Minister for Trade and Investment Lord Stephen Green visited the North East this week to help me launch the Export Challenge for the region. Broadly the Chancellors target of doubling exports by 2020 translates into some specifics for the North East. During a meeting with 250 local businesses we discussed the challenge and gained support to:
- Find 500 new SME exporters by 2015 across the region;
- Develop the region's position in key BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other high growth markets towards the current exports levels of USA and Western Europe;
- Double the North East exports by 2020 utilising UKTI and ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) support to maximise the export drive.
I was delighted to have so many businesses supporting the launch and also to have the Local Enterprise Partnership and Local Authorities joining us. Indeed it was also an opportunity for the Minister to announce the new contract UKTI has offered to Go Global Ltd, a consortium of RTC North (Regional Technology Centre North), North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) and North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC ). I am looking forward to working with this new team who have some exciting new ideas to help UKTI NE meet our Export Challenge.
I also accompanied the Minister to Komatsu UK Ltd, where he had a tour of the facility and the chance to drive a 36 ton digger…. enough said! Komatsu is celebrating 25 years of UK manufacturing and exporting (now 75% of its products are exported) and I'm delighted to say we will present them with an Export Achievement Award on their 25th anniversary in July.
We visited De La Rue Gateshead, the high volume currency printing facility, where we had the chance to see the exciting investment being made in a new flowline - fantastic to see such growth being invested in. A BIG thank you to De La Rue and Komatsu for their hospitality.
Finally the Minister met several SME's, offering a chance to discuss many of the issues facing the SME community in the international arena.
All in all, a great start to our export challenge - I want to also thank PWC and HSBC locally, both teams were fantastic and high profile at the event and we look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.