The first official has now been appointed and is already in post, working part-time out of Foreign and Commonwealth Office premises in Nairobi, while the second role will be advertised ‘imminently’.
The posts, which are being funded on a temporary basis with an initial investment of £75,000, will be reviewed at the end of this year.
The funding will enable these States officials to work ‘in country’, representing Jersey by directly engaging with foreign government officials and agencies.
The scheme is the latest initiative in the States’ global markets strategy that External Relations Minister Ian Gorst alluded to at a Brexit event last month.
He explained that the strategy had arisen from a 2013 report by specialist consultants McKinsey, which identified Kenya as one of the key target markets for the development of Jersey’s financial services business model.
However, the subsequent development of Brexit has also meant that it is now just as important for Jersey to establish a ‘physical presence’ in major European cities, according to one of the department’s most senior officials.
Group director for External Relations Kate Nutt said that the focus of the second post would be primarily on France and Germany, and that Jersey would be exploring ways of using desks in FCO offices in cities like Paris and Berlin as ‘agile working’ bases for the post-holder.
‘Although, particularly in France, we have good relations at a regional level, it has always been a bit more of a struggle at a national level to get traction,’ she said. ‘And one of the things we have noticed with our Brussels, London and Caen offices is that having people on the ground really makes a difference.
‘This is partly because the jurisdictions see that you are investing, but mostly because you can build relationships from the inside and you can do it on an ad hoc basis, without looking like you’re always engaging when you have a specific agenda.’
Jersey’s London Office would also operate as a base for the post-holder, with Ms Nutt envisaging that they might spend five days a month in Paris, and the same in Berlin.
As for expanding the operations of what External Relations refer to as ‘Jersey plc’, she added that it made sense to think about it ‘when Jersey is doing more internationally in its own right, signing more agreements with other countries, and trying to be more visible’.
In terms of partnering with Guernsey, as has been done with the Caen and Brussels offices, Ms Nutt said that those discussions were taking place but that they would wait to see the outcome of the pilot scheme before reaching a decision.
