Brighton-based PR consultancy Midnight Communications, has won

a contract to help put Guernsey on the map.

The Channel Island's board of industry has appointed the firm to promote Guernsey as a centre of excellence for e-business.

The island plans to use the experience built up around its the financial services sector, which includes administrative, management and legal skills, to provide the basis for a move into the technology market.

E-business director Kevin Green said: "In the past 30 years, Guernsey has acquired a strong reputation, principally for its financial services industry. Some people think of us as a tax haven and others as a tax dodge.

"It has been very successful but it has come to dominate our economy.

Mr Green said doing business in Guernsey offered a number of advantages for companies.

With the completion of a new submarine cable to the European Grid, the island had fibre-optic potential equal to one-third of the total capacity of the rest of Britain.

Mr Green said: "We already have pretty good connectivity to the internet but we know we need more if we're going to be hosting lots of streaming. We already have an investment programme in place to provide for this.

"We've liberalised our telecoms market to encourage competition and have put proper regulation in place. We have also introduced legislation to protect emerging companies' intellectual property and support technologies like electronic signatures.

"We are focusing on media streaming, including music and video, and intellectual property businesses."

Midnight's managing director Caraline Brown said: "This is a fantastic opportunity. At a time when many people have said earning money out of the internet is dead, here is a government investing in the future.

"Our biggest challenge is to change some of the preconceptions about Guernsey. There is more to the island than cows and flowers.

"It's not just a sleepy little place.

Midnight director Helen Yeardsley, who is heading-up the account, said: "To change the way in which a Crown Dependency is viewed by the rest of the world is an incredible challenge.

"Midnight's campaign will include press tours, industry events, sponsorship, research, debates and conferences to promote e-Guernsey."

www.midnight.co.uk
www.guernseyhome.com