Secretary of State for Business Dr Vince Cable and Foreign Secretary William Hague have launched a UK Trade & Investment campaign to promote key business opportunities in Asian markets to UK firms.
The campaign aims to encourage more UK companies to take advantage of Asia’s high growth and emerging markets.
UK Trade & Investment has partnered with RBS to deliver a sequence of programmes to persuade more UK companies to export to Asia. A series of six events focusing on China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam are due to be held in February 2012. One of these events includes the ‘Explore Asia – a world of opportunities for UK companies’ conference. It encompasses business master classes, market clinics and networking – UK companies already successful in Asia will be showcased at the event.
Dr Vince Cable said, “In the last year, our exports to the 12 markets in this campaign were worth £25 billion, though we are still well below potential. The Government’s recent decision to allocate an additional £45 million to international trade promotion will help more medium-sized exporters and will also double the number of SMEs UK Trade & Investment supports from 25,000 to 50,000. I urge companies from all sectors to get involved in this campaign, and see what opportunities Asia could hold for them.”
Speaking about the importance of Asian markets, William Hague commented, “The economic compass of British businesses should be pointing firmly East, and we are determined to support them in their efforts.”
