Jersey turns down major mining event

Wednesday 08 February 2017

It's emerged that Jersey won't be sending any government representatives to a major mining industry conference this year - it's the one which led to two senior civil servants getting into trouble over their expenses for last year's event.

The Island has been a regular attendee at Mining Indaba in recent years, with representatives from both the public and private sectors flying down to South Africa for the event, which is running this week in Cape Town.

But last year two senior civil servants booked £13,000 business class tickets for the event, leading to months of negative comment and several official investigations into how the public sector makes travel bookings. The Public Accounts committee concluded that, "...the culture of some departments pushes the boundaries of what the public would consider acceptable conduct."

It was later announced that both those civil servants would be leaving the public sector - both denied any wrongdoing over their travel bookings. An internal review found both had followed the policy then in place for their department.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture Department commented:

"After much deliberation, it has been decided that Jersey will not be exhibiting at the Mining Indaba Conference in 2017.  Despite previous successes, no States of Jersey employees will be attending. It is understood that a reduced number of local industry intermediaries will be in Cape Town for this year’s event.  Reduced industry representation, coupled with reductions in budgets, have led to this decision."

The website for Mining Indaba describes it as:

"The world’s largest gathering of the most influential stakeholders in African mining –investors, mining professionals, government officials, financers, and mining service providers. 

"More than 6,000 delegates come from global mining and exploration companies, international investors, African and non-African governments, and a wide range of service providers including mining equipment companies, mining services providers, law firms, investment banks and financial services firms, engineering and research services, tax & accounting companies, and business/technical consultants."

News that Jersey wouldn't be sending States representatives to the conference, emerged on the day that Locate Jersey set out its achievements for last year, with encouraging companies and individuals in the natural resources sector to move to Jersey being one of its main aims. It said:

"119 high value residency enquiries were received in 2016, with seventeen permissions being granted.  2016 also saw fourteen relocations which will result in a minimum additional income tax yield of £1.75 million in 2017. The total value of property bought by new High Value Residents in Jersey exceeded £100 million for the first time in 2016, generating property stamp duty for the public purse of more than £5 million.

Economic Development Minister Senator Lyndon Farnham commented:

“I'm delighted to see that the 2016 figures show a continued interest in Jersey as a destination for inward investment.  Despite increasing external pressures and global competition, the excellent work of the Locate Jersey team in generating enquiries, on-boarding and facilitating the move of both individuals and businesses continues to secure high quality inward investment business and high value residents.  This investment into Jersey is helping to diversify and grow our economy, increase tax yield and create job opportunities for local people."