Across party state/private working group, led by Chamber’s Peter Schaefer, is making good progress on the most critical areas in need of lighter touch regulation – or, in some instances, its removal altogether.

The project is sponsored by the Committee for Economic Development and the panel includes industry groups, States members and ED officers.

Under Peter’s chairmanship, the panel is, for the first time, measuring the island’s performance against other jurisdictions using World Bank standard criteria. The working party is also looked at best practices of governments throughout the world.

Chamber issues a survey recently inviting corporates to identify specific areas that presented a problem for them in terms of ease of doing business.

Among the main issues already identified are that the £1,000 cost of registered a business and the £250 annual renewal fees are too high, particularly when the island is trying to encourage an enterprise culture with as many start-ups as possible.

Many respondents felt that the time and cost involved in applying for business licences or renewing them is too high and there is a need for simplification, particularly for the hospitality sector.