Export
Warrington is home to the UKTI NW team which is right next to the North West Development Agency (NWDA). Like all of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and Devolved Administrations (DA) the NWDA www.nwda.co.uk has responsibility for regional economic development in the North West and, importantly to us, supporting inward investors from Australia into the region.
In recent days, I’ve spent time at Liverpool Science Park, Manchester Science Park and Daresbury Science & Innovation Campus and I’ve been thinking about how important R&D is to the future prosperity of the UK. I work a lot with …
Recently I was excited by many of the companies I met at Software City when I sat on a Dragons' Den panel, but none more so than by the games companies based in and around Liverpool. Yesterday I went to …
We’re all doing a lot of planning at the moment, in our case thinking of internationalisation and how to persuade more firms of the benefits of going global. UKTI has its Take it to the World campaign and we’re certainly …
I'm surprised by the conscious, obvious, effort that UK companies are taking to reduce their carbon footprint. It's everywhere and it has changed so much even though I've only been gone a year.
After taking advice I have had to cancel my planned two day visit to Cumbria this week, the most disappointing news I’ve had for a long time. Cumbria is a fantastic county. It’s rightly famous for its lakes and fells, …
After Exeter I drove up to Worcester for the Export Factor an event where over 100 companies from the West Midlands met to hear how UKTI can support them to export. The West Midlands, with its dominant automotive, minerals and metals and advanced engineering industries, has had a tough time in the recent recession. Unemployment has risen sharply. The Export Factor brought together businesses that were looking to export their way out of the slump.
I left the UK a year and a month ago, to the day. And now I'm on my first business development visit (BDV) back in Blighty.
After a long flight, I land at Heathrow and, apart from the rain, spot the new Terminal 5 building. I'm taken aback by the sheer scale of glass in the building, and honoured by the fact that Lord Richard Rogers, the architect of this sustainable terminal, spoke less than 48 hours earlier in our boardroom back in Australia.
This is my first time in Exeter. I enjoyed the drive down through Somerset and into Devon. I tried out my best West Country accent in the car on the way down with lots of drawn out vowels. Glaaaaaastonbury, Yeooooooovil and salvaaaage! Probably good that it stayed in the car!
I love airports and always have. They’re such a great place to people watch but for us in international business they are the embodiment of everything that we do. I was invited to John Lennon Airport this week by Neil …
