Chamber News

Iconic companies including Mars, McLaren, Airbus, The Royal Mint and Sunseeker are among those selected to take part in a national exhibition, which showcases the very best of British manufacturing.

Beating competition from hundreds of UK companies, they will join around 40 others at the Make it in Great Britain exhibition, which will take place at the Science Museum during the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.

The exhibition aims to raise awareness of the dynamic, advanced and innovative industry that exists in the UK today, and will feature British manufacturing feats including the manufacturing journey of a Mars bar; ‘from bean to bar’, and a lightweight on-demand transport system, which has been piloted at Heathrow Terminal 5. Other Make it in Great Britain exhibition highlights will include a macro camera black box showing telescopic, planetary and earth images from E2V.

Business Minister Mark Prisk said:

“Manufacturing accounts for 8 per cent of total UK employment and well over half of export goods, yet current perceptions of the industry are out of date and do not reflect that reality. We have selected a really exciting mix of exhibits, from the manufacture of MRI magnets by Siemens, to the secrets behind McLaren’s winning team.

“I hope that as many people as possible visit the exhibition and see all of the great examples of British design and manufacturing – it will be spectacular.”

Mark Cropper, Chairman of James Cropper plc, and a member of the exhibition judging panel, said:

“The Make it in Great Britain exhibition will be a fantastic display of manufacturing prowess, telling stories from around the UK; ranging from a Sunseeker luxury motor yacht to a multi-award-winning laser ophthalmoscope – developed by a company called Optos – that allows an optician to take a 200 degree scan of a patient’s retina when a normal eye examination would only allow around 30 degrees. This is truly groundbreaking and manufactured right here in the UK.”

Juergen Maier, Managing Director, Siemens Industry Sector UK, which will be exhibiting said:

“We’re delighted that Siemens has been selected to be part of the Make it in Great Britain exhibition. It’s a real honour to be part of such a prestigious event at the iconic Science Museum. Alongside the other exhibitors, we’re committed to showing the world that British manufacturing is a dynamic sector offering great career and investment opportunities.”

Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum commented:

“We’re incredibly excited to be hosting the Make it in Great Britain exhibition this summer. The Science Museum and its world leading collections demonstrate some of the greatest engineering achievements of the last 200 years. We hope that as many people as possible visit the exhibition, and see at first-hand how innovation in British manufacturing is still thriving today.”

The exhibition is the culmination of the Make it in Great Britain campaign; an initiative launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last year which aims to challenge outdated opinions of the UK manufacturing industry, worth approximately £130bn to the UK economy each year and employing 2.5 million people.

Make it in Great Britain organisers are still looking for the Make it in Great Britain 30 Under 30 – 30 young rising stars working in manufacturing, aged under 30. The deadline for nominating an outstanding worker has been extended to Friday 20 April.

The exhibition will be open from 24 July to 9 September, and is free to visit. For more information please visit www.bis.gov.uk/makeitingreatbritain

According to the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium, Belgium is the UK’s sixth-largest export market, worth £10 billion a year. The UK is Belgium’s fourth-largest export market with two-way trade worth in the region of £22 billion, of which £2 billion is in services.

Flanders is the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The Flanders Investment & Trade Agency describes the region as a “central location, with extensive infrastructure, and mature logistics. Flanders is a key economic region in Europe and a perfect distribution centre from which multinational companies can access all of Europe.”

West Flanders Provincial Council is seeking to assess the demand from UK businesses for a West Flanders International Office: this would provide flexible premises and business support services based in West Flanders. The Office would help UK companies to do business with their counterparts in West Flanders and, from that base, with the wider EU.

The flyer below summarises the range of services likely to be on offer.

Those of you who maybe interested in this opportunity, should complete and return the Demand Assessment no later than 21st May 2012.

The latest report from the World Trade Organization (WTO) offers bad news for exporters, noting that the 2010 “rebound” of 13.8% growth faded badly in 2011 to just 5% and is set to fall again, to 3.7% this year.

WTO economists have attributed the continuing slowdown to the global economy losing momentum due to a number of shocks, including the European sovereign debt crisis.

“More than three years have passed since the trade collapse of 2008-09, but the world economy and trade remain fragile,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said. “The further slowing of trade expected in 2012 shows that the downside risks remain high. We are not yet out of the woods.”

The present trade forecast assumes global output growth of 2.1% in 2012 at market exchange rates, down from 2.4% in 2011, based on a consensus of economic forecasters.

However, the WTO warns that there are severe downside risks for growth that could have even greater negative consequences for trade if they came to pass. These include a steeper than expected downturn in Europe, financial contagion related to the sovereign debt crisis, rapidly rising oil prices and geopolitical risks.

Economic prospects have improved in the USA and Japan, as labour market conditions improve in the former and business orders pick up in the latter, but these positives will only partly make up for the earlier negatives.

Meanwhile, the European Union may already be in recession.

The WTO figures rather contradict popular perceptions with regard to developing and developed economies. The report shows that the latter exceeded expectations with export growth of 4.7% in 2011, while developing economies (for the purposes of the analysis this includes the Commonwealth of Independent States) did worse than expected, recording an increase of just 5.4%.

More details are available on the WTO website.

A network of companies fraudulently importing Chinese tube and pipe fittings via several countries in South East Asia, to evade high EU customs duties, has been uncovered.

Investigations carried out by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and authorities in several EU Member States, in co-operation with Indian and Taiwanese customs, led to the recovery of €9 million in customs duties.

Resultant criminal proceedings in Germany and the UK have led to prison sentences for three of the persons involved.

OLAF investigations into the imports were triggered by information from the EU industry concerned and the customs authorities in several Member States. They had noticed changes in the trade pattern, namely away from the primary sources of tube and pipe fittings in China to unknown suppliers in countries not commonly known as producers of that product.

Imports of goods, claimed to be made in Japan, by a German importer attracted the attention of Belgian Customs because the freight was actually loaded in the port of Dalian in China and then routed via Japan to the EU.

Close co-operation between German, Belgian and Dutch customs quickly led to the detection of further fraudulent imports into the EU from India and Taiwan with false commercial documentation of origin.

The two UK offenders were sentenced to a 12-months’ suspended sentence and two years’ imprisonment respectively. A third faces a financial penalty.

An anti-dumping duty rate of 58.6% on certain Chinese tube and pipe fittings of iron or steel was imposed in 1996. The duty was subsequently extended to include imports from Taiwan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines as a result of circumvention practices identified.

Please see below links to the latest updates from HMRC relating to further restrictive measures against Iran.

SEPA and IBAN may not mean a great deal to businesses at the moment but MEPs passing a proposal to make cross-border bank transfers faster, cheaper and safer are sure that they will.

The single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Regulation lays down common rules and standards for euro credit and direct debit transactions between banks. It does not apply to personal credit or debit card payments. Requiring banks to comply with SEPA rules will enable their clients to use one bank account to make euro payments to and from all participating countries. To this end, the rules will ensure that euro credit transfers or direct debits that are possible within SEPA countries are also possible across frontiers between them. The legally-binding deadline for banks to migrate to the new standards is 1 February 2014. “All account users stand to gain, because international competition among service providers should drive down prices,” the European Parliament was told. “Increased competition among banks to supply services should also help to cut today’s inflated costs, and where costs are already low, they should remain so.”

SEPA covers payments made in or between the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Monaco.

Benefits to businesses

Firms will be able to set up cross-border direct debits in euro between two bank accounts anywhere in the Union, enabling them to bill customers regularly across borders. By eliminating multilateral interchange fees on cross-border direct debits as of this year, the regulation will enable businesses to establish their payment centres in any Member State. They could also organise all cross-border euro payments from a single euro account in a country of their choice in order to improve money management and speed up cash flows at lower cost. SEPA payments can be made to or from any euro account that is held with a bank located in the area. It is not necessary that the payer and/or the recipient of the payment have an account in a SEPA country that has already adopted the euro as its national currency. The key point is that the account is denominated in euro.

Businesses will enjoy common standards, faster settlement and simplified processing that will improve cash flow, reduce costs and facilitate access to new markets. There will be a wider choice of payment services providers and faster and more efficient processes, as well as greater transparency. Over the medium term, lower fees can also be expected.

IBAN

SEPA is an initiative of the European banking industry, supported by the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB). The European Payments Council, the banking industry’s decision-making body in relation to SEPA payments, has established rules for SEPA Credit Transfers and SEPA Direct Debits as well as a framework for card payments. Individual banks remain responsible for migrating their customers from existing national payment instruments to the new payment products.

From a consumer viewpoint, the only real requirement for migrating to SEPA is to use IBAN (International Bank Account Number) instead of the domestic bank account number (BBAN) and the domestic bank sort or branch code, when identifying accounts for payment purposes. In addition, for a temporary period, consumers may be asked to provide the BIC (Business Identifier Code). SEPA is an integrated payment system and therefore requires a common method for identifying bank accounts across countries. IBAN is straightforward, being built up in the same way for every Member State. It corresponds to the existing national bank account number and (sometimes) a national bank sort code preceded by two check digits and the international two character ISO (International Standards Organisation) country code (eg GB or DE).

Three directives will be repealed and replaced on 8 May 2012 by one regulation.

Regulation 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling and marking of the fibre composition of textile products will repeal and replace the following directives.

•Directive 2008/121/EC on textile names.

•Directive 96/73/EC on certain methods for the quantitative analysis of binary textile fibre mixtures.

•Directive 73/44/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the quantitative analysis of ternary fibre mixtures.

The information required by the new regulation, available here, concerns the composition of the textile products, which must be provided using harmonised fibre names. The regulation also stipulates methods to check on whether the composition of textile products is in conformity with the information supplied.

A survey of over 8,000 businesses released by the British Chambers of Commerce, shows that exporting activity continues to increase. However, the findings also suggest that providing firms with more training in foreign languages, and increasing their exposure to international companies would encourage more business owners to export. Economic growth relies upon British businesses being able to export more, so the British Chambers of Commerce is calling for more support for firms to help them trade internationally.

Language skills are vital to exporting

Knowledge of other languages is an important skill for exporters. 61% of non-exporters that are likely to consider trading internationally consider a lack of language skills as a barrier to doing so.

However, of those business owners that claim some language knowledge, very few can speak well enough to conduct deals in international markets. French is the most commonly spoken language, with 73% of business owners claiming some knowledge. However, only four percent are able to converse fluently enough in French to conduct business deals. This number drops significantly for those languages spoken in the fastest growing markets. In 2012, the IMF projects that the Chinese economy will grow by 9.5%, but just four percent of business owners claim any knowledge of the language, with less than one percent confident they could converse fluently.

Re-establishing foreign languages as core subjects within the UK national curriculum and in workplace training would mean that the next generation of business owners are ‘born global’ with language skills. The BCC is calling for the National Curriculum to be revised so that studying a foreign language is compulsory until AS level. Businesses could also be helped in training staff in new languages, if the government offered additional financial incentives such as tax credits for small and medium-sized businesses that make a significant investment in language training.

Businesses with stronger international connections are more likely to export

Businesses that do export are more likely to have stronger social connections with overseas markets. When asked what led them to export, the top three reasons cited by current exporters were: collaboration with overseas partners (71%); a chance enquiry from outside the UK (57%); and previous work experience abroad (52%). Those business owners that have lived abroad are more likely to export. 11% of current exporters have lived aboard for five years or more.

The BCC believes that creating opportunities for employees to work in overseas companies could help expose firms to more international opportunities. For example, an international business exchange programme, perhaps modeled on the well-known academic Erasmus scheme would allow employees to complete placements in companies abroad, and bring back their experience to their employer. A scheme that covered BRIC economies, as well as Europe, would mean that businesses could take advantage of fast growing markets as well as the eurozone.

Commenting on the findings of the report, John Longworth, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“Exporting is good for Britain, so it is right that we should encourage current and future business owners to develop the necessary skills to trade overseas. We’re encouraged to see the percentage of firms exporting in our survey has increased from 22% in January 2011 to 32% in January 2012. Exports are equivalent to nearly 30% of UK GDP[1], but more can be done to help businesses take the first step to exporting. Encouraging companies to boost foreign language skills with incentives like tax credits is just one way of making sure we continue to export best of British products and services around the world. A renewed focus on language skills at school, as well as helping companies forge new connections overseas, could help ensure that current and future business owners are pre-disposed to thinking internationally.

“We are already the sixth largest trading nation on earth, and the third largest service exporter, but to really secure our future as a leading exporter we need to help companies take advantage of new markets. Giving businesses the opportunity to forge links with international firms, develop employees’ language skills, and providing compulsory education in languages for young people will transform many of the great businesses we have in the UK into success stories overseas.”

The Foreign Office Department of UK Trade and Investment and the University of East Anglia Business School have formed a strategic alliance to explain and support the development of UK businesses both large and small with particular emphasis on international trade.

A series of live interactive video links between the UK and International markets will be streamed to your business location during 2012 examining markets in the USA (Los Angeles), Australia (Sydney), The Nordic countries (Copenhagen) and a range of others. Of particular interest is the different business opportunities being streamed live during the 2012 Olympics.

Please see below information covering the first programme. If the topics covered are not suitable for your business at present, The University of East Anglia Business School can tailor their programmes to your requirements.

Growing high-tech & innovative businesses… this project helps you develop & manage relationships with potential business partners, customers & suppliers in in northern France.

The main aims of the project are to :

• To support the growth of bilateral France-England trade amongst high-tech and innovative R&D companies

• To develop & utilise an online portal of potential English-French business partners

• To help strengthen business partnerships between French & English science parks, business centres and technopoles

The project helps to achieve this through supporting your business undertake the practical steps to build relationships with French partners.

Please see below for further information and how to register your interest.

The A47 need upgrading. Poor infrastructure is slowing down economic growth and the creation of jobs in Norfolk. At a time when our businesses are having to be even more innovative in the way of using technology in their businesses, getting around the county or out of the Norfolk, mainly still necessitates using roads.

The consultant’s report commissioned by Norfolk County Council has now quantified that investment in the A47 could bring 5,000 jobs to Norwich, 3,800 to Yarmouth and more than 700 to Kings Lynn along with £390m a year into the East Anglia economy.

Next Tuesday Brussel’s regulators meet to review the TEN-T regulations which set the status of major roads across the continent. Currently the A47 is classed as part of a “comprehensive network” rather than “core” which has resulted in little invetment to the route over the years.

The economic opportunities for growth and jobs which would be enhanced by improvement to the A47 include the Yarmouth’s Enterprise Zone focused on the growing North Sea energy industry, Yarmouth Outer Harbour, Norwich Research Park, expanding employment around the A47 and A10 south of Kings Lynn and our visitor economy.

The report does talk about a 20 year time scale and we are realistic to be aware that the chances of the Treasury finding the money is remote but it is important that this road is recognised as a catalyst of growth and job creation in Norfolk.

Norfolk Chamber of behalf of its members is writing to Brussels to lobby Norfolk’s case and through the British Chamber of Commerce will ensure Ministers understand the importance to Norfolk businesses of improving the A47.

The Belarusian Chamber of Commerce are organising a Trade Visit to the UK and would like to visit Norfolk. The group will be coming over 10-15th June 2012. Attached is a list of the delegates along with their interests. If anyone interested in meeting the delegation, please could you e-mail [email protected] by 10th May 2012.