Chamber News

Following the successful trade mission in 2012, European Atlantic Trade & Investment Missions will be taking another trade mission to Panama on 15-20 April 2013. The mission has the full support of the British Embassy, UKTI, the Panama Trade & Investment Agency, and the Embassy of Panama in the UK.

Thanks to massive public infrastructure development projects, an ambitious development programme, and booming transportation and logistics sectors, Panama has been dubbed “The Dubai of the Americas.” Its dollar-based economy has continued to grow at a rate of 10.6% in 2011 and is expected to continue its upward trend after the completion of the expansion of the canal in 2014, which will more than double the Canal’s capacity. The country has no current account deficit.

Panama is a hot destination for foreign investment, with the UK being the largest investor in the country. UK exports to Panama were worth £ 318m and imports £ 60m in 2011.

The mission will coincide with the biggest international trade fair in the region-EXPOCOMER, where the British Embassy/UKTI has secured a large British stand. Theaim is to make a big British statement at the exhibition and to introduce UK business to the wide array of business and investment opportunities in Panama.

Please click here for more details of the Mission and how to book your place.

One of the Egyptian-British Chamber of Commerce’s respected member companies, Narmer Sanitary Ware, is looking to expand to the UK market. The company has a vast experience in supplying sanitary ware and ceramic tiles for trade and commercial needs – like bath tubs, sinks, and WC’s – to ceramic tiles and ceramic decor tiles. Narmer started operations in Jabal Ali, Dubai and has since served the entire Middle East Region.Narmer is selling the available products in the catalogues or is ready to produce private label products for the UK market.

The UK based company is looking to expand its product offering to Europe, and specifically the UK. Narmer is looking for reliable wholesale, contractors or home developers and retail contacts, as well as UK agents with expertise in the sanitary ware industry as well as ceramic tiles to sell into the wholesale and retail markets in the UK. For further information contact: Taher El Sherif, Secretary-General, The Egyptian-British Chamber of Commerce using the methods below. Tel +44 (0)20 7499 3100 Mobile 0044 (0) 7887722664 BlackBerry 0044 (0) 7553370082 Email [email protected]

Greater Anglia has recognised four Conductors who achieved top marks for excellent customer service in a recent ‘mystery shopping’ survey.

Nikki Scott, Cliff Knapp, James Deery and George Dell all scored 100% when assessed by mystery shoppers on the train and were praised for their good rapport with customers and helpful, friendly attitudes.

Conductor Manager, John Bellchamber, said, “I am delighted that four of my team have been singled out as delivering excellent customer service and would like to thank them for their efforts to create a pleasant on board experience for our customers. They are a great asset to the team.”

Nikki and James are familiar faces on trains between Ipswich and Cambridge. George is a Clacton based Conductor and Cliff works on mainline trains between Norwich and London Liverpool Street.

Customer service and quality standards at Greater Anglia stations are assessed on a regular basis and the Conductors achieved their perfect scores of 100% when assessed as part of a recent mystery shopping exercise carried out between 9th December 2012 and 5th January 2013.

Andrew Goodrum Greater Anglia’s Customer Services Director said:

“Since the Greater Anglia franchise began, we have been concentrating our efforts on improving the customer experience; one important element of this is to give our staff additional training, enabling them to provide the best service possible for the over two million passengers a week using our services in London and the East Anglia region. I am delighted that this training is having real benefits in practice and improving customer service in all aspects of our business.”

Chris Perry, the Norfolk Chamber’s Membership Manager was part of the panel of judges assessing the Mayor’s Business Awards. The Mayor’s Business Awards are the King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council’s way of publicly acknowledging outstanding business achievement and the contribution that businesses make to the West Norfolk economy.

Established in 1989, by former mayor Cllr Les Daubney, the awards publicly recognise the achievements of local businesses and provide them with the perfect opportunity to showcase their success.

The awards are open to all sizes of companies and allow West Norfolk businesses to share their success stories, highlight new products, the conquering of new markets, training or developments in their staff. This year the three categories are:

• Manufacturing Business of the Year
• Service Business of the Year
• Young Business of the Year

Judging took place on Tuesday, 15 January and the finalists will be were over 3 days. The results will be announced on 15 March 2013 at the prestigious Mayor’s Awards Ceremony in King’s Lynn.

As part of its industrial strategy, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced that there will be, initially, 10 sector strategies, of which oil and gas would be one.

The industry’s input is essential as BIS and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) develop this work in partnership with Oil & Gas UK. Sector strategies will be co-developed and implemented with industry to be durable and will:

• be long-term in focus: developing a vision for the sector and what needs to happen from both government and business to get there
• be co-created with industry: committing both business and government to specific actions to maintain and develop long-term capabilities
• take a whole of government approach: looking across all of government to identify barriers and levers which have the biggest impacts and align these to deliver growth
• engage across the totality of the sector: working with industry and identifying actions which benefit business across the whole supply chain whether they are large, medium or small

The complete UK Government Oil and Gas Sector Strategy can be found here

It is believed this will be of interest to stakeholders across the London and East region and the UK Government very much welcomes Industry’s views, particularly through January 2013.

Views can be fed into:

BIS – Tom Worsley – [email protected] – 020 7215 6480 DECC – Audrey Banner – [email protected] – 01224 254104

The last few weeks has seen theGovernmentholding a series of road show consultationevents across England to seek views on a new streamlined approach for delivering European Union (EU) funds.

The EU funds covered include the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF), the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). These funds are the main European instruments for supporting local projects to increase jobs and growth.

The value of these funds for the next spending period (2014 – 2020) has not yet been decided, but the Government has been working with stakeholders on a more efficient mechanism for distributing the funds from 2014.

The proposals include ideas for using the different funds in a more complementary and integrated way. The Government also wants to make funding simpler to access and easier to operate for beneficiaries. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) will be invited to be more closely involved in the process of distributing the funds. LEPs would bring together local authorities and local businesses, and can therefore design and deliver investment strategies that target the needs of their local area.

The East of England road show was held at Ipswich Town FC on the 30th November and attractedrepresentatives fromlocal authorities, LEPs, charities, and other stakeholders. Road shows were also held in Maidstone on the 28th November and in London on 7th December.

Business and Enterprise Minister Michael Fallon said:

“These EU funds help to boost growth and jobs across the UK and we need to make the most of them. For the next seven years it’s important that they are delivered in the most efficient way to ensure we get maximum impact for the investments being made.

“It’s vital we have discussions with the organisations that will deliver and benefit from these funds at an early stage.”

Following feedback from the road shows on the new model, a formal consultation will be launched in spring 2013.

In the US, the latest economic datashowed that activity in the manufacturing sector began expanding again in December. However, the rate of expansion was weak, with many businesses postponing investment decisions due to uncertainty over the fiscal cliff. Both issues still need to be addressed with another stand-off likely to lead to a shutdown of the federal government by late February or early March.

The latest survey of credit conditions from the Bank of Englandpublished last Thursday provided encouraging evidence that the Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) is improving the availability of credit for both businesses and households. The report revealed that the availability of credit to businesses rose for the first time in a year, while the availability of secured credit increased to its highest level since the survey began in 2007. However there are still some areas of concern, including the pressures facing small businesses, with the credit available to small firms significantly below that available to larger scale businesses

The Arab-British Chamber of Commerce have received advices from the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq, that with immediate effect, exporters ofMedicines being shipped to Iraq will NOT need to obtain a Certificate of Conformity.

All other documentary requirements, remain the same.

The second round of the BIS Employer Ownership Pilotlaunched on 20th November, enabling businesses across the countryto bid for a share of a £150 million pot to create the training schemes they need to grow their companies.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock who announced theextra EOP funding which now totals £250m for rounds one and two, said

“I would encourage businesses – large and small – to be ambitious and innovative in their vision for how the fund can help them grow, from creating new apprenticeship programmes to setting up specialist training academies.”

The prospectussets out the rationale for the scheme in more detail. The vision of greater employer ownership has been championed by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) – a non-departmental public body that provides strategic leadership on skills and employment issues.

The EU has requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) to rule on a dispute on Argentina’s import restrictions which, the European Commission has claimed, are damaging European businesses.

The EU is taking this action, along with Japan and the USA, in an attempt to force Argentina to lift these measures, which have been hitting European trade and investment for more than 18 months.

They potentially affect all EU exports to Argentina, which were worth €8.3 billion in 2011.

The decision follows efforts by the EU to find a solution with Argentina through WTO dispute settlement consultations during the summer, which ended without success.

“Argentina’s import restrictions violate international trade rules and harm EU exports,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said. “This is the EU’s last resort to see Argentina’s unfair trade practices lifted and free and fair trade re-established according to the WTO rules to which Argentina has subscribed.”

Since February, Argentina has subjected the import of all goods to a pre-registration and pre-approval regime called the “Declaración Jurada Anticipada de Importación”.

Hundreds of goods also need a non-automatic import licence. On the pretext of this requirement, imports are systematically delayed or refused on non-transparent grounds, the Commission said.

As of March 2011, more than 600 product types have been affected by this licensing regime.

Argentina also requires importers to balance imports with exports, increase the local content of the products they manufacture in Argentina, or not to transfer revenues abroad.

This practice is systematic, unwritten and non-transparent, the EU told the WTO.

Foreign direct investment reforms to its consumer goods market – which will allow greater participation from foreign companies – have been approved by India’s parliament.

“Driven by the twin engines of economic growth and favourable demographics, the Indian consumer goods market continues to evolve rapidly, and is predicted to expand by a staggering 15-20% over the next five years to reach $1.3 trillion by 2020,” according to the UK India Business Council (UKIBC).

It explained: “The approved reforms now permit Indian states to allow FDI [foreign direct investment] of up to 51% in multi-brand retail, opening the way for Tesco’s and others to open supermarkets in India.

“The reforms also introduce new and welcome flexibility in the requirement that foreign-owned single brands must source 30% of their products from small Indian industries. International firms seeking a waiver on this sourcing provision now have the option of establishing their own factories in India. The UKIBC welcomes the outcome of the Parliamentary vote and expects that the reforms will, over time, be of significant benefit to the Indian consumer, as well as the industries that supply them with everything from food to fashion.

“According to Standard Chartered, there will be a five-fold increase in India’s per-capita income by 2030. However, despite a growing demand from India’s expanding consumerist middle-class, the Indian retail market suffers from major under-investment in its supply chains and back-end logistics. An upgrade of India’s retail infrastructure and supply chains will benefit everyone from consumers to local companies, including those in the unorganised retail sector.

“The reforms will also create fresh investment in the farming and food sector, which will dramatically bring down the burden of rising food prices and create a greater choice of consumer goods – and better service.”