THE Guernsey and Jersey branches of the Institute of Directors are looking to lead the way on pan-island cooperation.

The committees of both have spoken about the benefits of joined-up thinking for some time and have now come together to release a joint newsletter for members.

In an attempt to show how the islands can work together on a range of issues, the newsletter is intended to be the first of several similar publications during 2010.

Mark Thompson (pictured), chairman of the Guernsey branch, said he and his Jersey counterpart, Gary Drinkwater, had cooperation as a top priority on the IoD agenda for the Channel Islands.

‘Following the success of the IoD debates in each island, which shared a common format, we wanted to pick up on the common messages.

‘We also wanted to share with members our agenda for promoting cooperation.’

He hoped that both islands’ governments could apply the same approach across their respective departments.