As part of UKTI North East launching International Trade Week, and in my capacity of UKTI's International Trade Director for the North East of England, I hosted a round table of interested parties yesterday .
Lots came out it, which I always think is useful to share , and there were a few gems in the discussion .
The HSBC discussion was excellent - talking about its internal targets for 2011 , which include growth of 20% internationally and 10% domestic growth . The roundtable discussed the thorny issue of lending more and balancing that against building up bank balance sheets. There was little expectation of a rate rise imminent, and the consensus seemed to be that Q1 2012 was more likely.
Manufacturing companies are picking up - and recruiting. Union Electric Steel cited a 32% growth in order book , year on year! Fantastic! Liebherr and Ford Aerospace have told me they are also recruiting - more good manufacturing news - I guess the competitive pound is helping . The North East has a lot of strong manufacturing and this means the area continues to have a positive balance of payments.
There were lots of questions about Technology Innovation Centres, and general comments that the lack of a growth agenda is causing concern. That was also reflected in comments about trade associations, Chambers etc and a general expectation for them to step up to the mark, both in trade and investment .
The roundtable discussed questions about Local Enterprise Partnerships's (LEP’s) , managing inward investment and some specifics about eg. Hitachi Rail plans etc. Generally I felt that business is still not up to speed on LEP’s however and there is lots more to do on making the new landscape work.
The High Growth markets like Brazil , China, Russia , Vietnam etc generated the most interest - companies want to engage and develop their sales plans to tap into high value opportunities. Good to see that the message UKTI is sending out on this was clear, and a great opportunity to flag the forthcoming new UKTI strategy which will pick up on High Value Opportunities for UK business
Events are running all week to mark a surge in UKTI activity with some high profile speakers. Find out more at:
http://www.ukti.gov.uk/export/unitedkingdom/northeast/item/124024.html