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A wealth of Island expertise
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However, essential as offshore finance is to all Islanders’ wellbeing, there will always be something abstract and even puzzling about its activities – at least as far as laymen are concerned. Like it or not, it can be hard to take pride in undertakings which involve the arcane and intangible manoeuvring of money around the world.
Occasionally, however, far more concrete examples of the way in which Jersey looks to the outside world for its living are in evidence. Such is the case with Ermitage’s Optics system.
The fund manager, which has its headquarters on the Esplanade, has successfully marketed the portfolio management system to the state of California, where it will be used to help handle the multi-billion-dollar public employee retirement scheme.
Quite evidently, this is no mean commercial coup. Moreover, as well as channelling revenue in our direction, it is evidence of the huge reservoir of expertise and experience that exists in the Island – a fact which sometimes seems to escape those responsible for spending Jersey taxpayers’ money.
For example, investments in our own public employee pension scheme are managed by parties outside the Island, which is both remarkable and baffling given that there is so much home-grown talent in this area.
That said, there could well be sound historical reasons why our public sector scheme – which has existed for many years – has been handled elsewhere. Also, change cannot be ruled out, given that Ermitage experts are now talking to Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf.
Meanwhile, today’s business pages also focus on a businessman who is now based in the UK but who, in the 1990s, was instrumental in launching the internet in the Island. Nick Ogden, now the chief executive of Voice Commerce Group, has been named 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year at a ceremony which opened with a video message delivered by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr Ogden might have moved on, but he achieved a great deal when he was based here, including pioneering work on WorldPay, the multi-currency payment processing system.
Both Ermitage’s marketing success and Nick Ogden’s accolade help to confirm a truth that is too rarely acknowledged – that Jersey has long been a powerhouse of entrepreneurial talent, innovation and inventiveness as well as a centre of financial excellence.
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