BRIEFING

CHANCELLOR HELPS MORE UK FIRMS START TO EXPORT

Chancellor George Osborne has made £45m available for UK Trade & Investment as part of Government efforts to help get more UK fi rms exporting.

Some £10m of these funds, announced in the Autumn Statement, will be used to encourage an extra 500 UK medium-sized businesses to export each year. Less than a quarter of the estimated 10,000 medium- sized fi rms in the UK export, and most of those that do are already receiving help from UK Trade & Investment. The remaining £35m in funding will be used to help double the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) helped by UK Trade & Investment each year to export to 50,000. Part of this will be spent on increasing the number of trade advisers available, and extending

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export support programmes. A recent Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report estimated UK SMEs could generate £20bn for the economy by increasing their trade outside Europe. It compared the UK’s performance to that of Germany, where fi rms are gaining share in emerging markets. More businesses will be able to access

programmes such as Passport to Export, designed to get new exporters to start selling overseas, while funds will also be used for Gateway to Global Growth, which helps experienced exporters tap into high-growth markets. The measures will complement the efforts of UK Export Finance, which recently launched new products to help fi rms of all sizes to insure against the risk of non-payment overseas or to secure working capital to fulfi l large export orders.

Speaking from China, where he saw at

fi rst hand how SMEs can increase exports to this fast-growing market, UK Trade & Investment chief executive Nick Baird said: “I strongly welcome the SME export support package announced by the Chancellor. These new initiatives will help us with our declared aim to double to 50,000 the number of companies we support each year, as part of the Government’s drive to get 100,000 new companies exporting.”

fastfacts

BY THE END OF AUGUST 2010, CHINESE FDI STOCK INTO THE UK WAS $1.13BN.

IMAGE: REX FEATURES