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Ministers are due to update the public next month on their work to "remove red tape” for Jersey businesses, following last year's damning report on the "difficulty" of working with Government.
The Barriers to Business report, published last December, said that the Government's failure to act on its recommendations would result in “reputational damage”, “continuing downward economic trajectory” and would "reinforce business opinion that the Government cannot be trusted”.
In a statement provided to Express today, Deputy Kirsten Morel said: "Lowering barriers to business remains a key priority and I will be publishing an update on this work in March.
"In recent weeks my officers and I have been meeting my new Ministerial colleagues to take this work forward and identify where we can remove red tape and ensure Government interactions are efficient and simple."
Pictured: Deputy Morel has committed to lowering barriers to businesses since he was elected and in his 2023 Ministerial Plan.
The report, carried out by Government-funded arms-length agency Jersey Business at a cost of £90,000, put forward 20 short-term (before the end of 2024), nine medium-term (before the end of 2026) and nine long-term recommendations (beyond 2026).
Some of these included an overhaul of employment licensing, removing restrictions on opening hours, and and creating temporary accommodation by repurposing offices or utilising a decommissioned cruise ship.
As part of the report, research company 4insight surveyed hundreds of businesses in the retail, hospitality and tourism, agriculture and aquaculture, construction, care, digital, and professional services industries.
When asked for one word which best described doing business in Jersey, the most frequent answers were "difficult", "challenging", "frustrating" and "expensive".
Pictured: The most common responses when respondents were asked for one word which best describes doing business in Jersey.
Survey results further revealed that the greatest challenges to businesses were staff recruitment and retention, a lack of vision from the Government, administration, and complying with Government legislation and registration.
Businesses also raised concerns about the Government's new payment platform, Ariba, stating that it was a "long slow process which is difficult to use".
Paul Murphy, the CEO of Jersey Business, spoke about barriers to business productivity in Connect Magazine last year.
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