The latest such occasion was in June 2011, when an official delegation from Jersey headed by Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur arrived to China. The delegation also included Assistant Chief Minister for International and UK Relations Senator Freddie Cohen, as well as figures from the Jersey Finance team. The eight day visit covered Hong Kong, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai and saw the Jersey group meet with senior members of the Chinese government and key local businesses. The two sides explored development opportunities in various fields such as agriculture, telecommunications and financial services. Whilst in China, Jersey was assured that the Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) signed by both parties in October 2010 had been internally ratified by the Chinese government, paving the way towards a more transparent business environment.
During the visit, Jersey was invited to attend the 3rd Sino-European Agricultural Seminar and Agricultural Projects Matchmaking Conference, which is to be held in Changchun from the 9th to the 16th of Aug. This presents the island with an ideal chance to enhance its cooperation with China and to boost its agricultural business. The island representatives have also been requested to present their agricultural expertise and experience to Chinese state officials and other agricultural business sector members attending the conference.
The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Beijing telecommunications company UTStarcom and Jersey Telecom was perhaps one of the highlights of the bilateral efforts to improve business ties. In addition to embarking on a cooperative research and development scheme for new telecom products and services, the two companies have been working together in the past few years on the development of Jersey telecommunications network. UTStarcom is now set to continue helping Jersey Telecom in improving its infrastructure, while virtually being offered the ability to use Jersey as a hub for its European business.
