big strides in developing new state-of-the-art solutions.
Many of these could be used as the building blocks for a holistic approach to creating a Smart Island and Digital Jersey has already started down this road. It has taken on government’s role of developing a digital economy, which some say is just as well as the government would not be successful in doing it themselves. They are also getting it on the cheap as Digital Jersey’s budget this year is only about £3m including the launch of its Digital Academy.
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Smart Island
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