Attendees at the ‘Bridging the Digital Divide’ Conference, Jersey, April 2002 - Click to Enlarge

Knowledge Economy
Lead Administration – Jersey

At the first British-Irish Council Summit meeting in December 1999, it was agreed that Jersey would take responsibility for advancing work in relation to the area of Knowledge Economy.

This work sector was adopted by the Council in recognition of the increasingly important role played by the Knowledge Economy in economic, social and cultural life within BIC Member Administrations.

Having completed the initial area of work which culminated with a report on “Access to Information Communication Technology for People with Disabilities”, the current Knowledge Economy group project involves the sustainability of business in the context of potential serious threats. To strengthen this sustainability, possible preventative measures and business continuity planning are being developed.

This will be achieved through:

• Consideration of a joint co-operation plan within Member administrations;
• Assessment and exchange of information on business continuity planning within Member administrations;
• Acceptance and dissemination of a common set of best practice standards in business continuity / disaster recovery, particularly for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro businesses.

The results of this work programme will be submitted to the British-Irish Council ministerial meeting scheduled for the first quarter of 2008.