Precise details for the reasons behind the delay in the TIEA signing were not immediately available.
According to the Jersey Evening Post, which did not say where it got its information, "the ceremony was called off and the document is having to be redrafted, apparently because Indian officials were not happy with what it said". It said Jersey treasury minister Philip Ozouf, who had been part of the Jersey delegation, had declined to comment.
In a statement on the website of Jersey Finance, the marketing arm of Jersey’s financial services industry, Jersey Finance chief executive Geoff Cook noted that TIEAs can take months to prepare, and cannot always accommodate the timetables of government and industry officials.
For this reason, said Cook – who was part of the Jersey delegation to India, which was also formally opening a new Jersey Finance marketing office in Mumbai, India’s main financial hub – it was “understandable” that “on this occasion the formal signing could not be completed to coincide with our visit to India”.
“We have every confidence that the agreement will soon be in place and when it is, the platform for growing business between Jersey and India will be strengthened further,” Cook added.
The TIEA would have been Jersey’s 21st. Among the countries with which it already has TIEAs in place are the US, UK, France, Germany and China.
In addition to Cook and Ozouf, the Jersey delegation also included Jersey’s assistant chief minister, Senator Freddie Cohen; and a number of representatives from various Jersey-based financial services businesses, the names of which have not been disclosed.
Cook went on to note that the commercial elements of delegation’s visit had been “a great success”, even if the TIEA remained, at least for now, unsigned.
“We have built on the strong links that already exist between Jersey and India as well as making a great many new contacts,” he said.
“With our permanent representatives now in place, the future growth opportunities for business flows between Jersey and India are strong.”
As reported, Sean Costello, a former business development director for PwC’s Abu Dhabi-based global sovereign wealth funds business, has been named to head up Jersey Finance’s new marketing offices in Abu Dhabi and Mumbi, as head of business development for the Gulf Cooperation Council and India.
He will be supported in this effort by business development representatives Kapil Dua, in Delhi, and Jyoti Tathgur, in Mumbai, Jersey Finance said.
The Jersey delegation left Mumbai on Friday and is now in Abu Dhabi, where it is marking the opening of Jersey Finance’s new representative office there during a reception at the British embassy.
