PRESENT concern over the European Union’s attitude to the tax strategies of the Crown Dependencies is no doubt encouraging some tunnel vision here in Jersey, in Guernsey and in the Isle of Man.

There are well-founded fears that if we fail to toe the EU’s line over zero-ten taxation, access to lucrative European markets for financial services could be blocked.

Events on the other side of the world, however, should remind us that our principal industry’s interests extend far further than we might tend to imagine. The Island already does a great deal of business in the Gulf. It is now poised to engage more fully with an economy that is expanding more rapidly than any other.

That economy belongs, of course, to the Republic of China, a country which, not so long ago, was regarded as remote, secretive and fundamentally hostile to capitalism. The realities of meeting the aspirations of a vast and growing population have more lately led not only to market-based growth, but also to far greater openness.

Having recognised the immense potential that China has to offer, as its increasingly affluent society looks for investment outlets for its new-found wealth, Jersey Finance have just opened an office in Hong Kong, the former British colony. This should be the ideal stepping stone leading towards far greater volumes of business being conducted with individuals and organisations on the Chinese mainland.

The new office, moreover, will be staffed by people who have expert knowledge of emerging trends in China but who will also be able to promote Jersey to clients who, at present, are unlikely to know very much about the Island, its finance industry or its probity and stability.

Meanwhile, a parallel development will strengthen mutual commercial relationships between Jersey and China. The right of Island companies to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has been secured, meaning that Chinese nationals will be able to use structures developed here to facilitate their business operations.

And very soon a seal of official approval will be applied to the latest moves in Sino-Jersey relations when, early next month, a high-level delegation of Chinese officials will accompany the country’s Ambassador in London, Madame Fu Ying, on a visit to the Island.

Neither the Hong Kong office nor listing privileges on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange means that we can suddenly afford to turn our backs on markets closer to home, but they are most emphatically signs that our horizons are expanding.