WHEN we talk of our Island’s identity, it can be easy to see digital as something homogeneous; something which makes us lose our individuality, but it is the opposite.
Firstly, digital protects what we have. It is being used in farming, tourism, retail and the finance industry. It makes other industries more competitive, more productive and more environmentally friendly.
From drones and the Internet of Things to survey potato crops, to chips in cows’ ears to monitor milking, digital is helping secure our more traditional industries. It is also helping the primary industry in our economy, finance.
Through fintech, we can use the skills we have here and make them accessible and competitive globally. Innovation drives productivity and it creates new opportunities.
Secondly, digital enables individuality. It allows entrepreneurs to be creative and build solutions which can be tailored for unique circumstances. It allows Jersey’s people to run their own businesses from wherever they want and at whatever scale suits them (as Covid’s lockdown experience has shown).
We are incredibly lucky in Jersey that our Island-owned telecoms company invested to give us one of the world’s fastest internet speeds. It enables us all to reach out to the world and yet still retain all that we value at home.
Our digital industry is not a single pillar. Digital is not homogeneous, but it is ubiquitous. It helps every industry, our health service, our economy and our quality of life. It is essential that we invest in the skills and infrastructure to drive our digital sector forward.
